Last Friday and today I have been busy sorting out the family members that require British visas for our upcoming trip. After doing the French visas last month I at least had an open mind to the hidden costs, but nothing prepared me for this.
The standard British visa application is £43 and was expected because we were not doing the special vip service. If you do not pre book an appointment online and just arrive that is an extra £32 so they would hit you for £75.
The French allowed you to the load the documents online whilst booking your appointment but the British do not. The scanning of the documents loading on to their system is another R700 or £30 so just adding the the standard fee this is now £73. The hidden costs is what gets you and
Here is the real scam though because the vip service is basically the standard service except the courier will deliver your passport back to your home address. That fee is a staggering £500 and was blown away due to knowing the costs being a max of around £30 for that service directly with DHL.
£500 is more than the return airfare and why this cost does not make much sense besides someone profiteering. If they offered this service for an extra £40 then I am sure more people would be tempted, but £500 is absurd and is a rip off.
Living in a country where the exchange rate is R23 to £1 these costs are not in sync with the local economy and one would have to have money to even consider travelling abroad. Thankfully I earn GBP otherwise this would be a cost I was not prepared for. The 4 British visas have cost me close to £300 and if you throw in the French visas that is another £150 totaling £450.
There are very few businesses out there that have a captured client base with no competition dealing with these types of numbers like this. If you need a visa you have no choice and they are the company you have to use.
This visa business is a definite money printer and it should not be designed like this. I would love to get my hands on this tender even though I am sure it is protected, but will definitely be hunting seeing when it is up for renewal. It most likely will not be tendered however and why it is protected. This is a proper business and could be far better than what is being offered now without the need to rip people off. We shall see as this is going up against a billion dollar business and chances are slim to no chance, but you never know unless you try.
People have seen to become accustomed to extra expenses over and above what they were used to which is kind of crazy and scary all at the same time. Knowing the costs and how much profit these visa agency businesses are making is mind blowing and this in my view should never be the case because they are taking advantage. This should be a service as it is a must have service for those wanting to travel ad why I fell it should never be about profiteering. Imagine justifying charging £30 for scanning documents as you cannot justify that.
The company behind the visas is TLS Contact which was formed in 2000 and now provides visa services for 92 countries. Check these figures out for how lucrative this business is with a turnover of $358.6 million back in 2021. You would like to think countries around the world using their services would double check the fees that are being charged because they are the face of the country.
