Sopra Steria free appointment slots

[piyush12345]

Hi,
We just paid all the visa and IHS fee, but was surprised to see that for weeks together there is no free appointment at core Croydon location in UKVCAS sopra steria website. It is not even showing the free time slots for that location, whatever slots are being available, they are either before 10 am or after 4 pm, for which they are charging around 170-300 pounds. Has anyone faced the same problem before, if so what is the way out to book free appointment at Core service locations?

In fact UKVi says, you will be able to book an appointment in 5 working days, whereas in Sopra steria, we cant see free appointments for months together.

[CR001]

You and 1000s of others all wanting free appointments. They are the first to go. If you want to wait to get one, you might be waiting a long time.

[piyush12345]

I would flag your language as inappropriate. It’s not courteous.

[charli]

Hi,
We just paid all the visa and IHS fee, but was surprised to see that for weeks together there is no free appointment at core Croydon location in UKVCAS sopra steria website. It is not even showing the free time slots for that location, whatever slots are being available, they are either before 10 am or after 4 pm, for which they are charging around 170-300 pounds. Has anyone faced the same problem before, if so what is the way out to book free appointment at Core service locations?

In fact UKVi says, you will be able to book an appointment in 5 working days, whereas in Sopra steria, we cant see free appointments for months together.

Hi,
Last week I submitted my biometrics at the same location. I faced the same issue. Free appointments were not available. I booked an appointment for £75 (late evening on weekdays). I felt like, after paying thousands of pounds on visa's what else I will loose with £75. I agree this is inappropriate from Home Office but our voice will be unheard.

[lolo2]

It's very hard to find free appointments. I was lucky enough to find one at the UKVCAS centre in Croydon on 7 January for the 9, two days after I accessed the website. But that's a very rare case according to what I've seen.

As per the previous post, if we pay thousands of pounds for our applications, anything can't deter us to pay some extra quids for an appointment. In an ideal world, there would be more free appointments available but it's not the case, unfortunately.