ZIMBABWEANS intending to secure visas to travel to the United Kingdom (UK) will now find it cumbersome following the announcement of a new application process by the British embassy requiring applicants to pay application fees online.
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The British embassy in Harare on Monday announced that visa applications would now be done online and payment made by debit cards. Most Zimbabweans use hard cash and have no access to MasterCards, credit or debit cards.
“With this change it is now mandatory that UK visa customers pay for their visa fee online by MasterCard or visa credit or debit card,” the embassy said in a statement on its website.
“The move to online application and payments will deliver a streamlined application process and is consistent with a wider global trend to online transactions and payments. This brings our application process in Zimbabwe in line with the rest of Southern Africa, where online applications have been in place for some time.”
According to the statement, Zimbabweans will no longer have to queue at the embassy to apply for a visa, but would just need to visit the website www.Visa4UK.fco.gov.uk to apply online and for an appointment time.
However, the embassy also introduced a priority visa that would be processed within five working days, unlike the 15 working days required to process a normal visa, a move that would impact positively on Zimbabwean businessman who want to visit Britain.
“The priority visa service will take five working days to process at a cost of £100 ($170) compared to the 15 working days processing of the normal visa. It is hoped that this will impact positively on our business customers.”
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Previously, people had to wait for close to three weeks to get visas to travel to the UK where some Zimbabweans fled to from the economic meltdown from year 2000.
The new application system, according to the statement, would meet the requirements of the UK government’s digital by default initiative and would help cut costs in the management of the visa operation, and help in keeping the fees down.
