Well yesterday I had the experience of going through what it takes to apply for the UK visa. Personally I travel on a British passport however my wife has a South African one. During the two and a half hours that I spent at the VFS office in Sandton city I came up with a few points that I would like to share on what I learnt and noticed.
There is no application center in Bloemfontein which means that anyone wanting to apply must drive 400 kilometers to JHB to apply and then drive back again only to come back 10 days later to collect the passport. This equates to 2 round trips and over 1600 kilometers, in rand terms that is over R1200 excluding the mileage on your Vehicle and associated costs.
You cannot go to Europe/’ the UK on a temporary South African passport. OK this I knew this as do all the travel agents however you have to feel for the guy coming from Bloem, as it does not advise this anywhere on the UK VFS website at all.
After queuing for an hour outside in the hall we finally made it inside, to sit and watch the wombles on TV, with no kids in the waiting room wow guys you really looking out for your clients and their needs in the waiting room well one!
There are 2 security people manning the door and letting people in and controlling the flow of people and the various ques that are there. All I can say on this is be aware when you Que and keep making sure you are in the right ques as I noticed and advise some ladies that were ushered into the wrong ques and ended up loosing half a dozen places in the ques. Not sharp!
There is no pre checking when you arrive no one you can ask a quick question from you need to que and make sure everything is spot on before applying. This is great in an ideal world however it would be more professional and facilitate the process a lot more if there was some sort of a welcome desk or person that is on hand to answer questions. There were numerous amounts of people that got to the front to learn that they could not pay there for their visa and they must pay in advance into a Nedbank. This is on the website sure however it highlights the need for a welcome person.
Ok so the que moved and we chair hopped until we got to the front and sat with someone who checked the application form, they shoved it in a folder bag with the supporting documents, supporting documents are not checked what so ever they are just shoved in the folder.
Then we were off to que again for the Biometric part of the application. Just a note that with over 100 people in the que there that day there were 2 staff accepting applications and 1 person doing the Bio metric side of things. For 100 people wow it just really is not efficient at all.
Another misconception that I have seen happening is that you need an appointment. No this is not true for during the week this is just if you would like to apply on Saturday, another note on this the first appointment date is 01 August!
These are the facts, do your homework as help and efficiency is in very short supply when applying for the UK visa.
