New UK International Enquiry Service

[ThaiVisaExpress]

The Home Office have introduced a new international enquiry service that promises to give you up to date information about your visa application within one day :

From 1 April 2014 UK visa customers will be able to use the new international enquiry service to find information about the visa application process.

The service is provided by Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) working in partnership with UK Visas and Immigration to offer enquiry services to people applying for a visa.

The new international enquiry service will provide an improved service to visa customers in 20 languages with opening times reflecting the working hours and days in each country. Customers will also receive a quicker response and in some cases the cost of their call will be cheaper.UK Visas and Immigration’s director general Sarah Rapson said:

“Providing excellent customer service to visa applicants is a key part of what we do.

“HGS will run a global enquiry service for all our visa customers from here in the UK, for the first time providing a top quality enquiry service that will assist those wanting to come to the UK.

“Our customer can expect a quick, accurate and professional service available to help them throughout their application.”

There are costs involved. Telephone calls are 1.37 GBP a minute, in addition to network costs. A "webchat" requires a PIN, which costs 4 GBP.

We would be happy to hear of any experiences of this new service.

Tony M

[Tony M]

I'm just thinking about this new service. Is it going to provide "real" information about an application, or is it just going to say something like " your application is being processed" ? If it is the latter, then it's an expensive way of learning nothing. If it is the former, then why does this company have access to an applicant's personal information ?

[theoldgit]

Given the Hinduja brothers organisation is based in London and offers low cost call centres around the globe to take advantage of cheap labour, though they say it's to offer more language skills, I suspect that will mean they will do no more than speak from a generic script using information that's already in the public domain.

Whilst I would love to proved wrong, I doubt if a call centre in London, Lahore or Manila will be able to access real time information on an individual application, and I'm not sure that (1) I would be confident in the advice given and (2) due to data protection issues a call centre based wherever should be discussing an application with a third party on the phone.

I honestly believe this is no more that a window dressing exercise made to look like a wonderful service, again I would love to be proved wrong.

I will continue to bounce madams applications off you Tony, if that OK?

OK, whose gonna be a guinea pig?

[Tony M]

Given the Hinduja brothers organisation is based in London and offers low cost call centres around the globe to take advantage of cheap labour, though they say it's to offer more language skills, I suspect that will mean they will do no more than speak from a generic script using information that's already in the public domain.

Whilst I would love to proved wrong, I doubt if a call centre in London, Lahore or Manila will be able to access real time information on an individual application, and I'm not sure that (1) I would be confident in the advice given and (2) due to data protection issues a call centre based wherever should be discussing an application with a third party on the phone.

I honestly believe this is no more that a window dressing exercise made to look like a wonderful service, again I would love to be proved wrong.

I will continue to bounce madams applications off you Tony, if that OK?

OK, whose gonna be a guinea pig?

Looking forward to it.

[theoldgit]

I said this earlier today:

I suspect that will mean they will do no more than speak from a generic script using information that's already in the public domain.

Seems that we have the first feedback from the new service, I lifted this quote from another topic:

Naturally, there is no helpline. I have emailed various addresses to ask if this is a website problem, but they either disclaim responsibility or don't answer. I paid £4 for a live chat to advisers working on behalf of UK Government, and they merely referred me back to websites I already studied, or supplied info that was downright wrong.

[AyG]

To thing that Britain was once a proud nation. Now we outsource visa enquiries to an Indian company (Hinduja) and visa applications & passport renewals to a Swiss one (VFS). Shameful. Hard to believe that there was once an empire on which the sun never set.

[durhamboy]

Reminds me of the "Tracker System" VFS had/have where you were supposed to be able to track the progress of your application. All you ever got was "Your visa application is at the embassy." Great!

[CeeGee]

Well,VFS in Bangkok are running true to form.

I sent them an e mail on the 22^nd March about their proposed move(as on that date nothing was showing on their website), which needless to say, was not replied to.

I then sent an e mail on the 31^st of March regarding the non functioning of the “Track my application”. Again, no reply.So today, I sent copies of both e mails to their corporate address, asking why Bangkok had not replied to either e mail.

This was the reply :

Dear Sir / Ma’am,

Thank you for your email.

From 1 April 2014, VFS Global no longer provides visa information services to UK visa applicants. As your email is an enquiry about UK visa policy, procedures and/or application processing, please visit www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi for details on how to contact the new UK visas customer contact centre, as we are not able to provide the information requested.

Regards,
Seema Iyer

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Corporate Communications

This would appear to be a cut and paste reply without actually reading the e mails. The link they gave actually states

Contact centre staff don’t have access to your personal information. They can’t give you advice about your personal circumstances.

so dont bother actually contacting either organisation if you actually want answers.

No comment needed I think

Edited April 2, 2014 by CeeGee

[Seekingasylum]

The UKVI is simply completing a process they initiated some years ago and are now to all intents and purposes completely insulated from the visa applicant. Sarah Rapson is just another Orwellian creature spouting inane platitudes that bear no relation whatsoever to any reality. It would be quite amusing if the experience for the applicant was not so painfully traumatic and so damned expensive too.

Their new, improved, online application process is so poorly served, pun intended, that an application can take over a day to complete on occasions and an utter disgrace for an alleged developed country with resources to match. Never mind, as long as Rapson witters on about her wretched organisation being best in class I'm sure everything will be just fine and dandy.