“From this day, visa seekers must make their applications online, a procedure that will speed up the process,” said Roderick Drummond, charge d’affaires at the UK Embassy in Riyadh. “But they will still have to visit the visa application center for fulfilling the biometric procedure and other requirements, including photographs,” he told Arab News in an interview at the British Consulate General.

While Saudi nationals can get their visas within 48 hours, it will take five to 10 days for students,” he said, adding that the visa issuance has been centralized in Riyadh, with the application centers in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam as facilitators.

“There is a high demand for UK visas and the online service will help speed up the process,” he said, adding that the applicant will spend not more than 15 minutes at the center.

According to Drummond, a record number of 100,000 visas were issued in the Kingdom last year, 20 percent more than the previous year. About 20,000 of them were student visas. “We have already issued 65,000 visas this year and hope to match last year’s figures by the year-end,” said Drummond. He mentioned Saudi Arabia as the UK’s busiest visa post in the Gulf.

The Kingdom remains on top of other Gulf states in terms of the number of British visas issued. In the rest of the Gulf, 200,000 visas are issued annually. Many of them are long-term multiple visas ranging from five to 10 years as they either own property or do business in the UK. “We encourage Saudis to apply for long term-visas because they either own property or are involved in business, and have to visit the UK often. We can always improve visa services in both directions.”

Sir Tom Phillips will arrive in early September to assume charge as the UK’s next ambassador. His first overseas posting was as first secretary in the British High Commission in Harare, and he returned to Africa as high commissioner in Uganda in 2000. He has served as ambassador to Israel since 2006 and was previously the director responsible for Afghanistan and South Asia at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Drummond said.

Drummond, who attended a conference of all UK ambassadors in London, following the recent change of government, said the meeting was of the view that the country’s relations with Saudi Arabia were pretty good but they could be better. “Relations are already good but need more development and high-level attention because of Britain’s strategic bilateral ties,” he said.

The bilateral trade stands at 6 billion pounds ($10 billion) a year. Investment holds tremendous prospects as a lot of Saudis have invested in the UK and the British investment across Saudi Arabia is huge.

With the Kingdom pursuing the path of Saudization and globalization, training holds a key opportunity for overseas companies.

The UK has some of the best institutions in the world and is keen to do more in the field of education. “We want to get British technology involved in various science and technology disciplines here,” he said.

Some 20,000 Saudi students are pursuing courses in the UK. “We want to strengthen the flow of Saudi students to the UK. We would like to work with the King Abdullah Scholarship Program in this connection. Several thousand students have gone to the UK under the scholarship program, which is also supported by the private sector. We help them choose right subjects,” Drummond said.

About 200 other students have joined training courses during the current vacation through Technical and Vocational Training Corporation, he added. “We focused on projecting small and medium companies before. We now want to galvanize interest among our big companies and consortiums to take advantage of the prospects that hold for investment, especially health care, transport, manufacturing and training. We have technology that can match the development plan here,” he said, adding that the UK is keen to do more in the field of education.