A friend used Puja Travel if you can find the address, all back in three days (before the strike) and £10 extra. Will email her if none of the ~BE kids can advise you.

Hi there is a list of agents on the HCI website http://www.hcilondon.net/travel-agents.html
I called one of the agents yesterday who said it is now taking 3-5 working days for them to get the applications processed at HCI, so you need to apply in good time to avoid the delays.

thanks all, no longer stressed out, have all info I need.

The Birmingham list of agents is *here*
(I knew I'd found it somewhere!) - phone em' all up and ask if they can get you an 'x' visa <bg>

AndyD 8-)#

btw - it looks as if using Travel Agents is only an interim measure. There's a link on the main hci site to some sort of invitation to tender to private companies for running all of the hci passport / visa related work.

AndyD 8-)#

p.s. anyone know how things are going at the hci's - there were near riots at Birmingham earlier this year and that was before the tourist season started.

Hi
After having our visa sent back by indiavisa.co.uk a visa agent who were recommended to us charged us £35 for both visa then sent them back saying they could only get us a 3 month visa Not good.We did it the hard way stood outside the HC
I would recommend what we did today because visa are becoming like rocking horse sh*t
Sorry there is no easier softer route
We queued from 2am this morning at Birmingham and got the visa we required.We have to go back at 3pm to pick them up.If you are going to do this I suggest you get there by at least 3-30am because by this time there was 40 people
The agents are not accepting visa applications if you are travelling within the next three weeks.We had a long discussion with the HC himself who told us they were short of staff due to redundancies.He told us they have a back log 2,500 visa and there is a meeting on Thursday next week with the agents to try and sort out the problems and do some forward planning,as he see's no early solution to the problem, infact he said it will get worse before it gets better
I have to say that the staff were excellent and were seeing people outside of the 50 and issueing visa if they were travelling within the 5 days.They are taking a lot of abuse and this directive has come from Delhi,they were working flat out
So after we have picked them up I am going to bed
hope this helps good luck
Karen

HI ANDY.
ARR GOA 3 RD OCT ON 1 YR X VISA. THOUGHT IT ODD THEY KEPT THE RTN HALF SLIP IN MUMBAI . WENT TO REGISTER ON 16 OCT, THEY SAID COME IN MARCH.. ...ANY ADVICE WELCOME.

LEEGRAND. REIS MARGOS

yes, they seem to have changed the rules - the Landing Form you get on the plane has changed as well so it is probably legit. I've been told that they don't want to be bothered with people who don't stay >180 days after all.

AndyD 8-)#

HI ANDY.

WE STAY TILL MAY, ABOUT 215 DAYS THATS 35 DAYS MORE. PERHAPS WE SHOULD GO BACK, DONT REALLY WANT TO CAUSE WAVES DOWN THERE THOUGH..
LEEGRAND REIS MARGOS.

Hi All,

The Latest Visa Notice from High Commission Of India London;

Advisary on Visa Issues

http://www.hcilondon.net/visa/visa-issues.html



Regards,
Remy

Thanks for that Remy, interesting reading on a Friday. We are going for our visas early Monday so will update the site on how long the queues are.

Hi Michellea,

No Probs,
I need three visas before the middle of Nov but im scared to post off the passports etc. Being in Northern Ireland we have to go to Dublin.....sooooooooo........next week i'll have to take a day off work and go to the Embassy in Dublin to sort out the bloody things.

Let us know how you get on.....take some prozac with you!!!

Regards,
Remy

Hi Remy, I take it you are Irish. We are in France and considered going to Paris. The website in Paris says there is no problem getting a visa if you are French, other EU national with residents permit (you don't have such things these days which means they class us as non residents) however, the site says you can still get a visa if you are another national not normally residing in France. It says you can go on the day and even pay an extra admin fee to get it processed on the same day. Luckily having had previous such experiences in Greece I decided to phone them to make sure it was possible. "oh yes it is no problem, come to Paris and we will get it withing 5-7 working days" no thankyou, the cost of travelling and overnight stays far outweighs the cost of the flight I would rather cancel. So we have booked another flight from France to London to give us an extra day of hope, thank goodness for Ryanair and Travel lodge cheap deals! fingers crossed, the recent statement is a little contradictory in terms of saying it issues on same day and then goes on to say it issues appointments for subsequent days, c'est la vie.

:curse::curse:
and so it goes on and on. Sadly tourists will not go next year.
Thank goodness we did ours in August.
Good luck to you and to Remy next week - let us know how you get on. Noni

Yes its a complete Bollocks!....oops can i say that on expats?

Anyway, Dublin wont issue on the same day....we have to make a trip down to process and then another trip down in a week or so to collect.:curse:
They will post it back if you provide a Special Delivery envelope thingy....but i dont want to risk the post with all the striking etc at the moment.....knowing my luck the families passports would end up in Mombasa or somewhere.

Regards,
Remy

PS.....Im an Irish Indian!!!! ......and you thought you had problems!!!