UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) has announced on 30 May, 2017, that it will be outsourcing all of its customer enquiries to SITEL UK a subsidiary of the French-owned ACTICALL SITEL Group.
According to UK Visas & Immigration this change will “help the government reduce costs and ensure those who benefit directly from the UK Immigration system make an appropriate contribution”.
The changes will mean that anyone contacting UKVI by email will now be charged £5.48.
In addition to this the number of languages which are offered is being reduced to 8, including English. It has been reported that the languages offered are: English; Mandarin; Cantonese; Arabic; French; Hindi; Russian; and Spanish.
This private arrangement is expected to save the Home Office a considerable amount of money and all contact details have now been changed.
The Home Office state that you will need to pay using a credit or debit card for contacting them by email and that the charge include the first email enquiry that you send and any follow-up emails to and from the contact centre relating to the same enquiry.
This will come as no surprise to many who have recently experienced the significant increase in Home Office fees which has already been rolled out this year and which has been discussed in an earlier blog-post.
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