UK Border Agency taking online bookings

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NEWS

The UK Border Agency has begun to take online bookings for appointments to seek leave to remain in the UK.

It has gone live with a system developed by EzGov Europe, and has reported that it has taken more than 30,000 online applications and registered over 50,000 users in the first eight weeks.

The system was commissioned by the UK Border Agency's ID Cards for Foreign Nationals (ICFN) programme to help reduce the pressure on call-centre staff, process applications more efficiently and improve customer service. It was developed in eight weeks to meet "business critical timeframes".

EzGov Europe is hosting the solution and providing support and system development.

Rob Carolan, programme director at the UK Border Agency, said: "As a government agency we have to continually improve our processes, make them more efficient and ensure best value. This system allows us to do this.

"It is a fast, simple and convenient way for customers to secure an appointment slot, allowing them to book a time that suits them, whilst allowing us to free up contact centre agents for other calls. The system has been a great success even after such a short space of time and has been a welcome improvement for our customers."

Talkback

One can only hope that this is good news. The UK Border Agency's IT systems have, up until now, in our personal experience been deeply flawed.

My wife's application was quite simply 'lost in the system' on one occasion of the three applications we made and our refund - which we had to fight for through out local MP - did finally arrive, so we know with 100% certainty that the fault was at their end.

Adrian Bridgwater 8 December, 2009 12:52
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