We are a progressive socio-cultural organisation of the Indian community in the UK with over 25 branches and hundreds of members. We are dedicated to serving our people and have always taken up and strived to resolve the various issues faced by our immigrant community.
We write to bring to your Excellency’s attention the difficulty faced by the British passport holders of Indian origin due to the delay in reinstating the eVisa facilities for the British nationals. Due to the pandemic, many in our diaspora could not visit their families back home in India. Now, when international travel is resuming, it is unfair not to reinstate the eVisa facility for British passport holders. This should be taken in the context that the eVisa facility has been reinstated already for 156 countries, including the EU, USA and Canada.
We have had several people in our community who had family emergencies in India and have not been able to travel sooner due to the difficulty in obtaining regular visas as they cannot get appointments. It takes over a week to get one. The emergency visa also costs £183 plus travel expenses to the High Commission. It is causing a lot of inconveniences, like child care issues and time-off work to visit the High Commission.
It is a fact that many Indian children, particularly newborns, don’t currently have an OCI as it takes over 12 weeks to obtain an OCI following application. Due to the lack of good appointments in England, people are even forced to travel to other cities like Belfast to make an application, which adds to the total costs of obtaining visa due to additional flight costs.
It has also been brought to our attention that apart from the visa fees and travel costs, some agents are also charging exorbitant sums of monies for completing the application and getting appointments. The visa cost for a family of four now ranges between £600 -£800, whereas an eVisa would have cost just £80. As the school holidays are starting next week in the UK, it has become a rather bleak situation for India origin people with a British passport.
We urge your Excellency to immediately take this matter to the highest level and reinstate the eVisa without further delay.

Yours sincerely,
National Secretary,
Sameeksha UK.