Anyone who plans to travel to the United Kingdom from India has to get a UK visa permit from the British High Commission in India. The steps to apply for the UK visa are clear: choose the type of visa depending on your purpose of visit, prepare the application package for the UK visa, and prove your identity by visiting the visa centre. However, once you have applied for the visa, comes the long and tense wait for the decision on your UK visa application.
You can, of course, contact the British High Commission in India on your visa status. In most cases, applicants get an email communication or a physical letter to indicate the status of their UK visa. Nevertheless, you might want to check the status of your visa application with the British High Commission right after you apply so that you know that your application is on track.
An Overview of the British High Commission
The British High Commission is an embassy that the British government has set up in all the commonwealth nations to maintain and strengthen its diplomatic relations with these countries. Since India is a part of the commonwealth, there is a British High Commission in the country’s capital, New Delhi. It is the British High Commission in India that aids visa aspirants with their queries when it comes to their applications. Also, it is the high commission that finally grants a visa to the applicants.
Apart from the British High Commission in New Delhi, there are other deputy high commissions in India. Cities where the British High Commission has its offices include Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Chandigarh, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. Apart from the aforementioned, in Goa the British government has set up a British Nationals Assistance Office Goa that represents the UK government in Goa. The different types of visas offered for Indians include
Visitor Visa, Family Visa, Transit Visa, Study Visa, Short-Term Study Visa, Short-Term Work Visa, Long-Term Work Visa, and Investor/Business Development and Talen Visa, to name a few.
If you have applied for a visa with the British High Commission in India, here are three official ways you can track visa status or get help. In this article, we have explained the steps in detail.
1) Track Your Visa Status Online on VFS Global
Once you apply for the visa, VFS Global, the organisation that processes your visa application, will provide you with a reference number to track the status of your UK visa. You can go to the VFS Global website and check the status of your application on the Track your Application page. To do this, you have to enter the reference number provided by VFS upon the payment of the application fee and your last name. You can click on submit (or reset if you have entered the wrong reference number or last name) and the status of your application will show up.
2) Track Your Visa Status via SMS
Depending on the visa application centre, you can also check the status of your UK visa via SMS. VFS Global has a system by which individuals waiting for their visa application status from the British High Commission can get instant updates on their application status by subscribing to the SMS service.
Coming at a cost of INR 175, applicants can use the SMS service to get automated messages from the application centre during key stages of their visa application process with the British High Commission. The SMS services are also followed by emails that detail the status of the UK visa application with the British High Commission. To get status of your visa via SMS, send an SMS to 7333 from your mobile number. When you frame the message, type VISA (space) UK (space) PASSPORT NUMBER and send to 7333.
3) Call or Email the British High Commission Office
In case your visa application status does not show any progress even after a long time, you can also email or call the British High Commission. Before doing that, can also use the contact the UK Visa and Immigration authority for help by filing this form. You have to click on find contact details and enter your answer for a series of questions before you are presented with the correct contact point for your query.
You can also call the British High Commission directly for help with your application tracking. Please note that you should call the High Commission at your city or the one nearest to your city. The British High Commission in India has its main office at Shantipath, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110021. To get help over phone, you can dial 011 – 2419 2100 or 011 – 6650 2222. Here are the numbers for other regions – Bengaluru (080 2263 3300), Chandigarh (0172 4925100), Chennai (044 4219 2151), Goa (0832 663 6800), Hyderabad (040 66669147/ 48), Kolkata (03340822200) and Mumbai (022 6650 2222).
How to Know if Your Visa Application for UK Was Successful?
The decision to offer the UK visa to an applicant lies on the British High Commission in India. If your application is successful, the High Commission will email you with the details of the visa. If you gave your Biometric information at the visa application centre, then your passport will be attached with something called a vignette that is a sticker.
If you used the smartphone app to prove your identity, you will get the access to view your immigration status online. The immigration information will have details about the type of visa you have been granted (Work, Student, etc) and the dates until which your visa is valid. It will also include information about the conditions that apply to your visa.
