Following an article about UK visa application delays entitled ‘Pay back the Money’ (https://www.travelnews.co.za/article/pay-back-money), which was published on Travel News last week, TLScontact has responded with further information about UK visa processing.
“Most UK visas are actually being processed at the current time: all long-stay visas for settlement, family reunion, work, study etc. However, as South Africa is currently on the UK red list, no non-essential travel is allowed and no visit visas are currently being processed. UK Visas and Immigration are considering compassionate applications and, in some instances, it is possible to seek an exemption,” said TLScontact head of communication and marketing, Lucy Saint-Antonin.
Lucy also directed Travel News readers to a news update that had been posted on TLScontact’s website two weeks ago, advising that while all types of visa applications were being accepted, the issuance of visit visas in red list locations had been paused whilst travel bans remained in place.
“Travellers may wish to take this into consideration when deciding whether to submit a visit visa application from a red list location,” states TLScontact’s recent update.
“The information relating to red list countries and visit visas is available on our website and on the gov.uk website. We unfortunately have no visibility on when South Africa might be removed from the red list,” said Lucy.
However, the UK’s ban on the entry of travellers originating in South Africa was initially introduced on December 24. The Hermanus-based ITC, who raised concerns about TLScontact’s service delivery, continues to insist that she was not advised by TLScontact that UK tourist visas were not being issued when she applied for her visa in February and paid across more than R4 000.
Responding to why TLScontact was not refunding passengers whose visas had not been processed, Lucy explained that the company did not take payment for UK visa fees, as these were paid directly to UK Visas and Immigration. “Any refund requests for UK visas fees need to be submitted via https://www.gov.uk/cancel-visa,” she explained.
The ITC who blew the whistle, told Travel News she was not given a refund for her TLS service and courier fees, despite non-delivery of service.
Lucy responded: “As we understand, in this case, we provided the biometric enrolment service as part of this client’s application process. Their visa application will be processed by UK Visas and Immigration once South Africa is removed from the red list. For any additional services purchased and not actually used, such as our passport courier return service a refund is obviously possible and can be requested via a dedicated section on our website (https://pos.tlscontact.com/cpt_en/contact-form?type=refund).”
“This option was also not offered to me when I retrieved my passport from TLScontact months after submitting my visa application,” said the ITC. “Instead, I was advised that I would have to pay them again if I removed my passport from the tourist visa application queue and resubmitted it at a later stage. I feel that TLScontact has lost sight that visa applicants are their customers, not the UK government, and that their customers are entitled to be provided with professional service levels and clear communication.”
A number of other agents took to Travelinfo’s Facebook Open Jaw platform to complain about communication issues around visa applications.
“Three weeks ago, when I submitted a visa application, I was told by TLScontact in Cape Town that they were issuing visas, but I am now being told that the visas have been delayed due to the travel ban,” alleged another agent on Open Jaw.
