Jon Davies

Getting a British visa – our service and standards

First chance for me to blog since returning from a holiday in the UK and Spain. It was good to catch up with family and friends. One of the tougher things about the diplomatic lifestyle is being away from loved ones, especially at the best of times or worst of times. So it was good to have a couple of weeks in Wales with my mother, with her recovering from a minor car accident - not great when you're in your 80s. And great for my kids to have time with their grandmother (in fact they're still in UK with their other granny, enjoying the cool weather there even if not everyone else is...).

Visiting family and friends is of course just one of the many reasons why people come to us for visas to enter the UK.  We're just past the peak of the annual summer peak of applications - and also the annual stories in the media and on the Net about the poor service offered by "European Embassies", and the occasional public tribute to good service. I wanted to look behind the headlines....

Every country looks to manage the flow of foreign nationals through its borders. One key element is "control", ie only letting in the right people, with a legitimate reason to visit, the means to support themselves while there, and the intention to leave at the end of their legitimate stay. But don't forget that we actively want to encourage people to come to Britain: for work or pleasure, for study or medical treatment and to increase their knowledge and so understanding of our country and our people. It is in our interests that the flow of people contiues. I think that all the above is just as true of Egypt and its own approach to people coming here.

We work hard to make sure that the visa operation here in Cairo achieves those objectives. Our Visa Application Centres in Cairo and Alexandria have been up and running for over two years now, operated on our behalf by the private company WorldBridge. The Cairo Centre is now bigger and better, and offers additional services such as a Business Class Lounge, application photographs, document copying. Applicants in Alexandria can now pay in cash and have their passport returned by courier.

Decisions on applications are still made here at the Embassy by our expert trained staff. It may surprise many to know that less than 8% of the thousands of applications here last year were refused, below the global average. We meet our self-imposed targets for how quickly applications are handled.

So more than 90% of straightforward applications are returned within 5 days of the application at our Centres(and many more quickly than that); and more than 90% of what we call non-straightforward applications are returned within 15 days.

But just as important as the statistics, we genuinely want any applicant to get an efficient, polite and professional service. We demand that from our own staff and from those working for our commercial partners WorldBridge. And we genuinely believe that we treat our customers fairly and consistently. That said, no-one is perfect. People make mistakes. IT sometimes fails. If there are examples where we genuinely fail to meet our standards, we want to know. The complaints procedures are with all the rest of the information people need at:

http://ukinegypt.fco.gov.uk/en/visas/

 
In return, I would also say that we expect applicants to treat our staff with the same respect they expect as customers. The Foreign Ministry is right to say that it will not accept the mistreatment of Egyptian nationals. We do not either. We realise that it is for some Egyptians a novel and unsettling experience to have to come in person to make an application, when in the past some would have had the luxury of sending someone to do that for them. All I would ask is that applicants trust our systems and our people, give them the (short) time they need to work - and then, for the huge majority of applicants, enjoy a great visit to Britain.

Posted at 18:23 18 August 2009 by Jon Davies  |  Comments[1]