Visit of the New York Visa Section Officer

February 18th, 2010:

Since January 2008 the visa application process to visit the United Kingdom is being performed by the British Consulate in New York and a short time ago, Mrs. Hannah Bakehouse, who is the Entry Clearance Manager for Dominican Republic and other neighbouring countries at the British General Consulate in New York (this could be translated as the Visa Section Chief), visited our country.

This was a trip to get acquainted and she took this opportunity to get together with individuals and institutions with ties to the United Kingdom or frequent visitors to the United Kingdom so as to explain to them how the new system works and to listen to their concerns and opinions as to how to improve this process.

Mrs Bakehouse reaffirmed that the full application process for those that don’t require additional information is simple and all the information can be clearly read at the following webpage www.visainfoservices.com. Applications and appointments are made via the Internet. Once the documents have been deposited, the complete process takes around 15-20 days.

Among the different suggestions offered by Mrs. Bakehouse in different meetings are:

1. Those parties interested in requesting visas to do so with plenty of time. Visa applications can be presented up to three months before the expected visit date to the United Kingdom.
2. The best season to apply for visas is February-May since those dates are not peak tourist season. Please take into account that a large number of persons visit the United Kingdom and other European countries for holiday in the summer and this makes visa appointment programming to capture biometric data fill up rather quickly.
3. You can request Business visas valid for more than 2 years to provide flexibility to businessmen and executives with commercial relations with the United Kingdom.
4. The British Chamber of Commerce can issue a reference communication to those members with their membership current to attach it to the application form. This will help you expedite your business visa application.