The Home Office’s multi-year project to transfer overseas UK Visa Application Centres (VACs) from TLScontact to VFS Global is entering its final stretch, and immigration advisors are warning travellers and HR teams to double-check appointment details after a bulletin published today by consultancy Five Star International highlighted common pain-points. The switchover, which began in September 2024, is now live across most of Africa, the Middle East and mainland Europe and is scheduled to finish early next year. While core visa rules and processing times remain unchanged, applicants may start an application on the older TLS portal only to finish it with VFS – a recipe for missed e-mails and duplicate “user-pay” booking fees if vigilance slips. Key practical changes include new confirmation e-mails from @vfsglobal.com addresses and revised document-upload procedures. In countries where VFS has taken over, applicants who booked through TLS but have not yet uploaded supporting evidence must pay for assisted scanning at the VFS centre on the day. Mobility managers are advised to white-list VFS domains, budget for possible re-booking charges, and brief employees on different in-centre biometrics workflows. The Home Office says the move will cut average passport-collection times to 20 minutes and expand the network of “on-demand” mobile visa clinics, but early feedback from corporates points to teething issues around customer-service hotlines and refund requests. Companies with high volumes of Tier 2/Skilled-Worker and Visitor visa traffic should audit pending applications this week to ensure data migrate smoothly and travel dates are not jeopardised.
Source: Five Star International
