Newstrack

Britain launches online application facility for select agents

Bhisham Mansukhani - Mumbai

The British High Commission has launched an online visa application facility for select travel agents in all cities where it has application centres. This has been done with a view to speed up the process and reduce the pressure on current centres given the constant rise in applications - 16 per cent in 2005. Mandy Ivemy, head of the Visa Section, British Deputy High Commission, Mumbai told ETW that only travel agents who generated more than 100 applications each week for 2005 would be eligible for this facility. Currently, while individual candidates can themselves make a visa application online, agents cannot, however do it online on behalf of their passenger clients.

"While any traveller can apply online, it's only now that we are allowing travel agents to make these applications online. The online application facility was introduced last summer on a small scale and we are constantly reviewing it along with our partners, VFS. To be eligible, agents will have had to generate about 100 applications each week for the calendar year of 2005. The underpinning assumption is that their numbers will rise this year as well. While we haven't yet put a cap on the number of agents for this facility, it will be reviewed constantly. The website will also be enhanced as part of the initiative. We will consider travel agents in all of the eleven cities in which we have visa application centres," Ivemy said.

Asked about the possibility of a UK specialist programme akin to the one some of the other countries have in India, Ivemy said that was not only the cards as UK's immigration laws did not allow for one and moreover UK did not want to hold travel agents responsible for their clients. Ivemy also revealed that the British High Commission will launch an awareness drive with the agents and the general population to encourage an early application for visas since the visa is valid for six months. Further, it is also offering the facility of postdating the visa by an additional three months. This, she hopes, will help stagger the stream of applications and reduce the pressure of the travel agent community and the visa processing staff. The increase in number of visa application centres, she said, depended exclusively on the proliferation of applications in any given city that may not already have an application centre. The British High Commission received 305,000 visa applications last year - a 16 per cent increase over 2004. In January alone, the growth had been 30 per cent.