Unfriendly country – Great Britain

Have you ever tried to get a visa to the UK by invitation or for a business trip or something else? If so, they may have cursed the existing visa system and this country itself.

Until March 2014, the consular department of the British Embassy in Baku was engaged in issuing visas. However, after that date, theEmbassy stopped issuing visas and the matter was handed over to the Migration Service which operates through an intermediary company called TLS contact.

On the website of the Migration Service (UKVI), you need to fill out an electronic form, pay the cost of a visa and make an appointment. It is necessary to go through six stages, answering questions. Regularly it is necessary to confirm items like: "I agree", "I confirm", "I understand". Without a positive answer, you cannot move forward.

To complete the application and for it to be submitted for consideration, you must pay online, and then set a time for the submission of documents.

The whole process is accompanied by proposals to improve the service with additional payment. Money must be paid for literally everything: if you want to speed up the issuance of a visa, if an application is filled out for you, if you have not entered any documents into the application (if you have not uploaded them to the questionnaire in PDF format), if you have made an appointment with more than one, if you need to make a copy of the document, and etc .

All these are considered an additional service and are not included in the price of a standard visa, which costs $ 130.

Now let's look at the cost of "services": scan and upload documents to the questionnaire – 65 manats. If you didn't do it yourself, then you have to pay on the spot or leave, fill out the questionnaire again and make an appointment again. At the same time, filling out the previous questionnaire is no longer possible which means filling out a new questionnaire and re-paying $ 130 (!).

You can send documents for scanning to London and this service will cost 180 manats (88.5 pounds). If you want it done in 24 hours, the price increases to 273 manats (118 pounds).

If you want to make an appointment at a convenient time for you, it will cost 120 manats.

If you want your passport to stay with you while the visa issues are being resolved, it will cost 145 manats.

If you want to get a visa for 5 working days, it will cost 250 pounds or 510 manats.

If you were denied a visa earlier or you were in the country longer than required and want to get a new visa, it will cost you 573 pounds or 1,169 manats and you have to wait 30 days.

In short, the cost of a standard visa of $ 130 does not mean that you quietly hand over the documents and get a visa. By the way, the usual review period at the moment is 45 days. At the same time, there are no guarantees that you will receive a visa.

If you decide that the trip is not worth all this hassle and decide to refuse, then the electronic system seems to guarantee you a refund. This can be done before your documents are accepted at the visa center in Baku.

In this case, the money must be returned within 28 days. However, they often do not return money at all or after a much later date. Note that the refund was not returned after a month and a half to the author of this note, and the intermediary company is not responsible for this, and moreover, it cannot explain the situation coherently.

Note that the intermediary company TLScontact accepts documents and then sends them to Ankara, earns well from citizens by charging for a part of the above-mentioned services. At the same time, it is not responsible for the claims of citizens, addressing them to the British authorities.

The electronic system of the UK Immigration Service is acting as a system of torture. To call and explain what your problem is, you need to pay for a telephone conversation (!). If you write an email, you also need to pay 5.5 manats online to be read there in London (!!). It seems that the British do not want people to go to their country or want to shake money down and torment those who decide to go to this country as much as possible.

Each country has the right to establish its own rules. Such an abnormal system exists not only for us, but also for a number of other countries. But do British citizens also suffer when they come to us? Why are we treated as an outcast country? But what about the strategic partnership with Azerbaijan, which is so much talked about in London and at the British Embassy in Baku?

At the ceremony dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Ambassador James Sharp loudly declared that the United Kingdom is the largest investor in Azerbaijan. However, he did not say that tens of billions of dollars earned by his country in Azerbaijan many times exceed these investments and we have a green light everywhere for British companies led by British Petroleum.

There is no such rigid visa system in any Western country. The colonial past and legacy of this country continues to exist, including arrogant disregard even for those who are called "strategic partners". So can we consider the UK a friendly country?

In the 90s, visas were issued in one day at the British Embassy in Baku. Back then, the "Contract of the Century" had just been signed, the British had to gain a foothold in Azerbaijan. But gradually BP's position strengthened. Following Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli, the company became the operator of the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline, and then the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurun gas pipeline. Apparently, in 2014, London decided that there was nothing left to grab in Azerbaijan and there was no need to stand on ceremony.

At the same time, for some reason or other, people are allowed to come to the UK and even give a slander to people who scold Azerbaijan and its authorities day and night with the last words.

This problem should be in the focus of attention of the country's leadership, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, as well as human rights defenders. Every year hundreds of citizens of our country are forced to face these problems. If this is not the case for holders of official and diplomatic passports, then for ordinary citizens this is a serious test and humiliation, which they do not deserve in any way. -02B-