Aye! another miserable attempt at a subtle hint by me then! doh!

I've had problems with my hearing this week, so I went to the doctor - my GP says: describe the symptoms.

I say: Homer is the big fat one & Marge has blue hair.

What part of the UK has the Gilera carried you to by this evening J5?

H.

It has brought me a mere 40 miles from my home village in Oxfordshire back to Dad's in Surrey,
I've spent three days digging a large ditch and have three more to do next week. Heavy work but am enjoying it and happy that I can still do it. Plus its good to earn some money!

And yes this is completely off topic.................but hey, at least its an accurate account of something that happened in the last couple of days!

:curse::curse: Any suggestions?

Just had a letter by DX from VSF stating that we had not sent photo's and
passports to them if it was not so serious. They also returned our two DUPLICATE visa applications forms which the Call Center told us to do again. The call centre said the passports and photo's would be matched up when 2nd application forms arrived there, as requested there was an accompanying letter clearly stating this. Guess what the covering letter has been returned as well.

What to do?

[email protected] , another 'helpline' address

Not the only One Old man. Mr. Noni has just come in after meeting friends
13 of them are going to India with Corus to train TATA workers, and all their applications are being bounced back and fore - what the **************
is going on.

I'm not surprised - there's a big fuss going on about business/employment visas - apparently meant to target Chinese workers but published as applying to everyone on B visas. The British High Commission and others got it delayed, then the Russians complained. Turns out (surprise!) that it's mostly a power struggle between the Home Ministry and the External Affairs Ministry.

AndyD 8-)#

Hi AndyD
Is this your slant on the situation or do you have this as fact, with regards to

The British High Commission and others got it delayed, then the Russians complained. Turns out (surprise!) that it's mostly a power struggle between the Home Ministry and the External Affairs Ministry.

Are you saying that we are being lumped together
GC

Wonder if the people from Wales who were flying out tomorrow got their visa after?

This is terrible and do you know they cannot claim on their insurance if they couldn't travel because they didn't get a visa in time .
GC

After a very stressful week - same as others on here - it arrived on Saturday morning after they had spoken to VFS at 95p per minute - had no choice but to pay it. Wanted half a chance of getting the visa.

no, I'm saying that everyone who wants to work in India on a B visa is being lumped together - according to TofI a lot of Russians working as specialists (including nuclear) have been issued B visas because E visas take months so they were lumped togethr with a lot of Chinese unskilled workers also on B visas. The response of the External Affairs Ministry was to order everyone on a B visa out of the country by Sept. 30th. This was subsequently extended to 31st Oct and 'clarified' as only applying to people with B visas working on 'projects'.
I was guessing that Tata had been caught in this net.

AndyD 8-)#

Have been on hold with customer help line since 9.00
40 mins and still holding.

Time I think for a 4 hour drive to Hayes to sort it out.

Between most of us, we are spending small fortunes on top of the standard visa cost just to get a visa issued.

What with resubmission of applications, duplications on DX return fees, me having to fax a pile of supporting paperwork through, 40 minutes and more on a premium rate line (£40 +), VFS is certainly not a streamlined operation.

I hate to think of the added expenditures for those with an average family of say 2 adults, and 2 children : 4 passports = 4 times the added costs and aggravation.

The system appears as flawed as last year, even if some have been lucky enough to have had a stess free experience.

At the visa surgery where I submitted application (to be forwarded to Consul at Consulate) I was told we don't accept cheques, credit or debit cards, or cash here, only Postal Orders. So I went some distance by car to the nearest Post Office, paid the £7 odds surcharge to the P.O. for the postal order and went back to the surgery.

An Anglo Indian man with a broad local accent who I'd met earlier in the queue was just leaving (he was of non 'wheatish complexion' and bilingual). He happily told me he'd just been issued his visa on the day, same as last year, paid by cheque, and only had to show his air tickets to get the visa on day of application service.

Pleae note, there is no Consul at this visa surgery (which is not part of VFS), so who had the authority to stick the visa into this man's British passports, why did they accept a cheque from him, who did the security check on him and his family, and could it all be down sometimes to colour of skin?

One would think the India Gov would see sense as all these visa problems and not too cost involved with the postage that all is putting British Tourists off going to India/Goa.

The reasons the Russians are being provided "visas on arrival" is they would not visit Goa otherwise. If the authorities can provide the Russians with this service why can't they do the same for the British or are they being selective?

I am sure more British would go to Goa if the authorities were more accommodating.

At the moment this "visa madness" is just driving British Tourists away.

The India/Goan Revenue's loss is going massive, it is such a shame they are not keeping up with the times as they are going to lose out big time! Maybe the loss of money it the only thing that will bring them to their senses one day.

Sunglow.