Hundreds of South Africans, already inconvenienced by having to obtain visas in order to visit the UK - thanks to our Home Affairs department's inefficiencies and apparent tolerance of corruption - were ironically victims of a massive administrative snarl-up in the UK visa agency's system last month.

Not only that, but the UK government has hiked up the cost of some of its visas, which translates into a massive hike in rand terms.

Between April 2 and 5, the UK's biometric capture system - the one which records fingerprints and iris scans for visa applications - crashed, causing all visa applications in the system worldwide to become "stuck".

"We were unable to process applications lodged during this time and our IT helpdesk in London asked us to 'hold' these applications until such time as the IT problem could be identified and fixed," Ed Bossley, head of the UK's visa operations in southern Africa, told Consumerwatch.

"Applications lodged after April 5 were processed as normal, but about 400 applications were delayed by up to three weeks."

Bossley said applications usually took just three working days - cold comfort for those whose travel plans were affected by the global computer glitch.

And it appears the UK visa people didn't see fit to tell the affected people what was going on until the last minute.

Durban-based psychiatrist Dr Catherine Maud went to Visa Facilitation Services (VFS) - the company contracted to handle the visa application process - on Saturday April 4 for her interview and biometric data assessment, including an iris scan.

Given that she visits the UK often for professional and personal reasons, Maud opted to apply for the 10-year visa, which cost her about R3 000.

Despite all the April holidays, she was confident she'd get her visa in time for her departure to the UK on May 1, where she was due to give expert testimony in a court case, because she was told the process would take four to 10 working days.

She also had to apply for a Schengen visa, because she was going on to Portugal to attend a medical congress.

When she'd heard nothing about the application on April 17, she began phoning VFS's call centre. "All they could say was that my visa was being processed. I phoned every working day until the 21st, when I was given a UK government visa enquiries e-mail address."

The following day, she got an email reply from a Ms Moodley to say that they'd had an IT failure since April 2.

To cut a long story short, in order to get her Schengen visa, Maud managed to persuade the UK High Commission to make a copy of her passport and fax it the Portuguese consulate so that they could start processing that visa.

"By Friday, April 24, there was still no news about my UK visa, and that's when I realised I was in trouble," Maud says.

"If my UK visa was not processed on Tuesday, April 28 and sent to Durban thereafter, I wasn't going to manage to obtain a Schengen visa."

So she had a friend drive to Pretoria, stand in a queue for two hours and retrieve her passport - without its visa!

"The UK High Commission has retained my R3 000 without any apologies for the failed situation," Maud said. "This has been the worse visa application experience of my life."

She had no trouble getting her Schengen visa in the space of a morning, and departed as planned. Luckily, because of her many recent visits to the UK, she can still enter the UK without a visa until the end of June.

"The only reason I applied for one is when I left on my last trip, a misguided local airline employee gave me such a hard time about not having a UK visa and I wanted to avoid a similar situation," Maud said.

She asked why the local UK visa authorities had not told her how bad the IT problem was, and that she had little chance of her visa being processed before her departure.

Bossley admits this was an oversight.

"In retrospect, our communications with the affected applicants was not what it (sic) could have been," he said.

"When the problem occurred, we had no inkling that the solution might be as much as three weeks away or more - we just did not realise the gravity of the problem.

"Lessons have indeed been learned and should a similar incident result in significant delays in processing applications, I am confident that our communication… applicants will be markedly better."

The good news for Maud is that she hasn't forfeited her R3 000 visa fee.

When she resubmits her passport to VFS on her return to SA, the process will continue, with less frustration all round, one hopes.

Meanwhile, another Durbanite, Alethea Desmond, is furious because on Friday, April 3, when she approached VFS, she was told the fee was going up on the Monday, but that if she paid the lower fee for her 10-year visa, she had 15 days in which to lodge her application.

So she paid just over R3 000, but was later told that she'd have to pay the new price - more than double - because the grace period didn't apply.

Bossley told her: "Although we do indeed require that fees be paid in advance and evidence of this is presented when you apply, we do not formally enter into a 'contract' with you until you have physically lodged your application at one of our application centres.

"Ordinarily, the 15-day validity period on the payment you made would be fine. But, unfortunately, the British government announced visa fee increases after you made your payment, but before you had submitted your application at one of our offices.

"In these circumstances, we cannot accept the payment you made."

So now she has to get her money refunded and pay in almost R4 500 more.

Talk about terrible timing!

My feeling is that Desmond entered into the contract when she paid the visa fee, and the visa authorities should honour this, but Bossley was having none of it.

"The 15-day period only applies if the visa fee paid is still correct at the time the application is submitted," he said.

So why the huge fee hike?

Bossley explains: "Before April 6, 2009, all long-term visas - whether for two, five or 10 years - were priced the same, £205.

While the two-year visa has seen a small increase (to £215), the price of a five-year visa was increased to £400 and a 10-year visa was increased to £500.

"These are indeed significant increases, but the price was set to reflect the value for money that long-term visas offer to frequent travellers," Bossley sad.