Sylheti British Visa aspirants urged to bring back visa processing procedure to Bangladesh from Delhi

Bangladeshi people especially residents of expat-dominated Sylhet region have urged the government of Bangladesh to put diplomatic pressure on the British government to bring back the visa processing procedure to Dhaka from Delhi.

Various organizations including expats welfare organization Bangladesh Overseas Centre in Sylhet has submitted a memorandum to the minister of state for finance and planning MA Mannan MP demanding the same on March 21, 2015.

It was said in the memorandum that during Pakistan regime, there was no full-fledged office of British High Commission. Despites this, the visa applications of the people of this nation would be processed in Dhaka in lieu of sending those to Islamabad, the capital of erstwhile Pakistan.

But, though we now are an independent nation and British High Commission exists here, the visa processing procedure of Bangladeshi people has been transferred to Delhi, the capital of India.

Stating this embarrassing and humiliating situation, it is said in memorandum that the visa applicants of Bangladesh are often confused and in difficulties to understand Hindi or English languages. The British Visa Officers in India are unable to understand the cases and situations of Bangladeshi visa applicants. They suffer from difficulties in communication especially in investigation of related papers and documents at various officers such as marriage registrar, union and registry offices, banks etc. It causes serious mistakes of the visa officers and losses to the Bangladesh visa applicants, the memo added.

Khondoker Shipper Ahmed, a prominent businessman & senior leader of Sylhet Chamber of Commerce and Industries and of Association of Travel Agents in Bangladesh said, Most of the Bangladesh British visa applicants belong to Sylhet region. For this, in 2001, a branch of British High Commission was opened in Sylhet. Moreover, Keith Vaz, the then British minister of state, said, Now the British visa applications from Sylhet region will be issued from Sylhet positively.

But unfortunately, the British visa applications are now processed in Delhi. For this, the number of applications are decreasing day by day. He urged the British authority to bring back the visa processing procedure from Delhi to Bangladesh.