Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Visa Application Centres in (a) Kenya, (b) Nigeria, (c) Ghana and (d) South Africa courier passports and other documents of visa applicants to Decision Making Centres in the UK.

Visa Application Centres (VACs) in Africa are operated by the commercial partner, TLS Contact, on behalf of UK Visas and Immigration. TLS Contact do not send physical passports or documents from these locations to the UK. Passports are stored either at the VAC or, for some locations, at a remote print location. A Keep My Passport service is available for purchase at the majority of the VACs in these countries which allows a customer to keep their passport while their application is processed.