[Ray kelleher]

Hi Folks..

I have a friend who is flying out on Saturday to Bangalore, so i was wondering if any one has any updates on the situation at the High Commission in Birmingham and has anyone any information to what the agency turnaround on a visa is .. He's just starting to panic, and from what i can see it's quite justified .....

[kullukid]

Hi Ray, unless your friend gets up around 4am & makes his way to Birmingham HCI he doesn't stand much chance, it's absolute chaos at the mo'. I've heard they are only processing 50 visas per day, the problem with this is some Asian travel agents are turning up with 50 visas at a time to be processed, obviously if they are making £20 per time it's worth waiting there all night if they have to. This is exactly what happened on my recent visit to a visa surgery in Bradford. In the end i've had to use one of the travel agents who was at the front of the queue with loads of visas which prevented 100's of others who had queued since 8.30am. I've ended up paying him the £20 & he says it will take over 2wks to get processed.
Here's a link to my experience http://www.gourmetin...p...=3928&st=20

Good Luck to your friend! KK

[cyberhippie]

You know for a country that's stated aim is to grow tourism they continually shoot themselves in the foot.

This is ridiculous, 50 visas a day in a city like Birmingham, just silly. What's behind all this funding cuts, or just staff who think they shouldn't have to do a days work like the rest of us. Glad to report none of this stuff is apparent in The Netherlands!

[kullukid]

cyberhippie, on Oct 17 2007, 11:15 AM, said:

This is ridiculous, 50 visas a day in a city like Birmingham, just silly. What's behind all this funding cuts,

Erm.........Money! You can bet your bottom dollar someone at HCI is getting verreee rich verreee quickly, not just the official/unofficial agents.   KK

[Ray kelleher]

At the moment my mate is thinking of cashing his ticket in and getting a flight to Thailand .. He's willing to take the loss and thinks that he's not going to bother with India for a few years, i'm sure he's not the only one thinking along these lines, talk about shooting your self in the foot, a Country like India that has a massive tourist industry, this is really doing no favours to any one apart from the few people making a lot of money out of this fiasco.. I suppose country's like Thailand with arguably better Beach's and a tourist friendly attitude are laughing their heads off at the Indians ... Shame Shame, on them for this fiasco....

[cyberhippie]

That's the third person I've seen who decided to not bother and went elsewhere, Such a shame!

Ray mate you can always send me your passport, I'll get your visa for free!

[Ray kelleher]

That's handy to know ?

[Ray kelleher]

Well my mate just got back from the High commission in Birmingham, he was more or less first in line they had let the first lot of people in then asked if anyone was flying within the next few days and if they can prove it then they will be issued a visa as my mate had his ticket on him he got his, so it looks like he's Bangalore bound as planned on Saturday...

[cyberhippie]

Nice one Ray, I hope he has a ball.

[dzibead]

That's good news for your friend.  But the situation in Brum just sounds idiotic.  The business of allowing agents to come in with a pile of applications for processing and hog all available spaces is soon going to bite the agents themselves in the a**, when one shows up first thing in the morning with 50 apps and prevents the other agents from having "their" applications processed that day.

[HowieUK]

The travel agents getting visa's for individuals is just a big con!

Come on India, get your act together, we know the country is based on the bureaucratic system, and paperwork is 'god' but it is the 21st ccentury now and for people to have to go through this hassle to get a visa is virging on the ridiculous!!!   

Possibly they are looking at just the two week tourists who have the dollars and plenty of time and money to spend- Maybe thats the only tourists they want now?   

However where I live in the midlands, many working class Indian families need to visit  either sick relatives or family getting married in India -  Come on the Indian High Commision , either employ more people or do the job  or produce an easily accessable on-line internet form to speed up the applications (or totally balls it upmore if the usual result is the case!)

Howie

dzibead, on Oct 18 2007, 04:41 PM, said:

That's good news for your friend.  But the situation in Brum just sounds idiotic.  The business of allowing agents to come in with a pile of applications for processing and hog all available spaces is soon going to bite the agents themselves in the a**, when one shows up first thing in the morning with 50 apps and prevents the other agents from having "their" applications processed that day.

Edited by HowieUK, 19 October 2007 - 07:14 PM.

[kullukid]

HowieUK, on Oct 19 2007, 02:36 PM, said:

Come on the Indian High Commision , either employ more people or do the job  or produce an easily accessable on-line internet form to speed up the applications (or totally balls it upmore if the usual result is the case!)

Howie

I wasn't aware of this until i visited a visa surgery recently, but the HCI only employ Indians from India, they won't even employ NRI's.......... is that legal? I think according to U.K. discrimination laws this is not allowed......maybe we could get them all sacked? That might speed the visa process up somewhat!       KK

[dn2]

hi just found this site and am looking for some info.

I am going to a surgerie in Luton tomorrow and am wondering if I will encounter similar probs as birmingham?


Any ideas on queing time/

Thanks

[iwanttogoback]

Quote

I wasn't aware of this until i visited a visa surgery recently, but the HCI only employ Indians from India, they won't even employ NRI's.......... is that legal?

now i'm no lawyer (she's probably asleep right now ) but i would imagine that foreign embassies, commissions whatever are subject to the law of their own country.

[john.sw]

dn2, on Oct 19 2007, 10:37 PM, said:

...I am going to a surgerie in Luton tomorrow and am wondering if I will encounter similar probs as birmingham?...

Hi dn2, and welcome to The India Tree!

How did you get on today in Luton, dn2?

Before I had my PIO card I went to a surgery in Huddersfield, W. Yorkshire.

The process took about four hours:

• Queue up
  
• Hand in the form and postal order
  
• Have the application checked
  
• Get given a number
  
• Come back in a few hours
  
• Queue up
  
• Collect your visa

How was your experience?

[tstan]

The Indian consulate in Sydney has a drop-off box - you simply download the visa application form from the internet, attach a photograph, complete the form, enclose a bank cheque or Money Order for $A75 as well as your passport and come back after seven working days between 2 and 3pm to collect your visa. Since I am only going for eight weeks it is not a great effort to go along a month early.

I don't want to gloat but there are a lot of irritating similarities between the British and Indian bureaucracies!