new delhi britain which is seeing a huge spurt in visitors from india is gearing up for a further rise in their numbers this summer when it hosts the icc cricket world cup vfs global on thursday rolled out a new system that will allow uk visa applicants in india to digitally upload their supporting documents at the time of completing all other requirements online and then go to the centre with just their passports the visa major says it saw the biggest spurt in visa applications in india last year over 2017 for uk clearly brexit or no brexit the lure of london remains as strong as ever for indiansover 63 lakh people applied for a uk visa from india in the last year that included over 475 lakh visit visas an increase of 43000 the largest absolute increase for any country in addition almost 19000 tier 4 student visas were granted to indian nationals a 32 increase on the previous year along with over 55000 skilled work visas more than the rest of the world combined vfs global recorded an 8 increase in the number of uk visa applications in 2018 yearonyear most number of uk visa applications in 2018 were submitted from delhi and mumbai which accounted for over 40 of uk visa applications from the country vfs global said in a statementseeing the massive increase vfs global and the uk visas and immigration ukvi developed a new system and rolled it out from thursday that will allow applicants to digitally upload their supporting documents along with completing the other requirements online as they have been doing and then go to the application centre with just their passports this selfupload option to visa applicants will see the entire process filling visa application form booking appointments paying fees and selfuploading documents getting completed in a single online journeypreviously indian visa applicants applied for a visa via two separate websites govuk and vfs global as part of the new customer journey customers can access information about or opt for all visa services at the outset of their visa application journey the new system can be accessed via wwwgovuk customers now have the option to digitally upload documentation prior to visiting the visa application centre using their smartphone tablet or other cameracomputing device customers who opt for the selfupload option can visit the centre with just their passport meaning less need to carry original documents with them vfs global said in a statementthe visa major has also started a check and verify service in association with ukvi for uk visa applicants across india using this service customers can opt to run their documentation past trained vfs global professionals for independent authentication and have the verification report sent directly to ukvi this service provides customers with a higher degree of assurance about the documentsinformation submitted while giving greater confidence to ukvi about the genuineness of the document it saiddavid ratcliffe ukvis regional