Fees for UK visas soon
The National, Tuesday March 4th, 2014
UNITED Kingdom visa applicants in PNG will be expected to pay a fee from March 24 and the visa service will be on a limited number of days per year.
The fee of K205 will be charged when booking a visa application appointment and will cover the cost of providing the application submission facilities.
Travellers taking a short tourist or business trip will not be affected by this as these visits do not require a visa.
This follows a global review and restructure of the UK Visas and Immigration services to increase the number of visa application points and improve overall services through commercial partner contracts.
The UK Visa and Immigration services commercial partner VFS Global already operates most of the visa application centres in the Asia-Pacific region. It will still operate at the British High Commission in Port Moresby.
The user-pay fee enables customers to continue to have access to a local service which would otherwise not be affordable.
This new service is in line with the UK’s new global model of charging in areas with a low volume of travellers to ensure customers continue to have a convenient option.