There's good news for Chinese citizen's wishing to travel to Britain. It will soon become easier to apply for a United Kingdom visa in China.

In an unprecedented move, the British Embassy in China has introduced a network of visa application centers across the country.

The network covers not only the major cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but also others including Shenyang, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chengdu and Chongqing.

All the application centers are scheduled to be up and running by April 5th.

From then visa applicants will no longer submit their applications directly to the British Embassy or Consulates, but should travel to the nearest Visa Application Center in their catchment area to make an application.

Nicole Davison, Consul at the British Embassy in Beijing, says this system will greatly benefit visa applicants by saving them a long journey - and providing new services.

Under the new system the vast majority of decisions will be made without the need for an interview. Normally, applicants will receive a reply the day after submitting their applications.

However there will be no change to the criteria for issuing or refusing a visa.

And finally the bad news - in addition to the visa fee, the Application Center service provider will levy a charge of around 220 yuan or, just under US$27, for the visa administration services.

(CRI.com February 18, 2005)