India visa

[Nigello]

Has anyone recently applied for a tourist visa for India? If so, did you go and line up in person or get a visa company to do it for you? Thanks.

[LadyNorwood]

Have a look at this thread...

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?20,1220212,1220212#msg-1220212

[Nigello]

It's helpful, but my questions still stand.

[LuLu Too]

I applied for a visa in autumn 2012 so not sure if my info/ experience reflects the current situation.

But I applied in person at the Visa Application Centre in Victoria.

It was relatively painless and straightforward, took about 45 mins wait to be called to the counter. Visa was ready for collection in less than a week.

Personally, I wouldn't bother paying a company.

HTH.

[johnki]

I applied in January, the processing centre is now near Old Street, I arrived around 2pm and was there until 5.30 simply to drop my passport off. I'd recommend either getting there first thing in the morning or using the postal service. Once I'd dropped it off it took three days for my passport to be couriered back to me which I think had a ?10 charge. You need to ensure that you carefully follow the checklist on the visa website to make sure you have everything needed

[MrsMcC]

The visa office in Victoria closed, see website for EC1 address http://in.vfsglobal.co.uk/yourapplication.html

[Ladygooner]

When the office was in Victoria you were able to make an appointment to drop off your passport - I think the same applies to Old Street, It only took 15 mins to do this and then another 15 mins to collect.

[tommy_guy]

I went to India for business last year, i applied for a urgent business visa and once i had all the relevant paperwork i dropped off my application in the morning (8am) and was able to collect it same day (6pm).

It seems a fairly straight forward process and even those applying for non-urgent visas were served very quickly.

I did it without the help of any visa service company and everything was fine first time.

http://in.vfsglobal.co.uk/

[NunheadGreener]

...

[FatherJack]

Do it yourself.

Go to VFS Goswell Rd, arrive early. It opens at 9am. I got there at 7.30am already 5 people in queue.

Apply within 6 weeks of traveling especially if you have a non UK passport. If non UK you will need to provide two utility bills (one should be most recent and one not more than 13 months old...you should double check that) OR an address in the country your passport was issued.

When visa ready you can collect at VFS between 4pm/5pm.

They will email/text you when application is received, sent off to Embassy and when visa is ready.

PM if you gave any other questions.