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Pakistan visa application

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Mo.

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Since I last went Pakistan they seem to have changed the visa application process. Last time I just rolled up to the embassy in London, gave in the application and then left it with them for a few days and it was all sorted.

But now it seems you have to use some company called Gerrys, website visadropbox.com. It says the cost is £140 which is ridiculous.

Has anyone used this? I thought it was some dodgy company but it seems to be legit.

The website is beyond useless so if anyone has used it I have some questions

1. Does the applicant have to be present when applying? Could I apply on behalf of a relative who can't make it to their centre in London?
2. Processing times. How long did it take?
3. Does it really cost £140?
4. Who is Gerry?

I'm a British national if it matters.
 
Unfortunately everyone has to use Gerrys, and the fee of £140 is absolutely ridiculous. How can they even justify that visa fee to visit Pakistan is mind boggling

compare the fee with a tourist visa to India which is only 60USD so about £50
 
Last edited:
sully3 said:
Unfortunately everyone has to use Gerrys, and the fee of £140 is absolutely ridiculous. How can they even justify that visa fee to visit Pakistan is mind boggling

compare the fee with a tourist visa to India which is only 60USD so about £50
Click to expand...

well the tourist visa fee for india that i have just applied for is £100 +£10 extra for pakistani origin which i thought was very high

but i have to agree 140 is very high. I dont know about Gerrys but perhaps its is a company like VFS and yes their website is also quite difficult to follow..
 
"Gerrys" is a company that processes the visa application for you. They don't actually make the decisions on the visa. They are the middleman between you and the visa department. The British High Commission in Pakistan also use them for Pakistanis applying for British visas. I'm pretty sure it's only the Pakistani London Embassy that are using this method. The Pakistani High Commission in Manchester is still doing it the good old way.....fight amongst the rest of the people in the morning to submit your application and pick it up again the same afternoon :) Must be only London that is using Gerrys.

On the subject of cost, you can get the visa for £44 if you can prove you are Pakistani by descent.....a copy of your previous Pakistani passport OR one of your parent's Pakistani passport.

A piece of advice-when you go to Pakistan next, get yourself down to a NADRA office and show them you parent's Pakistani passport/ID card and you get a "NICOP" card. Basically it shows you are an overseas Pakistani by descent and entitles you to visa free entry. Cost me Rs 500 a few years back and lasts 10 years!!

More Info here LINK
 
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Can any body advise what procedure is involved if I have to re new my Pakistani passport as it has expired, would I still need to apply via Gerry's or is this just for visa application.

Can I just turn up on the day and submit my passport at Knightsbridge office in London.
 
classic said:
Can any body advise what procedure is involved if I have to re new my Pakistani passport as it has expired, would I still need to apply via Gerry's or is this just for visa application.

Can I just turn up on the day and submit my passport at Knightsbridge office in London.
Click to expand...


You apply in person to your local High Commission, no appointment needed.

More Info here: LINK
 
Absolute joke of a country. The bureaucrats are killing the economy.

As some of you know, I have an IT business, employing about 20 guys in Karachi. My business partner is (white) English. He has been to Pakistan numerous times in the last three years on a business visa with very few issues.

We were going over in July/Aug again this year, and so he put in his usual business visa application a couple of months before, with the usual supporting documentation. When he hadnt heard anything in a few weeks, he rang up the Bradford Consulate. Couldnt get through. So he went in person. Massive queues, and the Consulate denied having received his application. He went to Gerrys, and they were more helpful, and able to confirm they had received his application and forwarded onto the Consulate. So he went back to Consulate, where they the claimed Gerrys had forwarded the application in the last hour. Yeah, of course.

Anyway, in the end he got to meet the senior Consulate guy who then told him their recent crazy rule changes for business applications. Firstly, you need to provide your flight details with your application, meaning that you need to pay for a non-refundable flight even if your application is rejected.

Secondly, you can now only be sponsored by a Pak company that is a member of the Pak Chamber of Commerce. Our company has been incorporated for three years, and employs many people. We pay all of our taxes, unlike most Pak companies. Yet his own company cant sponsor him!

I went via my nicop, and the Marriott was empty. The hotel staff were complaining that the number of foreigners has dropped massively, even in the last 6 months. As if it wasnt hard enough to attract foreigners to Pak (especially Karachi) in the first place!

And the very few foreigners I met were very critical of the hoops they had to jump to get into the country, and that they wouldnt be coming ever again.

These loons are killing my country.
 
Last edited:
Mo. said:
Since I last went Pakistan they seem to have changed the visa application process. Last time I just rolled up to the embassy in London, gave in the application and then left it with them for a few days and it was all sorted.

But now it seems you have to use some company called Gerrys, website visadropbox.com. It says the cost is £140 which is ridiculous.

Has anyone used this? I thought it was some dodgy company but it seems to be legit.

The website is beyond useless so if anyone has used it I have some questions

1. Does the applicant have to be present when applying? Could I apply on behalf of a relative who can't make it to their centre in London?
2. Processing times. How long did it take?
3. Does it really cost £140?
4. Who is Gerry?

I'm a British national if it matters.
Click to expand...
Seems like they're doing what Brazil does with it's visa policy i.e. treat citizens of different countries how they treat yours for all visa/entry related matters.

Pakistani citizens have been following this exact process to apply for UK visas for the better part of a decade now. Gerry's handles all UK visa applications for their Islamabad embassy since Pakistanis aren't allowed in the embassy itself. Application fee back in 2008 was £90 or thereabouts so, accounting for inflation, £140 sounds about right. Processing times can be long(UK embassy in AUH issued visas for Pakistani applicants back then, not sure how it is now), it took me a month and a half to get mine.
 
So can I apply on behalf of someone else with their passport and application or do they have to be present when I go to the centre?
 
Tourism is already at a record low and they want people to pay such absurd fees for a visa? Who do they think they are? Switzerland?
 
Down2Earth said:
Tourism is already at a record low and they want people to pay such absurd fees for a visa? Who do they think they are? Switzerland?
Click to expand...

Agreed. I have to go for a family wedding so I have to pay it. If it was just a visit I would simply not go.
 
Pakistan should be luring tourist to come to Pakistan instead it does the opposite not long before its a complete flop country.
 
£140 pounds, wth?

Imagine a family of five, 140x5= £700

A plane ticket costs that much!!
 
the reason the cost is more... its because.. Dual nationals have a Visa Card.. which lasts 10 years.. on this card you can go Pakistan for free thats why I think they have increased the Visa price
 
Barragan said:
Yeah, the Pak embassy is a joke, considering you can get free visa entry into Dubai and other parts of the world, with a British national.
Click to expand...

As a Pakistani citizen I am not allowed to enter in UK for free, so why such an exemption for british citizens?

It also depends on dollar rates worldwide.
 
If you just go any apply for national overseas card which take less than 2 weeks to arrive and is valid for 10 years than you wouldnt have to apply for visa
 
what 180 pounds???? visa fee from Germany is 35 euro and you can get it overnight quite easily.
 
dhump said:
what 180 pounds???? visa fee from Germany is 35 euro and you can get it overnight quite easily.
Click to expand...

It used to be that cheap here too but now, they have hiked up the price for no reason.

They are taking an unfair advantage of people, who like to go and meet their families in Pak.

Also, here in the summer time, PIA flights can cost up to £750-£900 per person, due to high demand.

So, with these extortionate prices, travelers would have already spent around £1000-£3000 (depending on the no. of personnel) before even stepping foot in Pak.
 
Barragan said:
It used to be that cheap here too but now, they have hiked up the price for no reason.

They are taking an unfair advantage of people, who like to go and meet their families in Pak.

Also, here in the summer time, PIA flights can cost up to £750-£900 per person, due to high demand.

So, with these extortionate prices, travelers would have already spent around £1000-£3000 (depending on the no. of personnel) before even stepping foot in Pak.
Click to expand...

Who the hell uses PIA really. I always use emirates or etihad airways. I dont know may be they have increased the prices here too.
 
Because everyone is desperate to visit Pakistan and we get so many visitors , that amount of fees is to discourage them , still we get just so many !
 
Pakistan visa applications

I see visa applications for Pak are only accepted online now after manual ones have been stopped. Is it a difficult process and how long before travelling should a person apply?. Been ages since I travelled to Pak so what is the process, i only have a British passport.
 
I thought a foreign passport holder does not need to acquire any visa prior to arrival and visa-exempt. You have a British passport. This initiative was taken by Imran Khan for promoting tourism in Pakistan. I guess you need to book a flight and off you go, to be honest, staying more than 2 weeks, will be unbearable due to unforeseen issues that grapple with a third world country. However, check the requirements online whether you can utilize this option on your British passport.
 
It has been ages since i visited Pak so can someone tell me how long before travelling should i apply for a visa and how long does a Pak visa normally last for?.
 
PakLFC said:
It has been ages since i visited Pak so can someone tell me how long before travelling should i apply for a visa and how long does a Pak visa normally last for?.
Click to expand...

I got a 5 year visa. They had options for 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, but i chose the longest option for 5 years. Figured its better to have and not need then need and not have.
 
Gharib Aadmi said:
I got a 5 year visa. They had options for 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, but i chose the longest option for 5 years. Figured its better to have and not need then need and not have.
Click to expand...

How much did that cost you?
 
PakLFC said:
In £££ please?. $127 is not bad for a Gharib Aadmi:inzi2
Click to expand...

Not sure for UK, but i just checked the UK Pakistan High commission webpage, and they have outsourced it to Gerry's. Gerry's website has the fees, but it does not show the 5 year one. Only for single, one, and two year. Which is strange as the High Commission website says its available for 5 years.

https://gerrysvisa.com/countries/Pakistan Visa Fee

The fees are more expensive than the US.


Have you considered getting a POC or NICOP? Most of my family has that. If you have enough time before you go, maybe that can be an option.
 
Even after holding a British passport some Pakistanis never change their mentality. I mean, everything is available on the Nadra website and proper information is just one click away still we need to do spoon-feeding to such people defies logic. Come on, you can do currency conversion by yourself. Do not be so lazy and brings a bad reputation to your British passport.
 
rockyboy2018 said:
Even after holding a British passport some Pakistanis never change their mentality. I mean, everything is available on the Nadra website and proper information is just one click away still we need to do spoon-feeding to such people defies logic. Come on, you can do currency conversion by yourself. Do not be so lazy and brings a bad reputation to your British passport.
Click to expand...

But then how will everyone else here know that he had a thought about gracing the motherland with his presence 🤔
 
rockyboy2018 said:
Even after holding a British passport some Pakistanis never change their mentality. I mean, everything is available on the Nadra website and proper information is just one click away still we need to do spoon-feeding to such people defies logic. Come on, you can do currency conversion by yourself. Do not be so lazy and brings a bad reputation to your British passport.
Click to expand...

Has it occurred to you that this thread is all about sharing opinions. Your rant could apply to all threads as well. There are opinions on all subjects available online from sport to politics. No point in opening threads on them either.
 
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