Visa from London

My experience of getting the visa is:

Arrive early. I got there at 8 in the morning thinking to just check it out and then go for breakfast. In fact, I was third in the queue. The doors to the waiting room opened early at about 9 and about 30 people filed in and sat and waited. Plenty more came later.

We were then issued our pair of yellow numbered tickets and returned to sit and wait.

In turn, the numbers were called out and we went to hand in our papers:

=> passport (with translation into Arabic from the Arab Chamber of Commerce)

=> passport application form. This can be found as a pdf file and filled in on screen and printed. (Social status means married/single etc.)

=> 4 passport-sized photos that resemble the photo in your passport. If you have grown or shaved off a beard since your passport photo or have a very different hair style so the photo is very different, you may have a problem.

=> your visa number. I had a print copy of an email from my employer with the number highlighted.

=> letter of invitation.

=> fee £150

=> yellow tickets

I was then given a white ticket which is needed to collect the passport and visa. Although the web site says "next day" you will be told that it takes 3 working days. This date will be written on the ticket.

The white ticket is written in Arabic. The lines are:
1 - name
2 - passport number
3 - date of application
4 - date of delivery
5 - signature (the yellow ticket number was written here)

I then had quite a long wait for the call to get finger prints taken. This is done on an electronic scanner.

I was not given the yellow numbered ticket. I guess that the written ticket replaces it.

Hope this is useful!!!!