TLS, the sole company issuing UK visas in South Africa, is again under the spotlight, with agents and consumers reporting their dissatisfaction. The complaints are similar to those reported in June 2021. Read here.
Some of the complaints revolve around the fact that clients complete the online visa application process (and pay across their visa fee plus TLS’s fee), but nowhere does the process red-flag the client to let them know that UK tourist visas are not currently being issued at all in South Africa. (South Africa is on the UK’s red list – only visas for special residence categories and study are being granted to travellers from South Africa, who have to endure an expensive, 10-day hotel quarantine on entering. Most travel agents know this, but many consumers do not.)
Other complaints stem from the extra fee of R1 300 for clients who want to retrieve their passport before the visa process is complete. Needing to retrieve a passport isn’t an unlikely event, given that applications could have been resting with TLS for 17 months.
The owner of a visa-processing company in the Eastern Cape (Company A) told Travel News that she had submitted a client’s passport and application for a tourist visa in March 2020 as the UK went into lockdown and formulated its travel traffic light system. The visa has still not been issued and the passport is still with TLS. TLS requires a fee of R1 300 to be paid before they will release a passport prior to visa submission. “It is my experience that not all clients are aware the Consulate are not issuing these visas when they apply online and that the British Consulate will not issue tourist visas until South Africa is removed from the UK red list.”
Anil Varkey, manager of XL Plettenberg Bay Travel, told Travel News that he had applied for two UK tourist visas. “The first application was for a client intending to travel in June 2021. We applied for the visa in December 2020 and the client paid for a ten-year visa,” said Anil. “I have been trying to follow up for months on the progress of the visa. My client eventually got hold of TLS and was told the visa was in process and TLS could not give client a time frame.” His second visa application was based on compassionate grounds; the applicant’s mother in the UK was ill. “All documents were submitted in December 2020 and the visa was eventually approved in July 2021, by which time mandatory hotel quarantine was in place in the UK and my client could not afford the hotel stay,” he said.
The owner of Company A said TLS should have a default on its website to reject applications or payment for UK tourist visas until the situation changes. “Clients are desperate to travel. Many South Africans have family in the UK and they go online, fill in the application and the system accepts their application and their payment. They expect that, in view of the payment being accepted, the visa will be processed. Unfortunately, they do not read the fine print.”
TLScontact’s head of communications and marketing, Lucy Saint-Antonin told Travel News that after liaising with her South African colleagues she could confirm that TLScontact centres in South Africa did continue to accept all UK visa applications. ”As South Africa is still on the UK government red list, UK Visas & Immigration have paused issuing visitor visas at the current time. This is clearly stated on our website and on the gov.uk website. Visitor visas are only valid for six months, so issuing any such visa while South Africa remains on the red list would mean that an applicant might not actually be able to use it to travel to the UK before it expired.”
Also, it seems there is no point in trying to put in a visa application in the interim, just so it is ‘first on the pile’ when the UK Government starts issuing once more, as it is now quite apparent there will be an enormous backlog of visa applications to be accepted and paid for.
Lucy could not comment on how the backlog of applications would be managed once visa issuance began. “This is a matter for our client, UK Visas & Immigration, however at TLScontact we will obviously do everything we can to facilitate the process.”
Subsequent to the journalist’s enquiries with TLScontact’s communications and marketing department, the front pages of the company’s website for each centre in South Africa have all had a prominent orange banner added, warning the user of the UK red list and of the fact that UK tourist visas are paused, and directing them to the website gov.uk.
