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Australia February 9, 2011 – The current visa application centre in Colombo will now be shared by UK Border Agency and Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship. This was according to media release from February 8 by the British High Commission.

To obtain UK or Australian visas, applicants can now call over at the Visa Application Centre (VAC) located at the Access Towers (level 5) in Union Place, Colombo 2. Both parties (Australia and UK) have agreed to share a number of visa application centres. This also applies to biometric collection facilities that are used worldwide. Australia is now beginning to collect biometric data from its visa applicants. This agreement of two countries is already in place in other locations.

However, the approval of this agreement by both parties does not necessarily change the way in which UK applicants submit their visa application – and so with its biometrics at the VAC. Take note that there is no change to the process by which the UK Border Agency makes decision on all the visa applications coming from UK.

As part of this initiative, applicants’ personal information and biometric will maintain its restriction and will not be shared. The information from two different countries such as the information of Australian visa applicants and information of UK visa applicants will be stored and processed separately. In accordance with relevant data protection and privacy laws, the British High Commission said that all customers’ information will continue to be protected to the highest standards.

The joint visa application centre in Colombo will still be operated by VFS Global Ltd. Likewise, the same level of customer service will still be enjoyed by the customers and there will be enough capacity for UK and Australian applicants.
Mark Gooding, the acting British High Commissioner said that they will remain committed in continuing to provide an efficient and high standard visa service for all the customers.

source:
sundayobserver.lk