MIRPUR (Kashmir English): Concerns are growing among visa applicants in Mirpur for unfair additional charges imposed by Visa Facilitation Services (VFS) and unjust visa refusals.
Faisal Manzoor, former President of the Mirpur Chamber of Commerce & Industry, has formally raised these issues in a letter addressed to the British High Commissioner in Islamabad, Jane Marriott, urging immediate action.
The letter alleged that an additional amount of £150 has been charged by VFS, aka Gerry’s, under the pretext of security concerns in Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), terming it as an unfair burden on applicants.
However, Faisal argued that Mirpur has a lower crime rate than major Pakistani cities like Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad, making this fee unjustified. Furthermore, no security threats have been reported by VFS since its establishment in Mirpur, he wrote.
In addition to that, the letter stated another pressing issue of frequent failures of Gerry’s Visa’s online appointment booking system.
“Despite successful payment deductions from applicants’ bank accounts, the system fails to generate appointments, forcing individuals to reapply and pay again,” Manzoor said in a letter, adding that when asked for a refund, UKVI and VFS offer partial refunds and refuse to pay 14 per cent bank transaction tax, due to which the applicants are losing millions.
Moreover, the applicants have also raised concerns about unfair visa refusals by Entry Clearance Officers (ECOs), particularly regarding the origin of funds in bank statements, the letter stated.
Despite providing legitimate documents including business tax returns, salary slips, and employment letters, many applications are being rejected, it wrote, adding that cash deposits, a common financial practice in Pakistan, are often disregarded by ECOs, leading to unfair denials.
Moreover, nowadays, visa officers posted at the British Embassy are rejecting a large number of applicants by raising unfair objections on visa applications. Since the right of appeal is not being given on UK visit visas, crores of rupees are also being wasted by the applicants in the form of visa fees, and such decisions have led many to perceive this process as discriminatory, it added.
In his letter, Faisal Manzoor urges UK authorities to review the VFS fee structure, fix the faulty online booking system, and ensure transparency in visa decisions. He also calls on the British High Commission to guide ECOs on properly assessing financial evidence in line with Pakistani banking norms.
