We the British High Commission have had a confused public response to Star’s article last Sunday (March 20) about moving our visa application processing to our East Asia hub in Manila.

I would like to clarify what is intended in order to address any concerns our visa applicants might have, especially students who will be applying in the coming months.  

1. The visa application process will not change for customers in any way. They will still apply as they currently do and submit their application at the British visa application centre (VAC) in Kuala Lumpur, run for us by VFS Global, and there will be no change in the cost for applicants.

2. It is the decision-making part of the visa issuing process that we are transferring. Once the visa application is received at the VAC, it will then be couriered securely (at our expense) to the British Embassy in Manila for assessment by certified entry clearance officials (instead of the High Commission in KL). Once the decision is made, it will be couriered back again to the VAC for collection from there by the applicant as is currently the case.

3. This change is not expected to take effect until November 2011.

4. The visa section at the British Embassy in Manila has an extremely good track record in processing visa applications in good time for other countries including Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Brunei and the management team there already oversees the visa operation in KL.

5. There will be no change to our customer service standards under the new arrangements. The UK Border Agency aims to process 90 percent of all non-settlement visa applications within 15 working days.

6. We are however confident that we will deliver well within this time frame. During our peak period last summer, students applying in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Brunei, on average, had their applications processed and returned within 5 to 10 working days.

Simon Featherstone is the Malaysian British High Commissioner.