New UK visa application centre in Bangkok inaugurated

[webfact]

New UK visa application centre in Bangkok inaugurated

By Digital Content

BANGKOK, May 16--- The United Kingdom has officially unveiled a new and improved visa centre in the Thai capital, aiming to facilitate an increasing number of visa applicants with a wider range of services.

Paul Bute, Chargé d’Affaires of the British Embassy, together with Australian Ambassador James Wise and a senior official of VFS Global jointly presided at the inauguration of the Australia & UK Visa Application centre on Wednesday.

The UK’s visa application centre relocated to its new home on the 28th floor of the Trendy Office Building on Sukhumvit Road Soi 13, which is shared premises with the Australian visa application centre.

The visa application centre aims to process to non-settlement visas in 15 working days as well as to provide improved services and facilities for an increasing number of Thais who are choosing the UK as a destination for travel, business and study.

In 2013, almost 70,000 visas were issued to Thai applicants, up 17 per cent from the previous year.

The UK’s visa application centre also provides other services: a passport pass-back service enabling visa applicants to retain their passport while their visa is being processed, a 3-5 day priority service and a prime time appointment service, which allows applicants to submit their application out of regular business hours.

However, the centre encourages the UK visa applicants to apply for their visa as early as possible. They can apply up to three months in advance of travel. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2014-05-16

[YeaBiGgiEs]

Does anyone know how I can get in contact with Paul Bute, Chargé d’Affaires of the British Embassy??? Please help me with an ongoing nightmare I've been having with UK/VFS since October...

[cornishcarlos]

I'm glad they are encouraging applicants to apply as far in advance as possible, cause they sure aren't making it easy....

Perhaps they have been concentrating too much on the new opening ceremony and things might run a bit smoother now..!!

[mrtoad]

3 - 4 weeks for a visa process, is not progress.

[asdecas]

Good luck to anyone having to deal with VFS, you'll need it.

[Lazy Sod]

3 - 4 weeks for a visa process, is not progress.

Completely agree. The new centre is a shambles designed to extort money from people who simply wish to visit the UK.

- Want your visa is less than 3 weeks? No problem, we have a fast track service which costs an additional THB 5,600

- Want to wait in an air conditioned room rather than sitting on the floor in the sweltering lift lobby? No problem, we have a room you can sit in for an additional THB 3,000

To put this into perspective, my wife has applied for a UK visa on average once a year for the last 14 years (we go back once a year on holiday to see my family), it used to take 3-4 days as standard, now it takes 3-4 weeks, and the fee has multiplied by a similar amount over that time. How is that progress?

You can bet these dignitaries were invited when the place was closed so they didn't have to mix with the hoards of angry and frustrated applicants who are forced to wait in a sweltering lift lobby for hours. Makes me so angry to see them sipping their tea and congratulating themselves in that photo.

It's an embarrassment to British people who live or work here, except it seems to the Ambassador.

[NanLaew]

3 - 4 weeks for a visa process, is not progress.

Completely agree. The new centre is a shambles designed to extort money from people who simply wish to visit the UK.

- Want your visa is less than 3 weeks? No problem, we have a fast track service which costs an additional THB 5,600

- Want to wait in an air conditioned room rather than sitting on the floor in the sweltering lift lobby? No problem, we have a room you can sit in for an additional THB 3,000

To put this into perspective, my wife has applied for a UK visa on average once a year for the last 14 years (we go back once a year on holiday to see my family), it used to take 3-4 days as standard, now it takes 3-4 weeks, and the fee has multiplied by a similar amount over that time. How is that progress?

You can bet these dignitaries were invited when the place was closed so they didn't have to mix with the hoards of angry and frustrated applicants who are forced to wait in a sweltering lift lobby for hours. Makes me so angry to see them sipping their tea and congratulating themselves in that photo.

It's an embarrassment to British people who live or work here, except it seems to the Ambassador.

Your wife has applied for 14 consecutive 1-year UK visit visas? My wife got a 1-year UK visit visa the first time, a 2-year UK visit visa the second time and is now on a 5-year UK visit visa.

[mikebell]

3 - 4 weeks for a visa process, is not progress.

Famous last words but - I applied on line during the course of this last week. I was granted an interview (for my wife) on Monday morning. I'll let you know what transpires. I don't like the sound of no air-con!

I wrote to UK Embassy about requiring frail pensioners being required to travel to war-torn BKK for pension letters/wife's annual holiday visa. They told me to apply for a 5/10 yr one. Five year one is nearly $1000!

[CharlieH]

Cost for taking your wife for a visit is outrageous! Its 83 pounds now, the way I look at it is that is around 2 weeks salary for a rural Thai, could you imagine the outrage if they charged tw o weeks UK salary to visit Thailand!

As for getting a 2 or 5 or even 10 yr, the cost again is just absurd, legalised robbery!

I think if married 5 years or more it should be FREE and automatic.

Edited May 17, 2014 by CharlieH

[Lazy Sod]

3 - 4 weeks for a visa process, is not progress.

Completely agree. The new centre is a shambles designed to extort money from people who simply wish to visit the UK.

- Want your visa is less than 3 weeks? No problem, we have a fast track service which costs an additional THB 5,600

- Want to wait in an air conditioned room rather than sitting on the floor in the sweltering lift lobby? No problem, we have a room you can sit in for an additional THB 3,000

To put this into perspective, my wife has applied for a UK visa on average once a year for the last 14 years (we go back once a year on holiday to see my family), it used to take 3-4 days as standard, now it takes 3-4 weeks, and the fee has multiplied by a similar amount over that time. How is that progress?

You can bet these dignitaries were invited when the place was closed so they didn't have to mix with the hoards of angry and frustrated applicants who are forced to wait in a sweltering lift lobby for hours. Makes me so angry to see them sipping their tea and congratulating themselves in that photo.

It's an embarrassment to British people who live or work here, except it seems to the Ambassador.

Your wife has applied for 14 consecutive 1-year UK visit visas? My wife got a 1-year UK visit visa the first time, a 2-year UK visit visa the second time and is now on a 5-year UK visit visa.

No, I said, "on average once a year". We got the 2 year visa a couple of times but at the current rate of USD512 you have to know for sure you'll be visiting the following year to make it worthwhile.

[Lazy Sod]

Cost for taking your wife for a visit is outrageous! Its 83 pounds now, the way I look at it is that is around 2 weeks salary for a rural Thai, could you imagine the outrage if they charged tw o weeks UK salary to visit Thailand!

As for getting a 2 or 5 or even 10 yr, the cost again is just absurd, legalised robbery!

I think if married 5 years or more it should be FREE and automatic.

I believe it is free if you are married to an EU national, except for us Brits.

[NanLaew]

...

I wrote to UK Embassy about requiring frail pensioners being required to travel to war-torn BKK for pension letters/wife's annual holiday visa. They told me to apply for a 5/10 yr one. Five year one is nearly $1000!

With the universal law that EVERYTHING does and will go up in price (and things won't get better/safer in Bangkok), I don't see any sensible argument for NOT paying around £550 today for up to 5 years of hassle-free travel. At £745, the 10-year visa option is an absolute no-brainer.

[oTwoPies]

3 - 4 weeks for a visa process, is not progress.

Completely agree. The new centre is a shambles designed to extort money from people who simply wish to visit the UK.

- Want your visa is less than 3 weeks? No problem, we have a fast track service which costs an additional THB 5,600

- Want to wait in an air conditioned room rather than sitting on the floor in the sweltering lift lobby? No problem, we have a room you can sit in for an additional THB 3,000

To put this into perspective, my wife has applied for a UK visa on average once a year for the last 14 years (we go back once a year on holiday to see my family), it used to take 3-4 days as standard, now it takes 3-4 weeks, and the fee has multiplied by a similar amount over that time. How is that progress?

You can bet these dignitaries were invited when the place was closed so they didn't have to mix with the hoards of angry and frustrated applicants who are forced to wait in a sweltering lift lobby for hours. Makes me so angry to see them sipping their tea and congratulating themselves in that photo.

It's an embarrassment to British people who live or work here, except it seems to the Ambassador.

Your wife has applied for 14 consecutive 1-year UK visit visas? My wife got a 1-year UK visit visa the first time, a 2-year UK visit visa the second time and is now on a 5-year UK visit visa.

The first visa application for my Thai girlfriend was refused due to wrong advice from the girlfriend; she had visited family in the UK previously and told me all I needed to provide was a covering letter. Big mistake! Fair dues to the visa service as they discussed the error of my ways and advised me to re-apply following the instructions in a link they kindly provided (I am not family so the Visa Service had no obligation to discuss my grievances). Upon re-applying with suitable documentation a 1 year visa was issued within 4 weeks.

My next visa application, one year later, was for a 10 year visa. Advice from all and sundry was not to apply for a 10 year but try for a 2 or 5 year visa first. Again, the 10 year visa was approved in less than 4 weeks. I must admit that to back up the 10 year visa application I provided documentation that ran to over 100 pages, all indexed

As you can imagine this file caused the Visa Services some problems and they asked, politely, if I could remove unnecessary papers to reduce the size. This I obviously refused.

So, I had a happy outcome and a strong positive feeling for a service that seems to work, in my personal opinion, rather effectively.

Just think about the following:-

i) You wish to apply for a visa for your partner to visit the UK. Does it really matter if the visa application process takes 3-4 days or 3-4 weeks. You should know a long time in advance what your plans are and it should be so easy to organise your life to fit in with this time scale. If there is an emergency you can always pay the fee and use the fast-track service.

ii) I required a Spanish Schengen visa for my girlfriend so we could attend a friends wedding and, much to my horror, the time scale quoted was 10-12 weeks with no fast-track service. This was solely my fault for not checking earlier and this trip was abandoned.

iii) I applied for a Danish Schengen visa for my girlfriend and that took 15 weeks! The time-scale quoted for a typical application in Denmark was most applications are dealt with in 7-10 days, complex applications may take 3-4 weeks and a decision on ALL applications, even those with exceptional circumstances, is within 9 weeks. They were most apologetic and to cap it all the Danes have a requirement of a financial deposit which is the equivalent of £6,000-00 that must be placed in a Danish bank account prior to the visa being issued. This deposit is locked and the only way to release the lock was for my girlfriend to obtain documentation from the Danish embassy in Bangkok stating she had returned to Thailand. This documentation then had to be posted to Denmark and presented to the bank.

The UK visa service may not be brilliant but I for one have no complaints when compared to my experiences with the Schengen visa applications.

[bkkjohnny69]

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Does anyone know how I can get in contact with Paul Bute, Chargé d’Affaires of the British Embassy??? Please help me with an ongoing nightmare I've been having with UK/VFS since October...

Good luck, these idiots at the embassy just hide behind VFS so they can avoid direct communication with applicants.

My wifes visa was recently refused based on an assumption made by some clown at the embassy regarding my UK employment contract... instead of calling me for clarification which any normal thinking person would do, he just refused based on his incorrect assumption and took our 900 pound application fee. This is nothing short of robbery and Mr.Bute should be ashamed of himself.

Now I have to go through the appeals process in the UK, still waiting on a date but have been advised after September 2014.

I would love to name and shame the so called "officer" at the embassy, but I will wait for the outcome of my appeal.

If I do lose, I will be sending him my passport as I will no longer be needing it. (I also have Irish citizenship)

[theoldgit]

Without wishing to drag this thread off topic, or doubting your word, I've never heard of Denmark, or any other Schengen Country, requiring a financial bond to be lodged.

Was the bond £6,000 or was it in Danish Kroner?

Given the amount of time it took to process the application, I'm assuming it was a somewhat unusual or complex application.

[Krataiboy]

Has anybody alerted the British media to these horror stories? This would be far more likely to get a result than just letting off steam on ThaiVisa Forum or even complaining directly to those responsible for running this shambolic service.

The British Consulate has (justifiably) a pretty poor reputation already and won't welcome any more bad publicity.The Mail and Mirror are obvious candidates.A call to either News Desk should get the ball rolling.

Otherwise, having spent a lifetime in Fleet Street, I can probably source a freelancer who might be interested.

[Lazy Sod]

There are a lot of opinions and angles on this thread.

The point I was making is that benchmarks have been set and it has historically taken around 3-5 days for a standard UK visitor visa. My wife has also applied for 2 Schengen visas (France) in the last 5 years and they took 2-3 days (also run by VFS but I noticed a few French people there supervising proceedings).

So the UK visa service is clearly going backwards, or perhaps it has become policy to deliberately create the 3-4 week standard time so that an additional fee of THB5,600 can be gained for fast track.

If the visa had always taken 3-4 weeks I could probably accept the situation, but to keep reading these press releases by the Embassy/VFS saying how great things are is rather annoying.

Regarding the new visa application centre, I didn't visit it myself but my wife returned in an agitated state, she said it was awful, people were treated like cattle and forced to wait in the lift lobby (unless of course you paid for the VIP room). I was embarrassed when she told me the Thai applicants were talking amongst themselves saying how bad it was and debating whether they wanted to go to the UK judging by what they were seeing. In my opinion they should provide a decent waiting area for everyone. Again, it makes you think they deliberately create an awful waiting area in order gain the additional fee of THB 3,000 to sit in the VIP area.

Or perhaps it was a blip and it's all hunky dory now that it has been officially inaugurated.

[NanLaew]

Has anybody alerted the British media to these horror stories? .....

The Mail and Mirror are obvious candidates....

Otherwise, having spent a lifetime in Fleet Street, I can probably source a freelancer who might be interested.

Having spent 16 years in Pattaya, I can probably source a freelancer or two myself. Dunno if they are interested. Don't care either.

[MAJORUS]

More bad news,you have to use these clowns to renew a UK Passport,and submit your application in person and collect it in person 2 weeks later,great if you are in a wheelchair and live in Chiangrai.

what 2 cell brain thought that one up.

[oTwoPies]

Without wishing to drag this thread off topic, or doubting your word, I've never heard of Denmark, or any other Schengen Country, requiring a financial bond to be lodged.

Was the bond £6,000 or was it in Danish Kroner?

Given the amount of time it took to process the application, I'm assuming it was a somewhat unusual or complex application.

I am a British citizen and, at the time, I was working in Denmark.

The complications were caused by being married (separated) and applying for a Schengen visa for a Thai girlfriend. This caused the immigration authorities to through their hands up in horror and the visa application to be sidetracked and unfortunately, forgotten about. I had to wait the initial 6 weeks before contacting whereby, at first they could not trace the application. They took my number, called me a few days later and explained the hold up was due to being married. When I pointed out I was separated there was silence and then, "I see." The immigration officer was very helpful, promised to try to process in the remaining 3 weeks, but failed.

The deposit was in Kroner. Danske bank transferred the monies to a sub account which was then locked until the release documentation from Thailand was provided. I can no longer remember if the bond was normal or just for my 'special' circumstances though I do know the Danes provided proof of requirement.

[7by7]

There are a lot of opinions and angles on this thread.

The point I was making is that benchmarks have been set and it has historically taken around 3-5 days for a standard UK visitor visa. My wife has also applied for 2 Schengen visas (France) in the last 5 years and they took 2-3 days (also run by VFS but I noticed a few French people there supervising proceedings).

So the UK visa service is clearly going backwards, or perhaps it has become policy to deliberately create the 3-4 week standard time so that an additional fee of THB5,600 can be gained for fast track.

If the visa had always taken 3-4 weeks I could probably accept the situation, but to keep reading these press releases by the Embassy/VFS saying how great things are is rather annoying.

Historically, visa processing times have always been dependent upon demand; apply at a quite time and you'll get the decision quickly, apply at a busy time and it will take longer.

There have been recent posts in this forum about applicants for both visit and settlement visas who have had their decision within days.

Though, for obvious reasons, UKVI, and their predecessors, have always recommended allowing longer.

Nothing has changed in that respect, and as VFS play no part in the decision making process there is no reason why it should.

Your experience with a French Schengen visa application was because your wife came under the EEA rules for family members of EEA citizens; which basically means she jumped the queue. Would have been the same had you been French and she was applying for a UK visa.

Regarding the new visa application centre, I didn't visit it myself but my wife returned in an agitated state, she said it was awful, people were treated like cattle and forced to wait in the lift lobby (unless of course you paid for the VIP room). I was embarrassed when she told me the Thai applicants were talking amongst themselves saying how bad it was and debating whether they wanted to go to the UK judging by what they were seeing. In my opinion they should provide a decent waiting area for everyone. Again, it makes you think they deliberately create an awful waiting area in order gain the additional fee of THB 3,000 to sit in the VIP area.

Or perhaps it was a blip and it's all hunky dory now that it has been officially inaugurated.

Agree that the situation you describe is totally unacceptable.

Maybe due to the same office dealing with not only British passport applications but Australian visa applications as well.

Hopefully, as you say, now that the office is officially open they have more space and the situation has, or will, improve.

[Jay Sata]

Cost for taking your wife for a visit is outrageous! Its 83 pounds now, the way I look at it is that is around 2 weeks salary for a rural Thai, could you imagine the outrage if they charged tw o weeks UK salary to visit Thailand!

As for getting a 2 or 5 or even 10 yr, the cost again is just absurd, legalised robbery!

I think if married 5 years or more it should be FREE and automatic.

It would be nice if the Thai's also introduced that idea.

You say £83 is outrageous for a UK visa but it is small beer compared to airfare,hotels etc.

Rural Thai's are not in the habit of holidaying in an expensive country a long way from home so I doubt they will be complaining.

As for the extras the centre offers no one is being forced to use them.

I fly to Chiang Mai and Phuket in Thailand but some people are happy to spend 12 hours on the bus.

It is all down to choice.

The new system cannot be as bad as the old days when long queues formed outside the Embassy in Wireless Road and you'd waste all day inside.

[Seekingasylum]

But one got one's visa on that day, everyone paid the same and the world made more sense. Remember the slappers and their oik boyfriends waiting outside fagging away? Good fun and always a fine argument to witness as said oik took exception to the ECO refusing his girlfriend of two weeks standing on the grounds that the relationship was not necessarily one that ensured her return to the LoS.

Now, it's all about the money.

[Jay Sata]

And you have forgotten to mention the person in front who suddenly submitted 75 passports because she or he was a visa agent.

The same goes for check in at Suvarnabhumi when you think you are in the shortest queue only to discover an agent is checking in dozens of Thais or Chinese.

[Tomtomtom69]

Can anyone tell me if it's still possible to submit an AUSTRALIAN visa application at the Thai CC building or have the Aussies now moved over to the Trendy building, or can you submit in either location?

Personally I'd much rather go to the Thai CC building than Trendy but just wondering. My gf is going for her application tomorrow morning so would appreciate a quick response.

[Donutz]

Why would they run two offices (three if you count in handing in your appointment at th Ozzie embassy)?

They moved to the Trendy building, so you can chose to go there and if you dislike VFS or it's location, head to the Ozzie embassy by appointment:

http://www.thailand.embassy.gov.au/bkok/Visas_and_Migration.html

(I can't find anything anymore on direct applications at the embassy -by appointment only- ? Seems pathetic to me if they killed that option).