Online payment mandatory for UK visa applications in India

Uk visa pplicants in India will have to make visa fees payment via credit or debit cards or via e-wallet services

Image: Wikimedia Commons (Tyler Turkle)

Applicants can choose to pay the fees using PayPal or Skrill accounts or Visa or MasterCard credit or debit cards because other methods of payment will be discontinued at the centres, the British High Commission in India has said.

Applicants will receive a payment confirmation email from WorldPay which they will have to print off and carry with them to the visa centre when submitting the application.

The current methods of payment will be available until January 14, 2013 for those applicants that have completed their online application form before the December 16 cut-off date.

The compulsory online-only payment follows the previous rule of mandatory online-only UK visa application form submission.

The move is aimed at streamlining visa application process and is also part of the Home Office’s modernisation process, according to the British High Commission in India.

It meets the requirements of the UK government’s “Digital by Default” initiative and will help cut costs in the managing the visas operation, it added.

“The move to online applications and payments India will deliver a streamlined application process and is consistent with a wider global trend to online transactions and payments. This is part of our on-going commitment to offer the best service to our Indian customers,” said Thomas Greig, UK Visas and Immigration Regional Director for Central Asia, South Asia and Turkey.

“It will also be a safer and more flexible system for both customers and staff as it reduces the risk associated with cash payment,” Greig added.

The rest of the application procedure, including submitting the documents personally and providing biometric data, fingerprints and digital photograph, remains the same.