Grappling with visa service delays
I was saddened to read the report (11 April) concerning the delay in issuing a visa to the grandson of a decorated Second World War veteran, Anthony Eldrige DSC, who may have only a few days to live. However, your readers should know that this is not a rare occurrence. I work as a consultant in British immigration and nationality law. I regularly deal with clients who experience unacceptable delays in the issuing of visas.
It often proves impossible to contact anybody by telephone. I recognise only too well the account in your report of the visa applicant being put through to a premium-rate line in his attempts to contact the British embassy. My company has been forced on a number of occasions to use this “service” at considerable expense to our clients, only to receive a response which has been of no help.
Emailing the visa centre will not expedite matters, as they can take up to five days to reply. Indeed in a recent case we handled on behalf of a client, who had been waiting months for a decision on his visa and had already missed several appointments in Britain as a result, we received an email informing us that no decision had been made. As it turned out, our client’s visa had been available for him to collect at the British embassy in the country concerned 10 days before we were told by email that no decision had been made.
As your report says, Teleperformance is not responsible for making decisions on whether to grant a visa, but they are the first and often only point of contact that visa applicants have.
The Home Office is hardly any better in dealing with immigration matters. An increasing amount of my time and that of my colleagues is spent trying to sort out mistakes made by the Home Office or their agents, and again it is often impossible to contact anybody in person. Rather one is forced to communicate by email or post and wait for a reply, which can take weeks. Many of these matters could be resolved if it was possible to talk to the department concerned.
Immigration policy is an issue in the coming election. Whatever the wrongs and rights of a particular policy, those who have to deal with the British immigration authorities have a right to expect that their cases will be dealt with efficiently. It is not good enough to impose a particular regime without providing the necessary resources.
Your paper has done a service in highlighting this particular case. However, many ordinary people without the distinguished record of Mr Eldridge are facing similar problems daily, as they grapple with this country’s visa and immigration services. Gerard Harrison Richmond, Surrey