There was an announcement during the official opening ceremony of the Joint Visa Application Centre of Switzerland and the UK embassies that commencing January 2015, the British Embassy in Kazakhstan will introduce a priority system for issuing visas in the cities of Almaty and Astana.
"In July of last year British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Astana. At that time he announced the plans to simplify the procedure of issuing visas for some Kazakhstani companies. Today I am pleased to announce that from 2015 we will introduce a new priority system for dealing with visas in Almaty and Astana. If you decide to use this system, we will consider your application for a visa within five working days," said the British Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Dr. Carolyn Brown, opening a joint visa application centre.
According to the Ambassador, starting from today, the joint visa application centre in Astana will operate three days a week. She mentioned that there are 3 centres in Kazakhstan, in Atyrau, Almaty and Astana, where one can apply for a UK visa.
It should be noted that the joint visa centre of the embassies of Switzerland and the United Kingdom have been opened with the help of TLS Contact which implements such projects around the world.
The event was attended by heads of foreign diplomatic missions, foreign and local businessmen, as well as media representatives.