Queues At The British Embassy

[GuestHouse]

I have read the reports of queues at the British Embassy in Bangkok and I am aware of the drop box facility and the conditions of use.

But my wife and I need to visit the British Embassy with a visa application and would like to know how bad are the queues right now? July 2004.

Has anyone been to the British Embassy with a visa application in the last month?

If so, what time do you suggest we start to queue?

Are any days better or worse than others?

[lopburi3]

All applications must be made by mail if you can not use drop box I believe is the latest instruction.

BRITISH EMBASSY BANGKOK: VISA SECTION ANNOUNCEMENT

Due to unprecedented demand, with effect from Monday 5th July as a temporary measure the Visa Section will only be accepting a limited number of callers on a daily basis.

Very urgent and compassionate cases will be decided on an exceptional and individual basis by the Entry Clearance Manager.

So as to avoid disappointment applicants are requested to submit applications by post wherever possible and to make use of the Embassy’s drop box facility. You must include full supporting documentation with your application. It may cause some delay or affect the outcome of your application if you do not. Further information on visa...

[davethailand]

it opens at either 715 or 730, get there about 40 mins before and you should be in the first 10, maybe even first.

i went at the end of june and was in and out in 5 mins once the counters were open.

[The Gentleman Scamp]

If you have a card of anyone who works there, try calling them first to make an appointment being as charming and polite as you can, with any luck you'll just need to call him/her when you arrive and she/he'll tell you to wait at the top of the stairs - it worked for me last month.

[cutethaigirl]

If you have a card of anyone who works there, try calling them first to make an appointment being as charming and polite as you can, with any luck you'll just need to call him/her when you arrive and she/he'll tell you to wait at the top of the stairs - it worked for me last month

unless you post their number here that information is just bragging and of no use to the poster

[The Gentleman Scamp]

If you have a card of anyone who works there, try calling them first to make an appointment being as charming and polite as you can, with any luck you'll just need to call him/her when you arrive and she/he'll tell you to wait at the top of the stairs - it worked for me last month

unless you post their number here that information is just bragging and of no use to the poster

If it's not their first visit to the Embassy, they may have recieved a business card on their last visit.

If not, they could always call up anyway and explain they are in a hurry and ask in a very pleasant manner if it would be possible to make an appointment.

It wasn't boasting - if I think of anything I have to boast about i'll soon let you know.

[cutethaigirl]

Mr Scamp

Better idea- get one of our Senators from Isaan to go with you.

They love it at the UK Embassy so i hear

[Chawp Dude]

anyone know if the mexican embassy has a dropbox2?

[cutethaigirl]

Yes just inside the gate so it can be reacjhed from outside when closed

[Up2U]

Yes just inside the gate so it can be reacjhed from outside when closed

So one can pop in a small bomb, or just a lighted match?

[withnail]

My friend went to the embassy on Tuesday with his girlfriend. He arrived about 6 am and apparently there was about 30 people in front of him. He was given a piece of paper which had a list of things he had to bring (all of which he had already) and told to come back for an interview in 6 weeks. He said that most of the people there were given this list and told to come back later, I get the feeling that they are too busy to and are hoping that most people won't bother to come back for the interviews.

[Martin]

I am trying to find out how UKVisas got themselves into this crisis. Looks like bad, or lack of, planning.

It galls me, whenever I come to Bangkok, to see the acres of space at the Brit Embassy given over to lawns and Embassy-staff car parking, whilst people who are potential visitors to Britain are crowded, by UKVisas, into one corner.

I wrote to UKVisas, London on 03 July (letter below) but haven't yet had a reply. I intend to write again, reminding them, today.

Don't blame the Diplomatic Service (Consulate etc) though. Consulate are excellent. It is this Home-Office-dominated unit, called UKVisas, who need to be requested to explain themselves, and get their act together for the future.

e-mail: [email protected] xxxxxx214 Group 2,

website: www.thaihomestay.co.uk xxxxxxNon Sa-At,

tel: +66 (0) 42 392 705 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxUdon Thani,

mobile: +66 (0) 98 61 44 69 xxxxxxxxxxxx41240, Thailand

The Desk Officer for Bangkok,

Visa Correspondence Section, xxxxxxxxxx03 July 2004

Ukvisas, London SW1A 2AH, UK.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Comment on insufficient facilities at Bangkok, and query: ‘How come?’

I am a British citizen who, last Tuesday (29 June) had to visit your visa-issuance service to make an application for a visa for my (Thai) wife to visit UK with me this coming September. I found the experience to be physically uncomfortable, though administratively properly-conducted.

Arriving at 07.30 (the advertised waiting time), I joined a long queue outside in the hot sunshine.

At 08.00, I entered the first building. There I counted 50 of us shuffling forward in a U-shaped queue in a space that I estimated to be some 10 foot by 50 foot, and with some of that area taken up by about a dozen chairs and a form-filling counter. The atmosphere was stuffy, as well as the space being tightly crowded. I reflected on what an unwelcoming impression of the UK this must give to foreign nationals.

I noticed on the wall an announcement that the waiting time for interviews was some 8 weeks (about the same as it had been 5 years ago, when I last attended this office).

Having handed in my wife’s application, I was directed to a large waiting room that was blandly boring, and perishingly cold from an over-vigorous air-conditioning system.

It struck me that the present number of travelers is broadly in line with forecasts made some years ago by organizations such as the British Airports Authority; and that Ukvisas must have quite accurate figures of the proportion of visa applicants who have to attend in person; and of the proportion of them who need to be interviewed.

So I am writing to enquire how it is that the provision of visa-issuance space on the Embassy premises (where there are empty acres) was not increased as necessary ahead of forecastable increased demand? And how such a backlog of interviews occurs?

The FCO websites are adequate, even impressive. But the physical resources committed do not match. This embarrasses me, as a British citizen.

Yours faithfully, Martin Allinson

[Trebilcock]

Hi, Martin. Thought you made a lot of good points in that letter, and I'd be interested to know if you got a reply? As an update to the original question in this thread, my GF got to the Embassy at 06.00 on August 9th, and there were already more than 30 in the queue. Opened at 07.30, and she got her passport back (with the visa stamped inside!) about 15.00.

[Martin]

No reply yet. Thanks for reminding me to jog them.

I'll be in UK from next week. So I'll probably phone the FCO and ask for the appropriate desk officer. After a spell being careful in LOS, where I know I have only a vague understanding of the culture, it is nice to indulge in a bit of stirring where I feel confident about doing it!

On the general topic of the FCO, Polly Toynbee wrote a perceptive paragraph in one of her pieces in the Guardian last month about it being time that Britain stopped trying to be impressive, as if it still had its former relative position among nations, and put its efforts into doing properly what it can.

"It's 40 years since Dean Acheson's astute remark that Britain had lost an empire and not yet found a role, a phrase dog-eared with use yet ignored by all governments. If not an empire ourselves let's cling to the one superpower, like an embarrassing and faintly comic poor relation, grateful to be used a little now and then. Generations of very clever Foreign Office eminences have devoted their meagre resources to just one futile aim - punching above our weight on the world stage. It's the diplomatic version of distressed gentlefolk keeping up appearances, making ourselves ridiculous and obnoxious to our real equals, the other Europeans. Plush embassies keep up the show, punching away - but for what?"

From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Colum...1262695,00.html

[Ben Dover]

I went up about 6 weeks ago to apply for a tourist visa with my GF, got there at 7.00 and never made it through the door, too many infront of me, if you are not in the first 75 then you wont get in, that is the daily limit at present.

They told me to post, it is her 3rd visa, I did this via tnt the next day and 48 hours later they called me and asked if I would collect or did I want it posted back as it was finished.

It seems the back office is not stretched but the front office and interviewers are.

[the scouser]

I went up about 6 weeks ago to apply for a tourist visa with my GF, got there at 7.00 and never made it through the door, too many infront of me, if you are not in the first 75 then you wont get in, that is the daily limit at present.

They told me to post, it is her 3rd visa, I did this via tnt the next day and 48 hours later they called me and asked if I would collect or did I want it posted back as it was finished.

Seeing as you made the effort to go to the embassy your g/f could've probably used the drop box facility, details of which follow.

Scouse.

Drop Box

If you meet the relevant criteria, you may send your applications to our drop box either through a travel agent, courier, representative, or in person. The drop box will be open to accept applications between 8am – 9am on Mondays – Fridays. We can only accept drop box applications at these times. Please check that you meet the criteria, and that you have enclosed full supporting documents. It may not be possible to process your application if you have not included sufficient documentation. We will give you or your representative a receipt and we aim to have your passport ready for collection within 2 working days. For security reasons, you must produce the receipt to collect your passport.

You can use the drop box if:

You have travelled to the United Kingdom or North America within the last 2 years in the same category as you are now applying (for example as a visitor), and have evidence of this travel; or

You are aged 60 or over and are visiting your mother, father, sister, brother, son or daughter in the United Kingdom; or

You are the holder of a valid United Kingdom work permit (except a Sector Based Scheme permit); or

You are the spouse or child of a work permit holder, and you are applying to join them; or

You are a diplomat in the Thai Foreign Service, or in a diplomatic mission in Thailand. Applications should be accompanied by an official note from the MFA or the Mission as appropriate; or

You are a Thai Government employee on official business. Applications must be accompanied by an official note; or

You are applying for a student visa and have previously studied in the United Kingdom on a student visa. You must include full supporting documents; or

You are applying for a student visa and have enrolled and been accepted on a degree level course of study in the United Kingdom; or

You are a member of an airline crew; or

You are a Thai Airways employee, or the spouse or child (under 18) of a Thai Airways employee; or

You are the spouse or child (under 18) of one of the above categories, and you are accompanying them."

[Ben Dover]

Your correct, except.... you need a cashiers check to pay the application fee at the drop box, cash wont do..

So if you are going up on the off chance take a cashiers check made payable to "the british embassy visa section" just in case you need to use the drop box.