Sleeper

You are correct - All postal applications should be submitted to the Hayes address.

Sleeper:
Don't forget to sign & date your application and make a note of:
your passport number
your application reference number (14 characters, I think)
your outward SDE reference (if applicable)
your return SDE reference (if applicable)

Regards

dave's wife & Prettypollycat

Thank you very much for the prompt and helpful replies.

All going swimmingly until I put wrong post code on the return SDE ......blast another trip to post office!

As a famous line goes "what a plonker"

sleeper

With the postal dispute you would be better paying vfs to return your passport, its only around £2 more and they use a private courier DX who text you with delivery info

Hi Silentman
That's a good point, although the downside of having your documents returned by courier is that if you're not in, instead of popping down to your local sorting office to collect them you'll have to make alternative arrangements for them to re-deliver - might be a bit of a problem if you're at work.

And, Royal Mail are treating Special Delivery as a priority during any strike action, although I think they've suspended the delivery time guarantee.

I guess it depends which method suits you, but it's worth thinking about, sleeper.

I have printed off our application forms and it doesn't show who issued the passport (UKPA or IPS), it just shows NA. I know I put UKPA, so why didn't it print it off? In fact it didn't ask me who issued my passport, but I did put GBR for where issued on both of them. Should I cross off the NA and put UKPA on my partner's form and IPS on mine?

I am also having a panic attack of our photographs. We had them taken yesterday in WHSmith; we checked that the area behind us was white, but the pictures have printed off with a sort of grey/white background. Will this be acceptable to the visa people?

I don't want to have to go and have another set taken because we went into Snappy Snapz yesterday who said that for an Indian Visa photo they would want £12.99 for 4. We walked out shortly after hearing that.

I put ukpa and issued in uk on our applications and it printed that off. I made another mistake though and went back online went to modify option and changed it and then printed new ones off to send in signed .Our passport photos had an off white light grey background so should be ok! Good luck!

Thank you Winterpansy. I feel better now.

I don't understand why it printed GBR for place of issue and NA for Issuing authority. I assume it is because it is UKPA for my partner and IPS for me and it didn't like it. I just crossed through the NA and wrote in the correction and signed it of course. Now, I am worrying that the signature next to my correction and the signature at the bottom of the form are slightly different.

I have earned a glass of wine and a lie down with lavender water dabbed on my temples.

I am usually so good at filling in forms, except each year when I prepare the India visa form, when I become so stressed I develop palpitations. It could be due to the fact that a few years ago we had our applications returned as we didn't realise that cheques were no longer accepted as payment. We were really close to our holiday and we only had a few days to go before we finally received our passports back.

Just received my passports back! Took one week sent Monday got them Friday!

Roll on Dec 28th!

I know sydney its really stressful they returned ours last year over not signing our teenage sons (he signed it) we had to resend them .
S o i went through with a fine tooth comb this year! should be getting ours tomorrow as it says on friday eve on vsf 'processed applications given to royal mail ' but they didnt deliver round here on sat as usual -coz of strikes!!

Not sure if this has been posted too many postings on this to trawl through

If you select the VFS's return envelope they are using DX to return them, you can select a different address to have them returned ie. your work address. Also when Ive used DX at work in the past they email or text you and let you know when they are delivering you should get a reference number that you can use on their website to change the delivery date or give a different address.

visa arrived today just 1 week from posting much better this year than previous def the option to go for i think even with the post strike

Postal Strike........what strke???
6 days from post until return. That's a record in all the years iv'e been applying.
Seems like the new online system works.

hi all, hanyone else having trouble with the online visa application? When I get to the 'VAF Details' page, I press submit & it doesn't go through, it says 'Your visa may not cover proposed travel dates' at the top of the page!

Bit puzzled any help appreciated

I sent our applications off on Monday and have just gone onto the VFS website which states that our passports are with the Royal Mail. I was so surprised I called them (I was on hold only for a short time) to make sure they weren't just returning the passports because we made a mistake. A very nice man said that there were no problems. If they arrive tomorrow, then I think that is the quickest turnaround we have ever had.

Sydney

That's very impressive. I sent ours on Maonday but I just get a "Your application is under process effective 04-Nov-2009.Please bear in mind the minimum processing times before calling the visa centre"

Fingers still crossed.

Sydney

Snap I posted ours on Monday and now it says thay are with royal mail, must be the quickest ever.

Maria

Ours took 4days 1hour...sent 10am on 27th,returned 11am on 31st. really impressed with them this year.

Got them back Posted Monday 5pm back Friday 09.00 excellent service this year.

Maria