Thanks silentman. I'll definitely take your advice and have a good read. Thank You.

Got ours today, posted them last monday 26th Jan after a few problems reported in earlier thread.

BBD its a great feeling to get them back Im so pleased for you ...when is it you go wish it was me going ........colleen

Got visas back for 4 others travelling with us, 10 day turnaround so not a bad service, just wish it wasn't always left up to me to sort the app forms out.. and the hotel.. and the flights
Now.. I must sort out the mini bus to the airport this week...
Spike.

I knust how you feel Spike!!!!
still its all worth it in the end eh!!
chilly

Thanks Colleen we go 17th Feb from Heathrow with Kingfisher, thought we would try the scheduled route this time.

9 days and counting

Hi Goa Lovers,
Can I ask a quick question?
I sent my application for a visa off, last monday evening, to arrive the next day, filled it all in correctly etc and with all the right bits and pieces. Ive just checked on its status and it still says an application has been created 2nd feb. Can I ask how long they have taken lately? It's just I need my passport for work on Friday,,,ooerr cutting it close I know, but it's the only time I could have sent it off.
Thanks all.
BTC

We got ours back today.Took 11 days in all, from posting to receipt. Mind you I did post on a Fri so the weekend arrival to them would have affected the total time. That was through London.
Good luck Butterchickengirl I hope yours will arrive soon.
Gail

i sent mine on the 27th jan, recieved them this morning. thanks for all who helped. now i can relax, roll on the 2nd march.

I sent mine off on 30th January to BIrmingham, but unfortuantely I got it returned to me on 5 February as I signed my full name on the form and my passport only had by Initial and Surname. I posted it off again Saturday 7th February and the online status is showing as passed to Birmingham High Commision on 11 February, so hoping everything is now OK.
It is annoying that it has cost me another £10.10 for second lot of Special Delivery postage. ( I enclosed a return envelope).
It was so much easier last time I went sending the form to London, it took me ages to fill the online application in and I am fairly IT literate.
I will post again when I receive my passport back.
Can't wait till March 28th then will have 21 days in Goa.

It also took me ages to fill in the on line form and usually I don't mind doing this sort of thing. It's not very user friendly. It's interesting that they pay so much attention to the signature. To be honest I didn't even compare the signatures on our forms with the ones on our passports.(They must have been the same as we had no probs.) I think there was someone else on here had their passports returned for the same reason. It's a point worth remembering for the future. They're dear enough wihout having to pay twice for the SDEs
Val1946 I hope you get yours back soon.
Gail

visa agencies

Can anyone reccomend an agency/service that can do the visa thing?
Going tom Goa 21 March and cannot get to B'ham

cheers

Hi Bramble123,
it depends where you live. We live in Bradford so plenty of Asian Travel Agents who do a good courier service. Me & Hubby did ours on line, no probs, got them back in 10 days. My sister & hubby didn't trust it and paid an extra £30 each at SM Travel in Bradford, just turned up with passports, fotos and money. The agent filled in the forms for them and returned them the same day as we got ours back.
I'm sure that there will be this type of service almost everywhere in the UK now if you are willing to pay for it.
4 weeks on Saturday and counting!!!!!!!

Well, it looks like I will get my passport back either tomorrow (but don't know whether they delver Special Delivery on a Saturday) or Monday, as I checked the status of my application and it shows that it was posted back to me today (13 February).

My passport arrived back this morning (from Birmingham), so it has only taken a week, as I posted off last Saturday (7 February). It has just been annoying that the first time I sent everything odd, they returned it because they considered the signature on the form (which I had signed with my full name) differed from that on my passport (which was initial and surname).

I now have six weeks (and counting down) till I fly out from Manchester. Can't wait for some sunshine.

Hi, We have just booked to go to South Goa Arossim in April. I have completed the visa application by hand but reading some of the posts it seems I cant do this now.

Do I complete it on line, print off the copies and post with the photos and passports and 2 SDEs and postal order?
The fee is 30 for a tourist visa, is the VFS service charge of £8.40 included or extra and if so is it per visa?

I want to make sure that I do it right as its not long before we go now.

It is worth reading through all the posts in this thread, because people have added helpful information.

You complete the application form online (and then print off a copy), you can also pay your fee online (it works out how much this is). The website also shows you which Visa application centre you need to send your application too (it all depends where in the country you live).

When you sign the form make sure it matches the signature on your passport (mine got sent back to me for this and had to resubmit). Send off and your passport and the signed form with the 2 passport photos and enclose a SDE envelope. According to the website they will only put a maximum of 2 passports in each SDE envelope to return to you.

Once you have sent the passport off, you can check the status of the visa (it worked ok for me - I knew from the post office the day they had received my application and a couple of days afterwards it tracked as having been taken to high commission to attach the visa), but in other posts it said the tracking hadn't worked for them, but they got their passports back ok.

OK Thanks, will have a go now and fingers crossed it will go through ok!

Make sure you make a note of your passport numbers to enable you to track them on VFS - without them you will be unable to do so.