We have just discovered (today) that from
mid-March all British tourists wanting to visit India will have to make an
appointment to go in person to one of the VSF Application Centres to have their
fingerprints taken.
There was no warning of this major
change and there has been no consultation process. The news may be found on the High Commission
of India website (https://www.hcilondon.in/event.php?id=128)
but there is no mention of it on either of the two websites where people apply
for their visa on-line:
http://in.vfsglobal.co.uk/ VFS Global for UK citizens or www.indianvisaonline.gov.in
Nor has it yet appeared on the FCO
website and it seems that the Visa Agencies were not given advance notice of
this change either. Odd as such a
fundamental change such as this – requiring every visitor to India to present
themselves in person would require a lot of planning.
This new policy is bound to put off
many travellers off from visiting India – particularly those who do not live in
one of the cities where there is a Visa Application Centre (London, Birmingham,
Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Bradford, Newcastle, Belfast, Cardiff,
Bristol, Glasgow and Leicester). Many of
our customers live in rural positions far away from these metropolitan areas –
some even live on the smaller islands such as the Channel Islands, Scilly’s,
Hebrides. The cost of getting the whole
family to the mainland and then to one of the above cities to get their
fingerprints taken is surely going to put them off booking a holiday to
India.
With the recent election of Narendra
Modi to Prime Minister of India it was hoped that obtaining a tourist visa to
visit India would become easier for British citizens and that we would soon
join the ranks of tourists from other countries (including Germany, Norway and
the USA) who are being offered Visa on Arrival.
So this news today has come as a huge shock to all of us in the industry.
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