In June this year, United Kingdom Visa & Immigration (UKVI) will relocate its visa decision making centre from Bangkok to New Delhi. This is part of UKVI's long-standing global strategy to modernise its visa operation and consolidate visa decision making into large regional hubs. There will be no change to the visa application process in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, or to overall service standards.
The move to New Delhi will maximise the benefits of new technology that allows for visa-decision making to be independent of the country of application. It will drive efficiency savings and achieve greater standardisation of visa decisions around the world.

British Ambassador to Thailand, Mr Brian Davidson, said:
"The UK is fully committed to a strong and broad-based relationship with Thailand. The number of Thai nationals applying for UK visas and travelling to the UK rises every year. We are delighted at this growth as it shows the strength of the links between the two countries and that Thai people still love to visit the UK, whether for work, study, family or leisure.
UKVI is committed to supporting these links and ensuring that we continue to provide safe and secure visa decisions, excellent customer service and value for money to the UK taxpayer."
Customers in Thailand will see no change to visa service standards. Customers will still apply for their visas online and submit their biometrics and documents at two Visa Application Centres (VACs) in Bangkok and Chiang Mai managed by VFS-Global.
UKVI, in conjunction with VFS-Global, are committed to delivering excellent customer service in Thailand and new customer services at the VACs will continue to be rolled out during 2018.

trubrit wrote: ↑

January 20, 2018, 1:42 pm

Presumably that means no personal interview is needed any more for applicants .

View Vacancy - BK - UKVI Country Manager, B3 (Internal Vacancy)

Job Description (Roles and Responsibilities)
In June 2018 UKVI will complete its consolidation of South East Asia visa-decision-making into UKVI Sheffield and UKVI New Delhi.

Following the move of visa-decision-making to New Delhi in June 2018, UKVI will maintain a small support team in Bangkok. 5 posts will remain and they will support New Delhi colleagues by delivering:

Visa writing (remote-printing) all SPV and PV applications made in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Burma and Cambodia.
Document verification, enrichment and interview capacity for Thailand (and resources allowing for Cambodia, Laos and Burma and Vietnam).
UKVI’s outreach and corporate messaging for key partners including FCO, British Council, MFA in Thailand, Laos, Burma and Cambodia to ensure UKVI’s work is fully understood by relevant partners.
All relevant customer service expectations between UKVI in Sheffield, New Delhi and VFS-Global in Thailand, Burma, Laos and Cambodia to support UKVI and VFS.
VAC and SELTs inspections as required.
The role of the B3L Thailand Country Manager is to manage UKVI’s activities and A2L staff based in Thailand with support from the team in New Delhi. The job holder will report to an ECM in New Delhi and will receive daily support from the ECM team there.

The job holder’s primary role will be to ensure all visa writing in Bangkok is managed, printed and dispatched to VFS within UKVI’s customer service standards. The job holder will also need to successfully balance all other competing operational demands throughout UKVI’s peak and low seasons, as well as on a day-to-day basis.

The job holder will need to be an effective line manager able to performance manage and develop 4 x A2L staff into their new roles – each of which will be a multi-functional A2L role and will need to flex with UKVI’s changing operational priorities.

Excellent communication skills will also be needed as the job holder will act as a bridge between stakeholders in South East Asia and the Decision-Making-Centres in Sheffield and New Delhi.

The job holder will be exposed to a wide range oThis job will be based in the current British embassy compound and will move with the rest of the embassy in 2019 to the new premises in Sathorn.f UKVI and FCO priorities and will absorb parts of B3L roles currently within the work objectives of the Workflow, Customer, Office and Enrichment Manager functions.

Day to day contact with and support from UKVI colleagues in New Delhi and Sheffield will be the norm, as will proactive and regular contact with all key stakeholders across the region – from the most senior downwards. You will be representing UKVI and will thus be exposed to unique issues, giving the job holder excellent development opportunities as the job combines people management, operational delivery, stakeholder engagement and customer service.

This job will be based in the current British embassy compound and will move with the rest of the embassy in 2019 to the new premises in Sathorn.

The role is being offered on a permanent basis, however UKVI’s strategic direction is changing and there is a long-term goal to become digital by default, to handle more of our workload on-line, to introduce e-visas and remove the need for vignette printing. The pace of change is currently unknown but the job holder will need to be aware that changes in the future will have clear implications for this job. Please speak with Robin Humphris if you have any questions about the future of this role.

This job will be based in the current British embassy compound and will move with the rest of the embassy in 2019 to the new premises in Sathorn.