I finally received my biometric booking letter last Friday. But when I thought the worst was over, the real drama began when I tried to book an appointment to enrol my wife and daughters Biometric on the UKBA system. There are no post offices offering the service in or near Cardiff where we live and the only option for us is using the Cardiff PEO.
I made countless attempts to book the appointment online, but the system kept indicating there are no appointments at the Cardiff PEO if I include a dependant. However, when I tried without highlighting the dependant’s icon, it brought up a list of appointment dates from the 4th of April. I then selected the earliest possible dates and tried to make a booking, the computer system kept indicating it does not recognised the case reference number I entered even though I entered the exact number issued by the UKBA many times over.
I first made a phone call to the UKBA and an unhelpful lady at the other end told me she could not make a booking on phone and instead asked me to email their IT department at (
applyonlinee-support@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk) to inform them if issues with the system. I found this very strange indeed. Would it not have been easier for her to arrange to pass the information to the IT department? I decided to send the same email to the email address provided on the biometric booking letter (
appointmentexceptions@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk) and received a response late yesterday informing that the request have been passed on to the Cardiff POE who will contact me. A few minutes later I received a text message from the Cardiff POE with the appointment booked for next Monday.
Worryingly, I discovered since last Friday that the closes Post Offices to us offering the service are in London or Birmingham. That kept me thinking, why introduce a system in a rush when you do not have the resources in place to deal with its implementation. Is it reasonable or fair to expect applicants to travel all the way from Cardiff to Birmingham or London to enrol their biometric details? The Jury is still out!