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<p>Customers making immigration applications can no longer use Post Office branches
to enrol their biometrics in the majority of cases. Most customers now enrol their
biometrics at a UK Visas & Citizenship Application Service (UKVCAS) centre.</p><p>The
previous service offered by the Post Office was biometric enrolment only, whereas
the new UKVCAS service brings together multiple services to make the application process
more streamlined.</p><p>The UKVCAS service is run by our commercial partner, Sopra
Steria Ltd (SSL), who undertook market research to identify service locations; their
research included the impact on customer travel time, cost and accessibility. The
results of this were that 62% of customers will, on average, have to travel less than
25 miles to visit a core service point, with 78% travelling less than 50 miles.</p><p>SSL
can also cater for customers who wish to have more flexible, on-demand, mobile application
services, for example at university campuses, employers’ offices or individual customers’
homes.</p><p>As part of this contract SSL continuously captures and analyses customer
feedback and reviews customer demand to ensure there is sufficient capacity. During
May and June SSL opened six additional sites: Manchester, Cardiff, Exeter, Leeds,
Sheffield and Edinburgh, with the view to open more.</p><p>For information on the
closest core and enhanced service points to Luton, please see the UKVCAS website at:
<a href="https://www.ukvcas.co.uk/locations.%20" target="_blank">https://www.ukvcas.co.uk/locations.
</a></p>
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