Thanks Jill.

Has anyone actually applied for a 2 year Tourist Visa yet? (and got it !!)

When I asked them (again) for the price of a 1 year Tourist Visa, their reply (by e-mail) was :-

Thank you for your email.

Please note that the visa fee for a tourist visa up to 2 years (7 months to 2 years) for a UK national is £ 287.20 each applicant (£275 visa fee + £10.20 VFS service charge + £2 Consular Surcharge).


So non-committal. Bit of a bummer if you apply for & pay for 2 years and only get 7 months!!

I'd love to see the face of the immigration guy if you tried to leave after e.g. 210 days on a 7-month visa <bg>

AndyD 8-)

No chance with Visa's now that Cameron will not give back the Kah-i-norr diamond.


p.s. Andy you owe me for the photo of the lightening on the Vatican.

How about a cheque drawn on the Vatican Bank?

<g> AndyD 8-)₹

Had an email from a friend in a visa service company in London and he said that there is very little chance of the 5 year tourist visa but worth a go.

Friends recently renewed their 2 year business visas without significant aggravation, so you never know a 5 year tourist visa might just be a goer.

Good luck to whoever tries 1st.

H.

B """"""S my dear friend! So glad I came out feeling so much better. Friends have been fantastic. Both Brown and White !!

So happy for you noni!!

Enjoy yourself.

So why are they advertising a 5yr visa!!

Perhaps your friend is looking at the money he could lose if you did get a 5 yr visa.

Friends who use an agent up north say that he is only interested in doing 6 month tourist visas as he knows they are easy and no hassle!!

There was a hint (well, less than a hint) on another thread that the 5yr T might be the old Tour-Rep visa.
Has anyone asked VFS what the availability/ per-requisites are?

AndyD 8-)₹

This was the response I got when enquiring about a 5 yr T visa....

"We would like to inform you that more than 6 months tourist visa can be applied for, provided you supply a detailed letter explaining your travel plan and mentioning why you would like to apply for more than 6 months tourist visa along with your application form and a tentative Travel Itinerary to support your application."

Got talking to this scot, he says he paid over £100 and got a four month visa. never heard of a four month visa before.

This is the response I received from VFS..

With regards to your query, a 5 years Tourist visa is something which has recently been introduced by the Government of India however from the feedback received from various applicants it has been informed that people of Indian Origin are granted such long durations based on all the documentary evidence to prove how they are of an Indian Background.


So I really do not think its a goer sadly

Did you contact Tarun Trivedi or did you use the "generic" contact us email address?

The VFS comments above are "strange" - how do they get feedback from applicants?

In my experience what you are told depends on the person (& their mood) that you deal with on the day you visit - I.E. a certain application is a potential major problem one day & the following day an application for the same category of visa for another person to a different member of VFS counter staff is accepted without question & then both visas are granted in a timely manner without any of the "demands" mentioned by the initial member of counter staff.

H.

Fully agree with all of this, and exactly the experiences I have had with VFS when looking for anything other than a 6 month tourist.


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