Lexeus

Thanks for the feedback alpha1hit. It's when you are the unfortunate case that you remember the risks of not booking the cruise operators tour.

Did you get a refund? Or did you not have to pay a deposit?

rock up with form, Photos ( remember 50 x 50 not normal Id photo size), Passport, booking conformation and Itineraries showing port of call with your name on them, and Special delevery envelope if you want VFS to return you Passport by post

Dave thankyou for all the information, I feel much more certain about the visa now, hopefully that means if I leave it until just 3 weeks before the holiday I should still have plenty of time.

Did you take along a Special delivery envelope for return of your passport?

I some how assumed that for £90 they would pay the postage....

Thankyou for all the tips Poole Boy, are you doing a world Cruise, I would love to do the full world cruise!! :)

Did either of your print the 50x50 photos at home? Or where did you get them from?

Many Thanks

You don't go to the Embassy, they have contracted the process out to VFSglobal who have offices around the country. You still need to fill in the application on line then print it out. You can make an appointment online after filling out the application. We did the same earlier this year and went to the Cardiff office. Easy in the end, if you need any help filling out the form just post a question here and I'll try to help. They let you print out a sample form so you know what info you need. I filled this in manually first then copied it to the online form.

Hi, I am originally from 15mins north of Newport and am thinking I may visit my family there and sort this out at the same time. How long did it take you from start to finish, from doing the online form to getting the visa and them returning your passport? 2 weeks?

Thankyou for any advice you can offer! :)

Do not go to the Edinburgh centre - far more grief than you need. The online system works really well, better than most countries (and no need to be ripped off by handling agents such as visa central either )

By 'The online system' do you mean filling in the form and sending it in the post? Or do you mean filling in the online form and then submitting it in person?

I am very interested in how this turns out as at the moment I almost too worried about getting the indian visa to book my holiday. It doesn't help that for the time being I am not even in the UK to pop-in to their stupid offices.