Alex Ellis, the British high commissioner to India on Wednesday, October 19 said that the UK is on track to process visa requests within the typical 15-day window.
UK Visa Processing Time Will Be Back At 15 Days
Alex Ellis in a video message posted on a social media platform said, “We are on track to get back to processing India-to-UK visa applications within our standard of 15 days.
- Student numbers increased by 89% since last year.
- Skilled workers visas bring processed faster
- Focus on improving visitor visa processing times.
A long way comes, more to go.”
We are on track to get back to processing 🇮🇳 to 🇬🇧 #visa applications within our standard of 15 days.
👉 Student numbers ⬆️ by 89% since last year.
👉 Skilled workers visas bring processed faster
👉 Focus on improving visitor visa processing times.
A long way come, more to go. pic.twitter.com/cjX26mRxs8— Alex Ellis (@AlexWEllis) October 18, 2022Advertisement
According to Ellis, the coronavirus pandemic, the increase in demand, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine are the main causes of the delay in visa processing.
“As you know the combination of an unprecedented surge in demand for travel from India to the UK combined with the effects of Covid-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, meant that our visa processing got well outside of a 15-day working standard,” said Alex Ellis
“We are back on track. We have dealt with an unprecedented surge in the demand for student visas, which was up by 89 percent from last year. We are turning right off skilled worker visas very fast and now we are focusing on visitor visas.”
Alex Ellis also urged prospective applicants to apply for visas three months ahead of time, informing them about applications under priority and super priority services at various centres.
“Don’t forget, we have got good availability in our visa application centres as well. You can help by applying early. You can use the different services, including the priority visa service and the super priority visa service if you have a particular urgency,” he said.
Due to the unavailability of appointments and lengthy processing times, Indians have faced a mounting backlog for visas in recent months.
It is worth noting that India recently surpassed China as the largest nationality receiving sponsored study visas in the United Kingdom.
UK Current Visa Wait Times
According to the official website of the UK Govt, the processing times for the Visit Visa, including standard visitor visa applications, are currently processing in 7 weeks on average, though some applications may take longer.
An update of the website also reads that the UK Embassy is working hard to return to the 3-week service standard by processing applications.
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