Ok. Back this afternoon from HCI London With my visas! Yippee.

Well what a performance. After spending nearly five hours trying to get through on the phone to HCI on Monday I finally managed to speak to someone who was very helpful. They assured me that my visa had been done on 26th January but had not been sent out! Very helpful. Anyway, I was told that if I called there Today I could pick it up.

Arrived there at 7 am. Probably 80 or so in front of me. Was told by a courier to go down to the front of the queue as I did not need a q. ticket.
This I did. Got through the door at 8.40 am. and came out at 9 a.m. with my visa!

I spoke to quite a few people whilst I was waiting with many tales of woe! Many had been there on the Tuesday and had got into the hall. By the time their turn came no more visas were being issued and they had to return today. The stories go on and on!!

When I spoke to the chap that gave me my visa I asked him what was going on. He said that that they have had an extraordinary number of applications for visas at the moment and some are taking up to 5-6 weeks to process. Don't ask!!!

Anyway all's well that ends well.

Thanks to you all for your help and words of encouragement and to anyone that was in the very long queue today, I hope you were able to get your visas.

I am now having an early glass of wine to ease the stress of it all!

Happy hols. to you all. I'm off on Tuesday to Calcutta for a week or so then on to Kerala. I'll certainly appreciate this holiday after all the performance!!

Indianaj
I'm really pleased that you're all sorted out with your visa.

Enjoy that glass of wine - and your holiday.

Polly

Thats great AJ you must be so relieved to have your Visas. Have a great time.

Great news AJ.

They don't make life easy do they?!

We live 15 minutes from the CGI in Birmingham but will be posting them for this year. By the time OH has taken an unpaid day off work, got to the CGI, come back, gone up again to collect them and waited in silly queues all day it's not worth the stress.

It's bad you had to go and collect your visa but at least you've got it.

Happy travelling!

Cheers everyone!!

Hi, don't know if I just got lucky but my documents arrived at the Edinburgh Consulate on Monday 29th and according to the date stamp they were both issued and despatched to me yesterday and I got them in the post this morning, so processed and back to me in an amazing 4 days...........I'm well impressed!!

Must admit Scruffyish that is PDQ Its the HCI in Edinburgh we go to as well and its a bit of a shambles (once a month surgery in Glasgow is worse tho!!!)

Yup Gemma33, was totally gobsmacked when they came this morning, having read all the reports regarding the Edinburgh office I had resigned myself to a lengthy wait..................but just goes to show that miracles do sometimes happen

Hi sruffyfish, According to the tracker our visa application was delivered today to the London office and I don't mind if it takes the same time as yours

Alan

my visas arrived at london on the 16th jan and we still havn't recieved them back yet

Bluemoon
The form does say it can take a minimum of 15 working days, so you're still within that.

Ours took just under that time so you may get yours back in the next few days.

When do you go?

Polly

hya ppp we dont go until the 19th but i've never waited this long before, i only booked last week and the tickets arrived within 3days!

Hi bluemoon

Wouldn't have thought it'll be too much longer - our daughters and friends applications arrived at London on the 16th and they both arrived back on the 30th - exactly two weeks. Ours took exactly two weeks too so providing everything was in order, I reckon they'll be with you very shortly.

Sent my visa applications by post to Birmingham arriving on 16 Jan so that'll be three weeks on Tuesday. Tried to ring yesterday (2 Feb) but could not get through, just got a message saying the extension mailbox was full. Don't travel until 8 March but don't like not having passports for too long. Anyone any recent experiences of postal applications to Birmingham?

Having still not received our visas despite trying to get through on the telephone and e-mailing I tried again today by phone. Still got the 'mailbox full' message so rang again and got through to the switchboard. Finally got through to a very helpful chap who said the applications were done and would be with me tomorrow. Finger's crossed

I collected my visas in person last week from HCI in person. Like most I had to que for approx 1 1/2 hours to obtain que number and time. Being unfamiliar with the process like everyone else I waited until the alloted time and my for my que number to be displayed, then waited again for the hour it took to process my visa. Total time 4 1/2 hours.

Having been through this process once if I need to do it again obviously I'd have to wait in line for a que number, then I'd go out for a walk or a coffee until the alloted time. As long as your numbers been called you can approach the desk so you don't have to worry to much about missing your turn and the timings given were fairly acurate. I would also take my self somewhere else for the hour that it takes to process the visa. Once again if the hour's up you can approach the desk. All I'm trying to say is have a bit of faith in the timings given and you won't have to wait in the building needlessly.

Blumoon - has your visa arrived?

red rebel
welcome to the HT forum!