British visa at your doorstep

 You can now apply for UK visas from the comfort of your home or office, as the British Embassy on Wednesday launched a platinum service that will bring officials to your doorstep to complete formalities.

The ‘on demand’ service, which comes a cost of Dh4,500 per head, can be used to obtain all types of visas, including long-term UK visas.

To avail the service an applicant can just drop an email to UKvisaondemandGulf@vfshelpline.com and VFS officials will reach the chosen location at the chosen time to complete the process, including biometric enrolment, filling of the application form and all other formalities.

The service will have the visas delivered in three to five days without the applicant having to visit the visa centre even once. The process can be further expedited and visas can be had within 24 hours of filing the application with the additional payment of Dh2,600. The standard six-month multiple-entry visit visa costs around Dh450.

“The service is first of its kind in the world to be offered by the UK and is being offered considering the requirements of UAE market. We have been working on this service along with the platinum lounge for a long time and we introduced this after a lot of research,” said Paul Fox, the British Consul General in Dubai.

The platinum lounge, which will also offer an exclusive experience, along with the ‘on demand service’, was launched on Wednesday at VFS Global visa application centre in Wafi Mall. VFS Global is the outsourced partner of the British Embassy for its visa applications.

Available at the same cost as the ‘on demand service,’ the platinum lounge offers privacy and comfort, as the VFS officials take care of the entire process, right from personalised chauffeur service to and from the visa centre to any location in the UAE. They will also complete the forms and other formalities.

The Platinum lounge will offer free WiFi as well as drinks and snacks during the time taken to process the application.

“We are proud to offer these two new visa services to our customers, both Emiratis and UAE residents. We have got a track record of continuously improving our services. We introduced the Electronic Visa Waivers (EVW) in 2014, which has proved to be very popular, with 54,600 EVW registrations last year and I am sure these two services will also prove to be popular,” Fox added.

UAE passport holders can obtain EVW online, 48 hours prior to travelling to the UK, for a six-month single entry visit.

Last year 9,300 visas were issued for Emiratis from the visa centre in Dubai, while 56,000 applications were received by the centre from people of other various nationalities.

The visa issuance rate for Emiratis is around 97 per cent.