UK providing visit visas within 15 days to travellers from India: Envoy

The UK is now providing visit visas to travellers from India within 15 days of receiving applications, British High Commissioner Alex Ellis said on Friday.

At the same time, he said a small number of trickier cases take longer time.

"Two months ago, I said that our aim was by the end of the year to be turning around visit visas from India to the UK within our standard time of 15 working days. The great news is that the team has now achieved it through fantastic work here in Delhi and across the whole visa network," Ellis said in a short video clip that he posted on Twitter.

"There are still a few cases which take longer, the very complex ones and that's right that they do," he added.

The high commissioner described quicker visa processing as "good news".

"You can of course use the priority visa channel if you still want. We are turning that around within five days. And finally we have a big intake of student visas for the student session starting in January of next year," he said.

The high commissioner also urged the Indian students wanting to pursue studies in the UK to apply for visas soon.

"Please apply as quickly as you can because there is a lot of demand and for everyone applying for visas, make sure that you provide the right information," he said.

In a reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said 1,20,987 Indian students have gone to the UK for studies until October this year.

"According to the information registered with the Bureau of Immigration, while in 2019, 36,612 Indian students went to the UK, this number went up to 44,901 in 2020 and 77,855 in 2021," he said.

"The Government of India keeps itself abreast of all issues which may affect the well-being of Indians abroad, particularly the students. The government is not aware of any ban being contemplated by the Government of the UK," he added.