It stands for UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services.

The new process will bring UK visa services in line with what our customers expect.

Customers will have the choice to use one of 57 Service Points throughout the UK.

More flexible “on-demand” (formerly known as Super Premium) and mobile application services will be available, for example at university campuses, employers’ offices or individual customers’ homes.

It commenced on the 5 November 2018 and these services and locations were launched:

• Core Centre Manchester
• Premium Lounge London
• On-demand service launched

Enhanced service points:

• Newcastle
• Burnholme
• Liverpool
• Warrington
• Stockport
• Wakefield
• Lancaster
• Burnley
• Hull

SEE SERVICE POINTS BELOW FOR ALL UK LOCATIONS

The following application types can book online via this new service point route:

• Tier 1 (Investor)
• Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent)
• Tier 1 (Entrepreneur)
• Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur)
• Tier 2 (General)
• Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer): graduate trainee
• Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer): long term staff
• Tier 2 (Minister of Religion)
• Tier 2 (Sportsperson)
• Tier 4 (General) student
• Tier 4 (Child) student
• Tier 5 (Temporary Worker)
• PBS dependent: partner
• PBS dependent: child
• Member of HM forces or their dependents
• Turkish businessperson or worker
• Dependent partner of a Turkish businessperson or worker or dependent partner
• Dependent child of a Turkish businessperson or worker or dependent child
• Settle or extend your leave in the UK: Turkish ECAA categories only
• Settle in the UK: long residence
• Settle in the UK: child
• Settle in the UK: partner of a person or parent of a child already settled in the UK
• Settle in the UK: HM forces category
• Settle in the UK: refugee or humanitarian protection
• Settle in the UK: certain categories
• British citizenship by naturalisation
• Register for British citizenship as a child under 18
• Register as a British citizen
• Update, replace or transfer: biometric residence permit
• Other leave to remain applications within the Rules (unless noted below)
• Apply for a Home Office travel document

The following application types do not go through Sopra Steria until the Home Office states otherwise:

(1) To join family members in the UK as a dependant, other than a PBS dependent, armed forces dependent or ECAA dependent

(2) For family reunion with a refugee or person with humanitarian protection.

(3) On the basis of statelessness

(4) On the basis of domestic violence under the specific route for that

(5) Making further submissions after a failed protection claim to only enrol your biometric information 

(6) For a fee waiver or fee exemption

(7) For British citizenship

(8) For a certificate of right of abode

The Home Office has announced all paper forms will cease in the New Year and likely all applications listed above will go through Sopra Steria.

In January 2019, UKVI will start opening dedicated Service and Support Centres (SSCs). 

You must apply using the existing service until then if you’re applying for these routes.

These service centres will be for:

• some customers applying under family route
• customers applying to join as a dependant
• customers applying for family reunion
• customers applying on the basis of statelessness
• customers who qualify for a fee waiver or fee exemption
• customers applying under the domestic violence route
• some customers who are required to only enrol their biometric information.

Further information on SSCs will be made available later this year.

In total there will be 6 processes, they are:

1. Register account with GOV.UK for your application

2. Register application details & book appointment at preferred Service Point.

3. Attend your Service Point appointment

4. Have your identity checked & biometrics done at the service point

5. Documents evidence will be digitised at the service point

6. Leave service point with your documents including passport(s).

Under the new service, you’ll make your application and pay your application fee online, this will also include your biometric enrolment fee (if applicable). You will also have to pay the immigration health surcharge (if applicable) online before you make your application and include your reference number on your online application.

You’ll then be directed to Sopra Steria’s website to book an appointment at a UKVCAS centre. At this stage, you can choose whether to purchase added-value services. These services will only be available to applicants using the UKVCAS service.

At the service point you can upgrade by purchasing Interpretation services, learn more

They consist of locations across the UK where:

• 6 locations offer a free service
• 50 enhanced service centres offering charged appointments
• 1 premium lounge

The following service points are free to use:

• Belfast
• Birmingham
• Cardiff
• Croydon
• Glasgow
• Manchester

There is a charge to visit the following 50 enhanced service centres:

• Aberdeen
• Bedford
• Bournemouth
• Bradley Stoke
• Brighton
• Burnholme
• Burnley
• Cambridge
• Canterbury
• Coventry
• Dorchester
• Eastbourne
• East Ham
• Gloucester
• Grays
• Hemel Hempstead
• Hull 
• Ipswich
• Lancaster
• Liverpool
• Llandudno
• London (Barbican)
• London (Canning Town)
• London (Kensington)
• London (Shepherds Bush)
• London (Shoe Lane)
• London (Stratford)
• London (Victoria)
• Newcastle
• Newport
• Norwich
• Nottingham
• Patchway
• Peterborough
• Portsmouth
• Preston
• Reading
• Salisbury
• Stevenage
• Stockport
• Swindon
• Swinton
• Taunton
• Truro
• Wakefield
• Warwick
• Warrington
• Watford
• Wimbledon
• Wolverhampton

This is only available in London

When you visit any of the 'Service Points' you have the option of purchasing additional services.

We have listed below all these services and explain what they are.

In addition to their free of charge appointments at core service points, they have a range of other appointment types.

WHAT ARE ENHANCED SERVICE POINTS?

They are located across the UK. An appointment at one of their enhanced service points also includes the evidence scanning and evidence checking services. Prices start from £60 per person.

OUT OF HOURS APPOINTMENT

If your day tends to be busy, you can book an out of hours appointment at both core and enhanced service points and you can also book any other extra service when you do so. Out of hours appointments are offered subject to availability and start from £100 per person on top of any other appointment-based fees.

NEXT DAY APPOINTMENTS

If you need to attend an appointment quickly, you can book a next day appointment at one of their service points. You will also be able to book any other appropriate extra service when you do so. Next day appointments are offered subject to availability and start from £100 per person on top of any other appointment-based fees.

SAME DAY APPOINTMENTS

If your application is urgent, you can book a same day appointment at one of their service points, as well as any other extra services, subject to availability. Same day appointments are offered subject to availability and start from £100 per person on top of any other appointment-based fees.

The premium lounge is for customers who desire a service with added comfort and privacy. The first premium lounge, located in the heart of the City of London, is situated across the road from Fenchurch Street Overground Station and within 7 minutes’ walk of both Monument, Bank and Tower Hill tube stations.

The premium lounge provides an upgraded service in comfortable surroundings with spacious seating areas, hi-speed wifi and business facilities such as scanning and printing. Free daily newspapers and hot and cold beverages will be available as well as a choice of freshly prepared pastries, light snacks and fruit. The application process will be completed in an individual application suite where biometric collection and document scanning can take place in an environment of seclusion and privacy.

Appointments at the premium lounge are available Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 18:00 for standard appointments with evening appointments available to 20:00 on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

PRICE

You can choose the premium lounge when you book your appointment. The price for a standard appointment is £200. The price for an out of hours appointment is £260.

The on-demand pop-up service is a service point that comes to a location convenient to you. This service provides application facilities for organisations with more than 10 applicants and is available in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Their teams can arrange half day or full day sessions depending on the number of applicants and can even remain in the area for several days to process higher volumes if necessary. The benefits for employees and students are convenience and time saving, while organisations benefit from reduced leave days and lost study time for applications that would otherwise be completed away from the office or campus.

To use this service, you can send a message through the General Enquiry link to request more information. Once a corporate account is created you will be able to request a preferred day and time for an on-demand pop-up to visit your organisation. Their Customer Service Team will be your single point of contact for arranging the visit, taking payment and discussing anything we should be aware of ahead of the visit.

PRICE

The price for this service varies depending upon your requirements.

This is where you can book a mobile visit and a regulated person visit you. The VIP service is available in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and offer availability 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The document translation service can be used by customers whose original documents are not in English or Welsh. All translations are completed by professional translators who will translate  documents within 3 to 4 days.

All types of documents can be translated to support applications including marriage, birth and divorce certificates as well as driving licences, academic diplomas and sponsor letters. The translations can be completed from scanned documents which are sent securely to our central hub for completion.

Translated documents will be returned by email and by post. Please make sure that you leave enough time to receive your translated documents ahead of your appointment date.

PRICE

The price for the document translation service is £75 per page.

If the Client requires this service, G4I partner can provide this at more competitive rates.

If English is not your native language, they can arrange for an interpreter to be available for you over the telephone if you require language assistance during your appointment.

Please Note: interpretation services are only available at core service points and the premium lounge.

PRICE

You can choose the interpretation service when you book your appointment. The price for this service is £60 in total.

When you attend your appointment, they can scan and upload your supporting documents for you, so you don't have to upload them beforehand.

Complementary Package

If you have booked an appointment at one of their enhanced service points or premium lounge, or an on-demand pop-up or VIP visit, the document scanning service is included as part of that appointment.

Price

You can choose the document scanning service when you book your appointment. If you have to pay, it costs £35.00 per person applying.

You can buy the document checking service if you want their team to check that you have correctly uploaded the documents for your appointment, that the scanned documents you provided are of an acceptable quality and are complete.

To use this service you must upload your documents through their website at least 2 working days before your appointment date.

ENHANCED SERVICE POINT

If you have booked an appointment at one of their enhanced service points the document checking service is included in the price of that appointment.

PRICE

You can choose the document checking service when you book your appointment. The price for this service is £35 in total, per person.

If you need to speak to Sopra Steria UKVCAS, you can call their Premium Support Line on 0900 165 6600 (Calls cost £2.50 per minute).

To read their terms click here

Feedback from our Clients who have contacted Sopra Steria say that they are not very helpful and do not provide alternatives if you have a query.

As Sopra Steria are not the Home Office, they are simply a hub where you register your information. They have no caseworkers on their premises and cannot guide you on yuor application. 

We recommend to all our Clients to contact us first and we will guide you further.

Priority visa applications are for Tier 2 and Tier 4 only.

Priority visas are generally processed in 8 weeks.

Note: If you are applying under priority, you must attend your biometrics within 5 days.

When you pay your visa fee online, the Home Office will now charge you the £19.20 fee you use to pay the Post Office to attend your biometrics.

Super Priority visa application service REPLACED the Premium Service Centre  (PSC) (same day visa decision service) for most visa applications.

Note: Up until 09/01/2019 certain visa applications can still be booked via PSC such as family visa applications.

Super Priority is for most visa applications but if your visa application falls under complex cases then no super priority service will be offered.

Super Priority visas are submitted at one of the approved 'service points' and the following day you are notified if your visa is approved, more information required or refused.

Warning: If you are applying under super priority, you might find it difficult to secure an appointment date and you might have to visit a 'service point' not local to you.

When you pay your visa fee online, the Home Office will now charge you the £19.20 fee you use to pay the Post Office to attend your biometrics.

No you do not.

These are optional services to speed up your visa application.

If you opt to select for one of these services, you will have to pay extra fee.

An example of a visa cost are as follows for Tier 2:

• Standard Application £723.20 (8 weeks processing time)
• Priority Application £1223.20 (2 weeks processing time)
• Super Priority Application £1523.20 (24 hours processing time)

Do not take these fees as being accurate, always check Home Office fees before applying. 

In April 2014, Sopra announced a merger with Steria in an attempt to create the European leader in computer services. Sopra is a consulting, IT services and software development company. Its subsidiary Sopra Banking Software develops and distributes software for the financial services market.

To learn more click here

The Home Office has decided to do this in stages.

In October 2018 they released a PDF document to help explain the launch, download it here

• Sopra Steria home page
• Additional services
• Search for a service point
• FAQs
• How to prepare your documents
• Service points policy

Once you registered with Sopra Steria, you are then offered to upload your documents via their portal or, you can do it on the day of your appointment at the service point centre.

Yes you can, once you registered with Sopra Steria, you can upload your documents in advance, but you need to pay £35.00 for this privilege.

This is where it might get confusing for you. The Sopra Steria portal will state upload 'mandatory documents' and then 'optional' documents.

The portal states you can upload optional documents that covers:

• Other
• Residence in the UK
• Finances
• Proof of Business
• Life Events
• Medical Information
• Sponsors / Employment
• Educational

The question is this, each application being made is unique, if you do not provide the right documents, your visa is likely to be delayed and even refused.

Once you have registered with Sopra Steria, you enter your home post code or any post code you like.

Depending on which service you have paid for (Standard, Priority or Super Priority) will determine which 'Service Points' are available (post code governs which are the closest service points).

You select from the calendar a date and then a time from options made available.

You will receive an email with your appointment details that includes:

• Address of your appointment
• Date
• Time

YOU CANNOT BOOK AN APPOINTMENT UNTIL YOU COMPLETED YOUR VISA APPLICATION AND APPLIED FOR A IMMIGRATION HEALTH SURCHARGE REFERENCE AND PAID YOUR VISA FEE

You must arrive at the service point in good time for your appointment.

(1) When you arrive at a service point, your appointment details are checked and confimed

(2) You then need to enrol your biometric information, you have the option of:

• doing it yourself at a self-service kiosk or
• having one of their team do it with you at a counter.

What is the Biometric enrolment:

• scan of your passport
• photograph of your face
• scan of your fingerprints
• digital signature

They will then check that everything has been done correctly, this includes:

• the biometric enrolment
• document checking
• payments

If you have used the document scanning service, then your original documents will be returned to you. 

At no point in time will your original documents be out of your sight. 

Once all processes have been completed, only then is your application officially submitted to the Home Office.

If you want to provide additional documents to support your application you can upload them via your Sopra Steria portal.

You must upload any additional evidence before 22:00 on the same day.

Submit online after 22:00 that day, those documents are unlikely to be considered when the Home Office processes your application.

If you are applying for leave to remain, or indefinite leave to remain, you should not leave the UK until you have received a decision on your application.

If you travel outside the “Common Travel Area” (CTA) before the decision is made on your application, your application will be treated as withdrawn.

The CTA covers:

• UK
• Republic of Ireland
• Channel Islands
• Isle of Man

If the decision is made while you are outside the UK and your current leave has expired you will not have a right to return to the UK and you may be refused entry at the UK border.

If you submitted an 'in-time' visa application and your visa permitted you to work in the UK, you are permitted to carry on working under your current visa conditions.

If your visa does not permit employment or if you are switching to another via route or employer and you are not sure what you can or cannot do, contact us for free advice.

Yes you can but if you do, your visa fee will not be refundable once submitted. Before cancelling your application, you need to understand the consequences because if you cancel your application, you may not be able to make a fresh application whilst in the UK.

You should contact us before making such a decision.

Online applications for leave based on family life or private life including spouse partner applications are not yet processed via this new service.

UKVI’s PSCs closed on 29 November 2018. If you are applying online for leave based on family life, including spouses and partners of settled persons, or private life, you will have the choice to use one of the following services from 29 November 2018 until January 2019:

• UKVCAS service - you will be offered an appointment within 5 days and can choose to have a standard or super priority decision

• the existing service to enrol your biometric information at the Post Office

• UKVI’s 24 hour decision service

• In the meantime, there are only a limited number of appointments available at PSCs. These appointments are intended for customers unable to access UKVCAS services during the transition period who may still require a 24 hour decision service. You will be advised about appointment times and PSC locations available to you as part of the application process.

You will be able to return and view the other services available to you before making your final confirmation.

Until 9 January 2019, you might be able to get a premium service centre visa appointment but slots are limited.

Contact us today for guidance.

Depending if your visa application falls under an online or paper application form, you still process it in the normal way and post your original documents to UKVI.

If you are unsure, contact us for guidance.

When a client contacts us, we do the following:

• Provide you 30 minutes free consultation
• Look at your immigration history
• Check your paperwork
• Recommend visa options
• Confirm which service options available to you

If you agree for us to represent you, we will complete your application for you whether online or via paper application form.

If you are required to register with Sopra Steria, we will do this booking for you and secure you an appointment.  

We will prepare a visa support letter to help the Home Office understand your visa application.

We can even attend at the Sopra Steria appointment with you but as no visa decision is made on that day, our same day service is not required unless the Client requires our support.

Once your visa application has been processed, we will offer you free online, telephone and SMS support. This is subject to you being on the application we processed and still being valid.

It is likely you will need to apply to the Home Office for a future application unless the application is for Naturalisation. We will create a roadmap for you so you know how to get ready for your next application.