UK Visa in five easy steps: Britain targets Indian tourists with video about getting UK visa
The new 1:20-minute video by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) aims to reassure first-time visitors to the UK that the visa process is straightforward. It explains each step of the process – starting from filling out the UK visa form online and giving fingerprints at the VFS Visa Application Centre (across major Indian cities) to obtaining the visa. The UK has 15 Visa Application Centres in India - more centres than in any other country.
According to the office of British High Commissioner, between June 2014 and June 2015, over 355,000 visit visas were issued to Indian nationals and 91% of all Indian nationals who applied for a UK visa were successful in their applications.
According to UKVI, the number of Indian visitors coming to the UK is at a high: the latest visa statistics show a 15% increase of visit visas issued year on year.
British High Commissioner to India Sir James Bevan KCMG said, “Our visa system is designed to make it as straightforward as possible for customers to apply for their visas. Indian visitors will receive a warm welcome in the UK and we want to see the numbers continue to grow."
The video is part of UK government's initiatives to improve the visa service it provides to potential tourists, especially from Indian, easier, quicker, friendly and hassle-free.
Bevan added, "Not only do Indian visitors benefit the UK economy (last year they spent £444m in the UK) they take back to India good memories of the UK, which benefits the wider relationship between our two countries.”
Among other initiatives the British government undertook recently to facilitate Indian tourists to visit the UK are the "Passport Passback" scheme which allows visa applicants to keep hold of their passports while their visa application is being processed. It also simplified the transit visa rules, so that travellers can transit the UK airside without a visa provided they hold a valid US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand visa, regardless of where they are travelling to.
India was the first country where the same day Super Priority Visa was introduced and the service continues to grow in popularity. Since the service launched, in 2013, over 1,300 Super Priority Visas have been issued, and numbers show that in the first six months of this year the numbers issued were 68% up from the same period the year before.
Here is the YouTube video by British High Commission in New Delhi about how Indians can apply for a UK visa in five simple steps:
UK visa application VFS centres in India are in Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Mumbai (two), Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Cochin, Kolkata, Jaipur and Goa.
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