Desis is still drawn to the old vilayat. Indians are the country’s top visa applicants for “dear Old Blighty,” receiving about a third of all visas granted by the UK, with Chinese coming in a very distant second at 13%.
VFS Global said that in response to the increased demand for travel, it would establish temporary centers exclusively for the UK in a number of Tier II towns, including Thane, Bhubaneswar, Calicut, Dehradun, and Prayagraj (formerly known as Allahabad).
According to UK official data, the UK, a well-liked tourist destination, issued over 18 lakh visitor visas in the year ending June 2023—nearly twice as many, or 96% higher, as in the year ending June 2022. Indian nationals received the most percentage (30%) of visitor visas issued in the year that ended in June 2023, followed by Chinese nationals (13%), Nigerian nationals (6%), and Turkish nationals (6%). With India reaching out to Bharat, candidates would avoid having to fly to major cities to apply for UK visas, which have some of the highest application costs.
Based on information from the UK government website, the basic visiting visa costs Rs 12,615 for a six-month validity; Rs 43,879 for two years; Rs 84,577 for up to five years; and Rs 1,05,639 for ten years. This October, the cost of a visa increased. Prior to the recent pressure on Delhi-Ottawa ties, the UK and Canada were two of the first major Indian travel destinations to reduce visa processing timeframes.
In December of last year, the UK went back to processing visit visas in less than 15 working days, as promised by High Commissioner Alex Ellis. Post-Covid Indians were the most frequent travelers to a number of nations as China opened up more slowly. “Indian nationals were issued the largest number of UK study, work, and visitor visas in the year ending June 2022,” stated Alex Ellis in August of last year.
The relocation (the establishment of centers in Tier II locations) is a component of the recently granted VFS Global, a new worldwide contract for UK visa and citizenship services abroad. 240 Visa and Citizenship Application Service (VCAS) Centers for the UK will be established as part of that in 142 countries in Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, Australasia, Europe, China, Taiwan, Asia, and the Asia Pacific regions by 2024, Sen continued.