India has launched its new ‘visa at your doorstep’ (VAYD) service for both individuals and groups, which costs £180 per person.

The introduction of the new service, being operated by VFS Global, follows India’s sudden decision to suspend postal applications last month. At the time, it said all applications must be made in person, causing operators to fear hundreds of people would cancel holidays because they’d be unable to get appointments in time.

The cost of £180 for the new VAYD service is for anyone living within 25 miles of the nearest UK application centre. For those living further away, there’s an additional 45p per mile to pay.

There are application centres in Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hounslow, Leicester, London and Manchester.

For groups wishing to use the VAYD service the cost of £180 per individual is reduced, with 10% off groups of five or more, and by 20% for groups of 10-plus.

Requests for VAYD must be emailed to VFS Global.

VFS says it has also released more slots for face-to-face appointments at application centres, including on Saturdays and weekday afternoons in Birmingham and in London, where a third, new processing centre opened this week.

And tour operators running group tours with a minimum of five applicants travelling together on the same flight can now make a single application for the entire group, as long as they have a designated representative in India who will pass details of the group to the immigration authorities before the group’s arrival.

To use the service, tour operator must supply a covering letter on company letterhead paper detailing the request and provide a copy of the company’s certificate of incorporation.

In addition, it must send a copy of certificate of incorporation of the India-based company whose authorised representative will submit a list of group members and their itinerary.

The tour operator must also ‘undertake to conduct the travel of the group as per the itinerary’ which must also be sent in advance alongside the other paperwork.

VFS has also introduced a suite of other services for visa applicants, including digital document checking, which costs £15, and form filling, which also costs £15.