The British visa application center officially opened in south China's Shenzhen City on Tuesday with 20 Chinese residents immediately applying for visas.

The British Consulate-General in Guangzhou no longer receives visa applications.

British consuls from Guangzhou and some local government officials attended the inauguration ceremony at the visa application center, located on the second floor of International Chamber of Commerce Building in Futian.

The British Embassy has introduced a network of visa application centers across the country in recent months. The first center opened in Beijing in February. Shenzhen is the fifth city to open a British visa application center, with the center in Fuzhou opening on the same day.

The application center sends the submitted material to Guangzhou through express mail service and applicants can get the result in three or four days.

“The standard of U.K. visa policy won’t change because of the opening of the center,” said Sanjay Wadvani, Guangzhou’s deputy British consul general. “But the majority of applicants don’t have to have an interview for the visa as we now focus more on paper work.”

The application center opens from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The center charges 220 yuan (US$26.7) for the service fee in addition to visa fee. Applicants can also track visa application status online at www.ukvac.cn.

(Shenzhen Daily April 6, 2005)