Several British citizens wishing to visit India have been forced to postpone or cancel their travels after visa agents in the country were notified that they could no longer apply for a tourist visa on behalf of the applicant, reports ndtv.com

This means that the applicant must now appear in person at the UK visa centres. The tow hitch, right? There are no appointments available before their flights depart.

There has been an increasing backlog for Indian visas in recent months as applicants complain about a shortage of available appointments and long processing times.

India’s High Commissioner in the UK has outlined the steps being taken to address the issue.

“First of all, we understand that it is difficult to get these agreements, we are doing our best to improve the situation,” Vikram Doraiswami said in his video message from India House in London.

He stressed that more visa slots will be released online soon and that they are also ramping up their capacity in partnership with their service provider VFS.

Two new visa centres are due to be established by the end of the month – one in Glasgow, Scotland, and the other in central London.

“The essence of this effort is to make sure we get to about 40,000 visa applications per month, which is doubling our capacity,” he said.

Previously, Britons could also apply for a paper visa for India by post. But the UK is now excluded from this, a fate similar to Lebanon and Pakistan.

Applying for visas in person for UK citizens at this stage is rather difficult, if not impossible, as the appointments at India’s 9 visa processing centres, from Birmingham to Manchester and from central London to Edinburgh, have been fully booked for over a month.

The long wait for Indian visas threatens to derail holiday plans for hundreds of Britons, long accustomed to quick visa approvals, booked to fly to India in the coming weeks.

For example, tourism is the second largest source of income for Rajasthan and the largest market for the state is the United Kingdom. The director of Sita Travels, Dipak Deva, claims that the removal of e-visas has also led to the cancellation of booked holidays, causing a significant drop in visitor numbers. He adds: “The tourism industry will lose nearly $50 million from the cut in e-visa.”

Meanwhile, the British High Commissioner for India warned Indians planning to visit the UK. Alex Ellis said: “My advice is not to lock in your plane tickets until you get your visa just in case. We want to see an unprecedented number of Indian students in the UK this year”, adding that the UK is educating more people and keeps priority visas open.