Britain’s Super Priority Visa has become a hit among the business community of India; however it is costing a whopping amount of Rs.60, 000/- or 600 pounds more apart from the visa cost.
Regional Director, UK Immigration and Visas, Nick Crouch said that since the launch of the service in the year 2013, more than 1,300 SPV’s had been issued to the citizens from India.
Latest figures revealed that in the half year, the number of visas issued was increased to 68% when compared to the same period in the previous year.
Nick Crouch told that Chennai has beaten Mumbai and Delhi with regards to the successful application for this SPV.
India was the first and foremost country in the whole world where the SPV’s were launched by Britain in the year 2013. Britain Prime Minister David Cameron during his tour to India made the announcement that the visas will be available within one day. This service was first introduced in Mumbai and Delhi and then it was made available in Chennai.
After launching the service in India, it has been started in Brazil, Turkey, China, UAE and South Africa.
According to Crouch, UK has been always looking at different ways for improving the visa service and takes on regular feedback from the tourism and business sectors. And this year Britain had also opened a latest standalone Premium Lounge in Gurgaon city in response to the feedback from the business stakeholders and Britain will be looking for the new locations for opening the centres for visa application.
Regional Director said that they are trialing latest chargeable services including the walk-in appointments, large appointments and providing assistance to the customers for filling their online application forms. Many services were suggested by the travel agents who were looking keen for making it easy for customers to apply for the UK visas. Almost 9 out of 10 Indian citizens get successful who apply for a UK visa.
The cost of UK business visa for short-term visits that is available for the period of up to 6 months for single or multiple entries is costing around Rs. 6650. Likewise, a long-term visa is valid for five years is costing Rs. 42,200 and with ten-year validity it is costing around Rs. 60,900.
Since more than five-years, 70,000 business visas has been granted every year to the Indian citizens. Officials said that the rate of issue has been increased with almost every Indian getting the visa.
For example, in the year 2012, around 67,400 business visas were granted out of 69,600 applications that were received with an approval rate of 97%. India is UK’s major visa operation in the whole world, which process around 4,00,000 applications every year.
Home Office of the UK told that the services will be available for those people who apply for six months or two-year multiple entry visitor visa and those who had travelled to the countries like US, UK, New Zealand, Australia, Canada or any Schengen nation in the past five years.
