The British High Commission in Zambia has announced new VISA application Services that will require applicants to pay an additional 59 British Pounds for service charges.
Announcing the changes at a media briefing in Lusaka this morning, British High Commissioner, James Thornton disclosed that the embassy through the customer service company Teleperformance has subcontracted Fedex to start processing VISA applications on behalf of the embassy.
Mr. Thornton said with the changes in VISA application, new VISA priority services will cost an additional charge of 100 British Pounds.
He added that with the new changes, the embassy will target processing 90 percent of non-settlement VISA applications within 15 working days and 98 percent within six weeks.
Apart from the new premises for VISA application located at Corporate Park, the offer of the priority service and the new charge, VISA application process remains the same as before.
Mr. Thornton further told Journalists that the recent problems Zambia had been experiencing with regards the online application system was due overloading, and has since been resolved after the capacity of the system was substantially increased.
[QFM]
Why is the word “Visa” in uppercase letters?
What this means is that Zambia has been reclassified as troubled nation where if people live for the UK they would never return. In short Zambia has now become an immigration high risk nation and the British immigration will tighten the visa regime.
All this is happening because of SATA and his useless PF.
SATA AND PF, WE WANT YOU OUT NOW!
UPND and HH am in!
I meant to say “leave for the UK” not live
The place is ever cold and grey.
No wonder people like wanzelu is ever blogging to keep himself warm.
@ Wanzelu,
I dont agree with you, you residing in Europe should know better. The western world is seriously changing immigration laws. It has nothing to do with Zambia. Infact the tittle for this years Arican European meeting in Brussels is, Security, Immigration and Trade.
Due to the crisis that hit hard and the ugly mask of Terrorism, the western world has evaluated their laws. It is unfair to put the blame on someone just becuse you dont agree with their way of doing things! Besides, the world is always evolving.
I just wonder why African nations have soft laws on immigration regarding European citizens visiting the African continent. I have never understood the brains behind any of our laws when it comes to outsiders. I just love the work ethics of the western world.
@cindy
I agree with you that the western world is changing visa rules. But have you asked yourself why here in the UK they changed immigration rules to favour certain countries and exclude many countries with a potential to cause an influx of asylum claimants due political instability and growing poverty levels in those countries. Each month they monitor political climates and poverty levels in developing countries and change the immigration rules for those countries in line with the changes.
Ever wondered why the Chinese are being given special express visas which are processed within a few hours?.
Believe me , they are going to tighten visa rules for Zambians because the economy is ailing and the political atmosphere is increasingly getting toxic under SATA’s bunch of useless…
Any way people Iet me warn all those who wish to come here not to dare because if you are not an engineer, nurse, medical doctor, or highly qualified STEM professional then you will end up doing donkey jobs which are back breaking for less money.
Even education has become too expensive. Imagine what you can do with £25000 academic fees plus upkeep per year in Zambia compared to spending it on a degree which will not guarantee you a job here or at home.
UK is good for higher degrees like masters and PHDs not first degrees.
A three year first degree will set you back £75000. This is a lot of money which you can invest in Zambia and become a millionaire if the political atmosphere is conducive.
@ Wanzelu,
Good points there, if African governments would put their people first and look at all that you have stated plus many more, I guess life would be far much better for most of our folks. Just the other day I felt really bad, imagine, some European official was being interviewed over the same summit, his facial expressions and how he didnt expect any substantial fruits to be yield from this meeting was saw disappointing. Ofcourse we have reservations on all these huge international meetings, the same way we felt two weeks ago with the G7, but going blantantly like that on an African summit gave me a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe I was being defensive but I didnt like his body language. Anyway, you have a point.
WAIT
Thornton, You cancelled BA direct to Zambia, You cancelled Visa processing in Lusaka, You do not accept Zambian drivers Licences beyond a year here, You censored our previous black passports
You make it harder for a Zambian to come to UK
WE allow you to live a life in Zambian like you are in Europe, WE allow you to use your riving licenses in Zambia. WE allow you to come over to Zambia and only get a VISA at a point of entry. WE allow you to own anything but.
You are treating us like slaves, you do not respecting Zambians, We have alighted to the FAR East now (Chinese).
You undermine our president who supposedly was a casual worker here (victoria stn)
You have allowed us to demean you, and will rise against you. We are not that damn.
Stop it!
Thanks
@ wanzelu
You and you tribal fundamentalist hatred for Sata will chock you to death?
What do you want to do, shift the British high commission to mazabuka, thinking the cost will be less?
They think going to the UK is like going to heaven. Even if you were to make your visa free, I would not go.
@ Namona
Very true, late Nakatindi Wina in her one of her parliamentary debates, likened the UK visa process to the journey to heaven. She said despite the fact that she had businesses and property in the UK at the time, she was still subjected to rigorous process and there were no guarantees.
Wanselu ulibenselu, you have a very primitive mind. There’s no such thing as “re-classified”, you can enter/leave the UK any time on condition and as long as you qualify and have the necessary needs/means to enter/remain in the UK.
Whilst the British are free to come to Zambia if and when they want, we Zambians are always mourning and finding it difficult to enter their ka frozen island. Why don’t we also do the same; make it hard for them to come to Zambia?
The reason is you outlive your welcome. It’s like someone visiting from the the village and you buy him nice food and clothes. He goes back to show off and suddenly the whole village wants to come. If you not strong enough to control them they take over your home and make your wife their maid.
How can you make it hard when you have riff-ruffs like wanzelu?
It must be mentioned here that, Zambia has a lot of potential now that ever before and i know a lot of Zambians who get visas for the UK, USA, China, Dubai, etc to just go and conduct business and go back home to mother Zed
We just need to be proud of country and do the best we can to move it forward.
David Cameron wont do anything good for us
Mwanya ba diaspora
Wana be
Cindy & Mwape Mbokeme
I agree with you to some extent. What has necessitated these changes is mainly due to rising left-wing political parties in Europe opposed to immigration. These parties are slowly grabbing seats from the mainstream parties. The governments have to react by maintaning their grip on power thereby enforcing hostile immigration laws. Just yesterday, a 19 year old girl from Mauritius was deported from UK back to her native country despite the fact that she was only 6 weeks away from sitting for her A-Level exams.
But in Africa, with exception of SA, I don’t think enforcing strict laws will be beneficial to our economy especially in the tourism industry. If we develop economically, that’s when you will see economic migrants coming to Zambia en masse even from UK,…
@The Chosen One, do you mean right-wing?
@ The chosen one,
Nowadays it’s not just the Right-wing that are putting pressure on their leaders, even just ordinary citizens are furious. It has sadly come to a point were everyone feels threatened, am talking, social security, jobs, both higher and lower jobs, private enterprises etc.
I think thats why Africa is taken for granted for fear of being cut from Aid and other free gifts the governments get, thats why they have to work hard to be completely independent.
Yeah….. I have followed the story of that Mauritius family, nomatter how much it wasnt right for her to stay in the UK, atleast they should’ve allowed her to sit for the exams, anyway, some are lucky and others not besides its a crazy world we live in.
The operative word here being ‘if’; development is stifled when you have a government that promotes a political and economic environment. The intellectual capacity is there, the innovative ability and drive. The reality on the ground is lackluster political will to make radical strides towards sustainable development, half baked policies that seem to benefit those at the top, half hearted attempts to diversify and seemingly no desire to invest in the greatest asset we seem to lose in the form of brain drain to other countries around the world because of reasons given herein. Mwe bantu seriously, are we so blinded by political affiliation to see that whats more important is accountability from the leaders and those that elect them?
@The Chosen one- Am sure you meant the “rise of the right wing”.
This is easy, do unto others as you would want them do to you. What I mean is, the GRZ should just ask all UK citizens coming to Zambia to pay the same amount when they plan to come to Zambia and should not be issued VISAs at the port of entry. They should be made to wait the same period as Zambians are asked to. There is little that UK citizens bring when they come to Zambia other than immoral homosexuality and drugs. Give the Scandinavians free entry to Zambia as they add value.
It really is unfair that a Briton can fly all the way and pay Visa fees at the port of entry. But a Zamban will not even be allowed to board a Plane before the officials see a valid Visa.
I have seen Brotons and other Europeans riding bicycles from Europe up to South Africa, found one in LStone when I went there two months ago. That means this person was able to traverse all African boarders so all African countries are okay with this. But here in Africa despite applying you are still denied most of the time despite the fact that the fee is unrefunded! If you managed to reach a European port, you would be hurled onto a plane back to your country.
Why not revenge? Ever seen a Road poster in London saying ‘funded by African Aid’? Does ‘Funded by EU’ in Zambian familiar? POVERTY…
Guys let us be realistic. If you have money you pull strings, if you are poor, you dance to someone’s tune! Botswana does have it easy, a Tswana can just fly to UK, no visa needed. And you don’t see many of them there, because they are better of in Botswan with a thriving economy.
We are extravant, we mismanage our resources, and we wonder why things are bad and outsiders consider us high risk!
Move around Government Complex in Lusaka and you see so many latest brand new Land Cruisers costing thousands of kwacha, for Ministers and top Govt officals. Govts in most European countries use smaller cheaper cars that use less fuel. You borrow and squander the money on frivolous items.
Let Zambia improve the economy then she can FLEXI muscles, for now she cannot!
@dot.com- You are very right. Actually am yet to find a Tswana doing odd jobs. Just like there were few Libyans doing the same. In the 1970s and early 80s, Zambians used to travel and get back home; they were never drifters because the economy was relatively alright and there were jobs. The same is not true today.
Zambia has always been under “High risk” countries. So these changes are not targetd to Zambia but all over the the world.
And why would anyone dream of going to UK if you don’t have any high qualification. You have more chances of becoming rich in Zambia than in UK.
That’s debatable man; making it can happen anywhere, the only caveat is where best one can grow, intellectually, financially and what not. I have a friend who has his bachelors from UNZA, worked there for a couple of years but he realized it wasn’t cutting it. Now a for the past year he’s been in the UK, pursuing his PHD because the unfortunate reality in Zed is that you so often hit a wall of corruption in many forms – nepotism, bribery making it hard to get a job and support a growing family. Thus, the intellectual bleed we have in Zed. Unfortunately, this contributes to the labeling of being ‘high risk’ but we lose doubly because all we have left are the political establishment that leave more than just a bad taste in the mouth, figuratively speaking. Do what’s best for you.
Who really wants to go to Britain? What good is in Britain? Women with flat bums?
Unless there is something better to do in Britain that i dont know of, i would rather go to SA or Jamaica or US.
It has always been hard for many people to travel to UK even when you have met all the requirements. SO now it is getting worse and it is not the fault of the PF govt. The number of refugees and illegal immigrants in UK is on the increase. It is a pity that people traveling to UK and other EU countries have to pay so much money for the visas and yet people coming into Zambia from the said said countries do not pay as much and do not even need to apply and wait for the visa, but get it on arrival. Let Zambia change the rules, the same rules they apply on us let us return the favor period! When are we really going to be independent?
You increase visa fees when the kwacha is falling,iwe Sontoni
The future is Africa, Asia and South America. Europe and USA are finished, they will be in perpetual recession. In the last 4 years over 500000 portuguese have emmigrated to their former colonies Brazil, Angola and Mozambique. Angola alone received almost 200,000. I cannot trade sweet Africa for a small cold island. Detroit the former automobile capital of the world in USA is a ghost town now. The American GOVT owes the Chinese GOVT trillions of dollars. They used to crook us using the IMF and the world bank with the stupid structural adjusted programs. Now becoz China has taken over all trade deals with African countries, now they want to fool us with the EU-Africa and America-Africa trade pacts, its too late, the bottom of the bucket has dropped out and the way forward for Africa is Chin
Comment:people please how much is a UK holiday visa costing now???
Please the PF has nothing to do with the British strengthening their visa rules. The most unfortunate thing is that even the people that some of you think will form the next government will not succeed. I even wonder why the so called educated economists cannot see that. The voting pattern in Zambia is so good at the moment such that some unpopular self proclaimed leaders will not rule this country. It was only Michael Chilufya Sata who worn presidential elections from 4 provinces. May his soul rest in internal peace. Others cannot manager. Some so called leaders have very fast hands and are capable of selling this country within the first three months in office. To them getting rich has to happen within one year or less. Us on the Copperbelt, our memories are still very fresh and we keep…
the world is upside down.
Africans we should wakup and stand to make our mother Africa the best destination, dont forget that there is no better place then home and home for us is mother Africa, la terre de nos ancetres
When will we cease to complain about the Europeans behavior against us?
Let us do the same with our visas too and stop complaining.