British High Commission to improve visa issuance process.

ISLAMABAD, October 14, 2009 (Balochistan Times): The British High Commission here on Wednesday said that after November 15, visa procedure would be improved and the visa issuing process would take only two weeks for completion. Rob Murphy, head of communication British High commission Islamabad told that UK visa service is taking the issue of delay in UK visa process very seriously. He said, currently about 5000 visa application are pending with the British High Commission, and the backlog of all UK visa applications would be cleared within a month or two. Almost a year ago, UK visa office was shifted from Islamabad to Abu Dhabi which resulted in delay in issuance of UK visas to Pakistani students. It created lot of trouble for the students who are planning to start studies during October in UK, and the delay has also made it impossible for them to make alternate choices. Omer Mirza, Chief Executive Education Resource Network in this regard said after shifting of visa office to Abu Dhabi, passports are collected here but the relevant documents are sent to Abu Dhabi for visa approval. All the major staff of the UK visa office has been shifted to Abu Dhabi which completed the visa process within stimulated time, but the applicants received the visa very late due to delay of visa stamp office here, he commented. My students got the visa in first week of September, but could not get their passports back yet due to delay from Visa stamp office, he added.

(THROUGH ASIA PULSE)