Come March 5, 2012, and those keen on acquiring British visas, and applying for the same from the country of Fiji, will be urged to bring to fruition application forms, via the Internet. Reportedly, the United Kingdom is coming up with certain changes to further improve its visa services in Fiji, even as this includes systemizing the whole procedure of the filing of the application, and shifting the process involving visa decision-making to Manila, the Philippines — the visa centre of the Border Agency of Britain.

Prior to submitting their applications, and furnishing the biometric data, it is mandatory for the visa candidates from Fiji to get an appointment online, for the object of attending the visa application centre at the Suva based British Consular Office. Payment of an extra fee of $28 has to be deposited by such aspirants, for the purpose of paying for their application, to be sent to Manila, for processing purposes.

The said fee is meant for the purpose of covering the expenditure of sending across the application form to the involved visa centre, and returning the passport back to the British Consular Office in Suva, for collection purposes. The Border Agency of the UK is optimistic that it would process as much as 90% of the non-settlement visas within a period of 15 working days and 95% of the settlement visas inside a period of 12 weeks.

Meanwhile, a concerned person was quoted as saying that the changes under discussion were component of a bigger development by the Border Agency of the nation to systemize and develop the application and procedure related to decision-making for the Fiji and Asia Pacific based clients. He added that the application forms for 10 other nations were being processed at the Manila based visa centre.