UK visa

Jacovs

Applying for a UK visa means going through a 3rd party contractor to submit your paperwork and get the biometrics done.
They offer a priority service at an extra cost of €183 (on top of the normal €106 fee for a 6 month visa) that cuts the usual 10-15 days down to 3-5 days.
From everything I read and was told by them this would mean actually having your passport and visa back in 3-5 days.
I've applied early on 15 February using the priority service and hadn't heard anything by close of business 21 February.
There's no phone number or other contact details for this agency anywhere.
The only contact information is for the visa and immigration department in the UK, via email or phone (which costs £1,30 per minute on top of regular charges).
They confirmed to me via the night of 21 February that my visa had already been processed and the agency in Dublin would be in contact when I can collect. I've since emailed them a few more times asking for specific whereabouts of my passport but just get the same scripted unhelpful answer each time.

Tomorrow will be the 9th business day that they have my passport in their possession and I've to travel at 3:20pm for work, which is the reason for the priority visa (applied online the day I was told about this travel arrangements).

Is this the norm? Anyone had better service from them? Any point asking for a refund of the €183 especially if I'm going to miss my flight and business obligations? Considering the service has taken 2-3 times longer than advertised.

Stheno

Are you from outside the EU?

uck51js9zml2yt

visas are normally done through the embassy. why did you use an agency? were are you from?

Jacovs

Stheno wrote: »

Are you from outside the EU?

Yes from outside EU, thus need for UK visa even just for 2 day trip.

Jason Defeated Spaghetti wrote: »

visas are normally done through the embassy. why did you use an agency? were are you from?

No they are not, it is an agency doing visas on behalf of UK embassy in Ireland.
Edit, sorry yes normally, but not for UK.

smurfjed

You will find that there are a lot of countries (Including Ireland) using the services of companies such as VFS for handling their visas. I find them quite annoying as they only fill in boxes in the application and have no control over the actual visa issuance. 
http://www.vfsglobalirelandvisa.com/india//

Jacovs

Yeah the agency in charge of the UK visas is TLScontact. I ended up going to their offices this morning to ask what's the story because they have no contact details.
Turns out my passport has been there a few days but I never got the notification email because one of their agents copied my email address over wrong onto their system.
Delighted and pissed off at the same time.

Doesn't help that any time I contacted UK visa services they could only tell me id be contacted by the agency when it is ready. Which I wasn't.

Tsw2018

I am south African living in Ireland with a stamp 4 eufam card. I will be traveling with my son and daughter who are both Irish. Do I need a visa to visit England?

Jacovs

Tsw2018 wrote: »

I am south African living in Ireland with a stamp 4 eufam card. I will be traveling with my son and daughter who are both Irish. Do I need a visa to visit England?

As far as I am aware, yes you need a UK visa.