Alex Ellis, the British High Commissioner to India, has addressed the issue of delay in visa approvals. The UK envoy has shared a video message on Twitter in this regard.
Addressing everyone who is facing issues with their UK Visa approvals, Mr Ellis said, “Most of you are getting your visas to go to the UK within 15 working days. But there is a long tail of complex cases, which are taking much longer. I want to apologise to everyone who is getting affected by this and the distress which it gives you.”
Citing the reason behind the delay, the British High Commissioner to India said there has been an “unprecedented surge in a demand for UK visas post-Covid” and “because of global events, particularly the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
The video was captioned, “A lot of you have been in touch about visa delays; many apologies, as I know this is causing a lot of problems. Here's what we're doing, and what you can do.”
Mr Ellis also added that they have brought in more resources and are training people to speed up the process. He added, “We are keeping open the priority visa service, which many of you use.”
Sharing a piece of advice, Mr Ellis added, “You can help us by making sure that you have the paperwork right. And, my advice is don't commit to your air ticket until you have got your visa to be on the safe side.”
He concluded by saying that they will do everything to make sure that the visas are approved on time.
Earlier, a British High Commission spokesperson told The Times Of India that they have been receiving demands across all visa routes globally. “Standard visitor visas are currently taking around six weeks to process. This is an average processing time and some applications might take longer. We are working hard to get back to the three-week service standard,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
