New Delhi (The Hawk): In order to expedite the processing of applications, a new Indian visa centre has been established in Marylebone, central London, along with other initiatives including doorstep service and document verification capability.
The visa centre, which was opened on Tuesday by Vikram Doraiswami, the Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, will be run by VFS Global, a company that offers outsourcing and technology services to governments and diplomatic missions.
Thanks to our friends at VFS, we have been able to schedule a lot more appointments, up to roughly 40,000 every month, said Doraiswami in a video message posted on Twitter.
A new facility for processing visas "should be able to provide better access and greater simplicity of applications," he continued.
The Indian High Commission in London claims that the centre is now accessible for up to 200 appointments per day.
With ten IVACs located throughout the UK in Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, central London, Hounslow, Leicester, and Manchester, the new centre is the third Indian Visa (NYSE:V) Application Centre (IVAC) in London.
Doraiswami also disclosed the introduction of a new procedure for group travellers who normally book their flights through a travel agency to the same location.
For people travelling to India from the UK, a Visa at Your Doorstep (VAYD) service has also been created. It costs about GBP 180 within 25 miles of a centre.
"Our visa service provider will launch Visa At Your Doorstep services for travellers looking for a quicker way to obtain visas. You can pay a fee to have your visa picked up from your home and delivered to you after processing "explained Doraiswami.
"By adding more appointment times, the new IVAC will enhance the number of visa applications that may be submitted in London. The capacity of visas handled by VFS Global will increase by half as a result of this and the recently opened visa centre in Glasgow "Aditya Arora, COO of VFS Global, said.
Demand for Indian visas has skyrocketed, with travellers from the UK reporting lengthy waits and, in some cases, being forced to postpone journeys because of requirements for in-person visa applications.
(Inputs from Agencies)