For visitors from Dubai, a ‘platinum’ UK visa arranged in the comfort of your own palace

BRITAIN has surrendered to Dubai’s love of “bling” with a “platinum” service for Emiratis applying for visas to the United Kingdom.

For a steep premium, the VIP service offers applications “from the comfort of your home”.

Rather than queuing in front of glassscreened consulate counters, officials will bring the forms to an applicant’s home, or palace, along with the “biometric” device – an eye scanner – needed to complete the application. The fin- ished visa will then be hand-delivered.

For those unwilling to pay the full £750 fee, there is also a “Platinum Lounge”, situated in an upmarket shopping mall, where applicants can relax in a private booth while VFS, the company to which visa applications have been subcontracted, gets to work. This service, at £435, includes a chauffeur to pick you up and take you home.

Dubai is a part of the United Arab Emirates, whose citizens are already entitled to enter Britain for short visits on a “visa waiver” scheme as long as they give 48 hours’ notifice. The new service is intended for those who want to stay longer or visit more regularly. Its existence is a reflection of the emirate’s ambiguous place in the Middle East.

It has become a popular winter beach holiday destination for British tourists and expatriates. But the UAE has also been used as a crossroads for jihadists, money-launderers and other criminals, meaning Britain is unlikely ever to be entirely relaxed over visas.

Those using the new service receive an extra “freebie”, an Oyster card for public transport in London. Whether a platinum applicant would ever need or admit to using it is another question.