Several UK visa application centres to be closed 3 & 5 February 2012

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UK immigration has announced that a number of UK visa application centres around the world will be unable to take biometric information on certain days in February due to IT upgrades.

During the major IT maintenance work on the specific dates, visa applicants will not be able to submit UK visa applications. The centres will remain open for the collection of documents at the usual times.

On Friday 03 February 2012, the following UK visa application centres will be unable to process biometric information: Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkey, Gaza, Kazakhstan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, China, Indonesia, Brunei, Japan, Morocco, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, South Korea, Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Application centres in a number of major cities will also be affected on 03 February including Madrid, Spain; Jerusalem, Israel; Rome, Italy and Paris, France.

On Sunday 05 February 2012 the following UK visa application centres will be unable to process biometric information: Iraq, Jordan, Bangladesh, and Egypt.

"We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. If you have a genuinely urgent or compassionate need to travel please contact our visa information service," said a UK Border Agency spokesman.

In addition to this, beginning 30 January 2012 all applications for a UK visa submitted in Georgia, Turkey, Jordan and Hong Kong must be paid for online in US Dollars.

UK immigration has also introduced a priority visa service in Ukraine and Thailand. The priority visa service will allow eligible visa applicants to pay an additional fee to have their visa application processed ahead of others.

Also, the visa application centres in Panama, Guatemala and Belize have closed. This means UK Visa applicants in Guatemala, Belize, and Panama will now need to use the monthly biometric clinic in Panama City or visit the visa application centre in Bogota, Columbia to submit their biometric information. Also, applicants from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua will need to go to Bogota as well as there are no UK visa application centres in these countries.

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