Visa Facilitation Services, the outsourcing partners for the Visa Department of the British High Commission, on Monday announced a unique service for Indians travelling to the United Kingdom, which will allow them to track their visa applications through an easy and convenient service over their mobile phone.

Applicants can now access their visa application status by sending an SMS to 7333 from any mobile phone across all service providers on both GSM and CDMA platforms.

An applicant from anywhere in India has to simply SMS the message VISA -space- UK -space- PASSPORT NUMBER to 7333 to ascertain the status of his passport and visa application. This service is being exclusively provided by VFS.

Considering the growing number of Indians travelling to the United Kingdom, this service will attempt to save time while providing information on visa applications. More than half a million passengers travelled between the UK and India in 2004 and currently there are approximately 56 flights per week between India and London.

According to Jeff Wilson of the Press and Public Affairs Department at the British High Commission, "UK-India bilateral trade has grown tremendously over the past few years and is expected to result in increases in travel between both countries for business, education and leisure. We are happy that VFS are providing the convenience of accessing the status of visa applications by mobile phone to Indians travelling to the UK, allowing them to manage their travel plans more efficiently."

He added, "This is a service unique to India and we hope that customers will find it useful."

About 300,000 UK visa applications were processed in India in 2004 and most of them were issued. Apart from a large number of tourists, travellers to the United Kingdom are generally students seeking higher studies in UK universities, business visitors, and professionals on official visits.