responses

responses to my letter published in The News on 20th July 2009.







UK visa woes
Tuesday, July 21, 2009


I can relate completely to M Murad’s letter “UK visa woes” and want to share my own dreadful entanglement with the UK visa process. I have applied for a British visa but meanwhile I came upon a great opportunity to travel to India and Afghanistan on a student exchange programme. I have repeatedly written emails at addresses provided by the Gerry’s call centre to express my urgent need for the return of my passport. Mysteriously slow to respond at first, I was eventually told what to do and mailed a visa application withdrawal form to the visa section of the British High Commission on July 8 but as yet I have not received my passport. Retrieval of one’s passport should be a simple matter. However, I hope some steps are taken soon to address the numerous complaints of visa applicants and take the necessary corrective measures.

M Dost Khan, Islamabad




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This is with reference to the letter by M Murad published in your newspaper on July 18 titled “UK visa woes”. I applied for my student visa on March 5 and was supposed to travel to the UK for summer school at the LSE on July 4. After numerous emails, faxes and a couriered letter to the British High Commission in Abu Dhabi I was told (after more than seven weeks had passed) that there were some biometric errors with my application — something which Ms Murad also faced. Eleven weeks have passed, I had to bare extra financial cost in the form of cancellation charges for residence at the LSE and still there is no clue of where my passport is. I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto and I have to say that I never got such shoddy treatment from the Canadian High Commission. Now all I get from Abu Dhabi is that my application is with the High Commission in Islamabad, and Islamabad staff say my application is still with Abu Dhabi staff. I am literally sick of this and want to seek forgiveness for actually applying to a university in the UK and considering it as a destination for higher education. All I want is for the British High Commission in Islamabad to simply return my passport and forgive me for ever applying!

Qazi Hassan Manzoor, Lahore