Improved Online Visa Application Process
The Home Office has unveiled plans to open its online visa application process to a wider range of UK applicants and their legal representatives.
The existing ‘paperless’ system which has been in place since February this year, has thus far been open only to Tier 2 Priority Service customers wishing to extend their Leave to Remain and for Chinese visitors applying for a general, business or child visit visas.
From this autumn, the service will be extended to all applicants seeking to apply for or switch into, Tier 2 Leave to Remain online. Whilst this is a positive step, the normal processing period of 8 weeks is expected to still apply.
In December, the Home Office intends to roll out the UK Visas & Immigration Online Application Service further to include additional UK visa applications such as Tier 5 dependant joiners and same-day Premium Service applications.
We applaud these new measures and proposals for the future. However, we hope the UKVI will be minded to also devote some energy to lowering applications processing times across all service lines. Fingers crossed!
For friendly, comprehensive and up-to-date UK immigration services that cater to your individual needs, contact your Smith Stone Walters immigration consultant today.
