| Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 | |
Tourist Visa from Gerry's in Stratford (London)Country forums / Indian Subcontinent / Pakistan | ||
Has anyone had experience acquiring a tourist visa through Gerry's Visa Dropbox application centre in Stratford? (link) According to the Pakistan High Commission website, all visa applications must now go through Gerry's. (link) I submitted my application (and LOI, itinerary, work letter etc) on 12/11/12, but have still not heard back. (3 weeks later). I am beginning to get a little concerned! Will it matter that there was an Indian visa in my passport? I have tried to contact Gerry's and all they can tell me is that the PHC still has my documents. I just want to know how much longer I am going to have to wait. Has anyone else used Gerrys? Can anyone suggest any alternative PHC phone numbers which I might get an answer from. Is the PHC shut in London for some reason? Other info for people applying through Gerry's: Have a read through their website, it explains the requirements (you need everything on the requirements list now, LOI, work letter, itinerary, etc). There is a fee that Gerry's charges on top of the normal visa fee, so the total is £140 payable in cash only at the time of submission. There is a passport tracking number box on the website which has only just shown my application status today (after 3 weeks, I accidentally navigated to the page in my history which still had my tracking number in the URL and was pleasantly surprised to see it was now recognised) and it just says "Application sent to Embassy." I just want to get going on my travels. I am all ready and just waiting for my passport! I hope for it back soon because flight prices look to be getting increasingly expensive as Christmas draws near. Thank you for any advice or experiences that you guys can share. Jon | ||
I find it hard to believe anyone with pretensions to being a proper consulate in the UK would force people to apply for visas at a place called "Gerry's Visa Dropbox" in some grim part of East London. But it appears Pakistan has done so. Apparently after seeing India put in a completely pointless middle man with VFS they decided to do the same, but lower down the market. This is where Google maps finds Gerry's illustrious office: At least you'll be able to pick up a saveloy and picked egg when your passport eventually does show up. | 1 | |
Yep, the 3rd one along certainly seems to be the 1st floor above that fish and chip shop ( at least it's not above the 'Betfred' the betting shop at No.1, or above 'Showman Amusements' at No.2, or the Job Centre across the road+ ). It seems to me that the 'Visa Drop Box' could literally be just that, a more convenient postal box address for the Embassy, so that nobody has to be up early and in the Embassy to sign for special delivery and can turn up for work whenever they feel like it. For that reason, I don't quite get what the charge ( +what is the charge? ) would be for, if it could just be a post holding point. It sounds like a nice little earner to me, that. Or perhaps they just take a couple of minutes to check all required documents are present and correct before Uncle Latif gets on a city bus and heads over to the Embassy with passports in person? According to the Embassy website, they are closing applications at the 'counters' from November. Not the visa 'processing', but closing application counters ( perhaps to ditch staff? ) . I agree that visa middle men are an annoying trend. I'm not surprised that you are concerned, really. I consider myself lucky I used that Embassy years ago for one of my Pakistani Visas when getting one was a lot simpler and far 'cheaper' than now. I suppose it 'may' be a good sign that it says it has been delivered to the Embassy, but won't put your mind at rest given how some embassys begin to wind down for the winter season. Good luck Jon, and let us know how you get on. | 2 | |
Yesterday I got a call on my mobile as a response to an email enquiry, and the lady told me that there was apparently something wrong with my itinerary. So I emailed her my itinerary and she checked it over and rang me back in like 10 mins to say she couldnt see what the issue was, and she was gonna check exactly what the problem was with PHC and call me back today. Not heard anything back today sadly. It was a day to day itinerary made by Lost Horizons. Still its a bit weird that its taken them a month to decided that my itinerary isnt up to scratch, and I still need to find out what is wrong so I can send them whatever I need to.. Gerrys Visa Dropbox is a private company (http://www.gerrys.com.pk/ thats their main website). When you ask Gerrys what the score is, they just say they have submitted it to PHC and are waiting to hear back. Its impossible to talk to PHC directly, as far as I am aware. The application centre is on the second floor of that large building, I think called Tramway House or something. Its one big waiting area basically with a desk at one end you eventually get called up to and they look through your documents and then give you a ticket, then you wait around some more until you go and pay for it, then you wait around some more and someone else checks though all the documents at another desk and puts it on their computer system and says you will hear from us in "5 to seven days". Using the online tracking facility on the visadropbox website, I have determined that of the 46 people that submitted visas on the same day as me, only 4 (including myself) have the status of "submitted to embassy" whereas the rest have collected their passport. (that also means they are probably making a tidy profit, £35 per application so like £1600 income a day. Who knows how much staff and office rental is costing them..) But I cant see how this is more cost effective than just having people submit directly to the embassy? I will update if and when I hear more about my application... | 3 | |
Interesting, Jon. Out of curiosity, what was your itinerary? ( if you wish to share it, that is ). | 4 | |
Got a call nice and early today. It seems that the problem is my itinerary didnt have a year date on it. It says "February 1st: Arrive in Islamabad" where is needs to say "February 1st 2013: Arrive..". The letter of invitation clearly states "February 1st - February 19th 2013", but as a separate piece of paper I guess isn't sufficient. So be warned people, you must be careful with your dates! I have edited the dates and sent it over to Gerrys. Hopefully that will be acceptable. As for itinerary, I don't think the problem is where or when I'm going, but I will quote the original letter for your interest: Thank you for choosing Lost Horizon as your tour operator during your visit to Pakistan. February 1st: Arrive in Islamabad. Overnight at Hotel. We hope this itinerary will meet all of your travel needs in Pakistan and we look forward Sincerely, Edited by: klaus5 Edited by: klaus5 | 5 | |