Foreign ministry to host temporary UK visa application centre

The Maldives foreign ministry’s office in Malé will host a temporary centre next month for visa applications to travel to the United Kingdom.

Organised by the British embassy, the centre will be open from 9am to 5pm on August 5 and 6, the foreign ministry announced on Sunday.

“The Temporary UK Visa application service is provided annually to assist Maldivians especially students travelling to the United Kingdom for further studies, to easily and conveniently apply for their Visas,” the foreign ministry said.

Appointments can be booked online.

In December last year, the UK announced plans to open a resident embassy in the Maldives.

Most embassies accredited to the Maldives are based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The Maldives currently hosts seven diplomatic missions in the capital Malé.

The UK would become the first European or Western country to have a resident diplomatic presence in the Maldives.

Mark Field MP, the UK’s minister of state for Asia and the Pacific, was among the first foreign government officials to visit the Maldives following President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s election victory in September.

In January, the foreign ministry also hosted a temporary biometric clinic for the Germany-Schengen visa. It was the first time the Schengen visa application service was provided in the Maldives.