British High Commission introduces new visa payment method

The British High Commission announced that beginning from next month, only bank drafts issued by any branch of Barclays Bank Ghana Limited would be accepted as payment for visa applications.

"The bank drafts should be made payable to the British High Commission and must be shown at the gate before applicants will be allowed in," it said in a news release signed by its Public Affairs Manager, Alice Anane-Darko.

"This new policy is part of the British High Commission's commitment to further improve its visa service and speed up processing of applications in Ghana," the release said.

It said the new arrangement would also reduce the risk of theft from applicants, who currently carry large amounts of currency with them when applying for visa.

The release said Barclays Bank would charge an administration fee of 15,000 cedis for the provision of each bank draft, in addition to the visa fee, and this would be non-refundable.

"If, for any reason, an applicant decides to withdraw their application it would be possible to return the bank draft to Barclays Bank for refund," the statement said.

However, the 15,000 cedis administration fee is non-refundable," The statement said to avoid an increase in the overall fee to applicants the actual cost of most visas has been reduced.

Therefore, in most cases, there would be no increase in the overall amount charged to applicants.

The statement further asked potential applicants not to pay for Visa application forms, as these are available free of charge at the Commission and British Council Offices.

It also urged applicants to report any individual who approaches them to help ease the process of obtaining a visa.

Meanwhile, the Commission has announced new visa fees, beginning from August 2001.

The fees are standard six-month (multiple entry) Student 350,000 cedis and Transit 350,000 cedis each, and One Year Multiple Entry 584,000 cedis.

The rest are two-year Multiple Entry 690,000 cedis and five- year Multiple Entry 850,000 cedis.

Long term multiple entry visas (those valid for one year or more) are generally only available to those who have previously travelled frequently to the United Kingdom, the statement added.

The High Commission said as further demonstration of commitment, a new 30 billion-cedi visa building would be opened at the end of next month.