VFS concerns

[conelize]

Hi, my partner is applying for a fiancee visa to join me in the UK and we had some concerns about the VFS and their level of confidentiality/reliability.

The situation is, my partner is from Bahrain which is an Islamic country and she has ties to the Sunni royal family there. She wants to leave the country and join me in the UK where we will get married. As I am not only a westerner, but a non-Muslim this is severly looked down upon in her home country and she wants to keep it from her family and friends as if anyone found out it could have severe consequences for her safety and personal freedom. At the very least her family would force her to stay in the country and wouldn't let her leave. In Bahrain all visa applications go through VFS (where the applications are passed to the UKBA in Abu Dhabi) and at the VFS office most of the staff who work there are Shi'ite women and anyone who has seen the news will know that the Sunnis and Shi'ite's hate each other with a passion and she may be overreacting but is worried about applying through them.

Personally I would think that for the UKBA to deal with VFS they must have extremely high levels of confidentiality and reliability, but was wondering if anyone know much about their processes, how involved they are with the visa processing, how safe it is to deal with them etc. Is there any way to bypass the VFS and send the application, biometrics and paperwork directly to the UKBA or should I not be worried?

Many thanks

[mulderpf]

VFS isn't involved in processing the visa application whatsoever. They simply collect the documents (and do a check while the person is there to make sure that something obvious isn't missing) and then the package is sealed and sent to the diplomatic post. When the package is returned, it is completely sealed and the only person who is allowed to open it is the person collecting it. VFS has no input, no say, no processing and nothing else to do with the application other than facilitating getting it to the embassy / diplomatic post.

You cannot deal with the post directly, you have to go via VFS, but it's should be no different than dealing with the post office or a courier company.

[conelize]

Wonderful!

Thank you very much.