Useful Info for VFS Global (Pakistan) Clients

[fsdpk]

Hi all,

I have a personal experience that I feel may help future applicants who are going to apply for a UK visa through VFS Global. Because my experience is limited to a particular centre (Lahore) in Pakistan, so I would avoid generalizing this to all the centres in Pakistan or other countries of the world where VFS Global operates.

No.1 - Print out of Online Tier 4 Application

Although, UKVI clearly says that you do not need take hard copies of the online application to the visa centre, but staff at VFS Global asks you to have this. Applicants following instructions from UKVI website about this particular aspect are then asked to pay PKR.136 per page for printing your application. This means they are charging approximately 14 times more (as normally you have to pay PKR.10 for a page. This is not only costly but also wastes precious time, as you first need to pay at a cash counter, get a receipt, and take this to the internet and printing facility at the centre.

So what is the effective solution? Well, simply bring hard copies of your application with you to avoid wastage of time and high costs.

No.2 - Photograph

Please be advised that no photograph is required when you are applying for Tier 4 visa through VFS Global, it is taken with your bio metrics. This is also a source of confusion for many people, as there are a number of online sources that advise to take photographs.

No. 3 - Document Separators

There is no instructions or information from UKVI about using any document separators for ordering your documents into different categories, e.g. financial, sponsor, additional etc. VFS Global however requires that you organize your documents using the separators provided on their website. I believe many applicants,like myself, do not know about these separators when they are applying independently, i.e. without using services from a consultant or agent.

If you do not have the separators at the time of lodging your application at VFS centre, they charge you PKR.1375, about GBP.10 which is I think too much. These separators are not provided to you, instead they just use them while scanning your documents to be sent to UKVI. So, the price you paid for the separators remain their property you are just provided with a receipt.

This activity also causes inconvenience to you because you are instructed to pay the amount on the cash counter, which sometimes is so busy with long queues.

So the solution to this problems is very obvious, download the separators from VFS Global website and organize your documents according to their type. This will saves you both time and money.

No. 4 - Premium Services

I would highly recommend that do not use any of the premium services because they provide nothing special that you do not get with standard/regular service type.

I hope this information will be useful for applicants applying in the near future, however it is recommended that you carefully check any specific requirements in your own country or location.

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