Britain Extends Passport Pass-back Service To Indians

02 Apr 2014

There is some good news for those from India who are applying for a British visa. To obtain a British visa now, you don’t have to leave your passport with the authorities. Britain has stated publicly from 31 March, across all the visa application centers in India a new facility.  With this facility, the Home Office will permit “Passport Passback” service to the visa applicants.

This was initially started as pilot program in South India, which allows Indian visa applicants to retain their passport during the visa process. This feature permits applicants to travel or apply for another visa if they do have such requirements. It also reduces the time period to obtain two visas.

“This service allows visa applicants to keep their passport while their visa application is being processed. This is really beneficial to people who want to apply for another visa or travel during the time that visa decisions are being made. This service is available for only 75 applications per day at each visa application center in India”, said the Home Office.

It was also announced by the UK home office that a number of changes have been made to fee charges for visa, nationality and immigration applications and wider premium services.

Fee changes are being introduced to bring in uniformity between the prices of premium services over the globe. The changes will be effected from 31^st March for premium services. To make use of passport pass-back service an applicant is charged Rs 4,200. The Priority Visas service that is processed in 2-3 days will now cost 10,500. There are no fee changes for Super Priority service. The success rate for Indians applying for UK visas is very high. The UK High Commissioner to India, Sir James Bevan, said that 9 out of 10 Indians who apply for UK visa are cleared.

He also stated that “more number of visas are issued to Indians compared to other nationalities across the world. In the year 2013, nearly 400,000 visas were issued. It is wrong to state that fewer visas were issued than in the past. Britain issued 5% more visas in the year 2013 than in 2012. Last year, more number of visas were issued to visitors and there was an increase of 10% more visas for dependants and workers.”

He also commented on the visa fees and said that, it is a myth that UK visa fee is overcharged. A UK visa costs £80, which is competitively priced. The Australian visa fee is the same as that of the UK. The US visa fee costs nearly £100.