Large number of UK visa applications to be affected by IT changes

Large number of UK visa applications to be affected by IT changes

The UK Border Agency has announced that a large number of visa application centres around the world will be unable to take biometric information on certain days in February.

There are also a number of changes in various centres to the way visas are paid for and visa sections in Panama, Guatemala and Belize have closed.

A large number of centres will be affected by a major IT maintenance programme. Applicants will not be able to submit UK visa applications on this date. The visa application centres will be open for the collection of documents at the usual times.

The mobile biometric clinic in Lisbon will be affected slightly earlier than others. The service will be suspended from 30 January for a week.

On Friday 03 February visa application centres in Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkey, Gaza, Kazakhstan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, China, Indonesia, Brunei, Japan, Morocco, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, South Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia will be unable to process biometric information.

Applications in a number of major cities will also be affected on 03 February. These include Madrid, Jerusalem, Rome and Paris.

And on Sunday 05 February the biometric service will be unavailable in Iraq, Jordan, Bangladesh, and Egypt.

‘We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. If you have a genuinely urgent or compassionate need to travel please contact our visa information service,’ said a UK Border Agency spokesman.

Also from 30 January 2012 all applications for a UK visa submitted in certain countries must be paid for online in US Dollars. These include Georgia, Turkey, Jordan and Hong Kong. The measure has already been introduced in South Africa earlier this month.

The UK Border Agency has just introduced a priority visa service in Ukraine. The priority visa service is available to applicants who meet specific criteria and who pay an additional fee to have their visa application processed ahead of others.

Meanwhile the visa sections in Panama, Guatemala and Belize have closed. Visa applicants in Guatemala, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama, Honduras and Nicaragua will now need to use the monthly biometric clinic in Panama City or visit the visa application centre in Bogota to enrol their biometric information.