Exemplar 21: Visas
Published 1 June 2013
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gds-transformation-programme-2013-to-2015/exemplar-21-visas
The visas exemplar aimed to provide a simple online service for people who need a visa to visit the UK.
Department responsible
| Department | Permanent secretary | Digital leader |
|---|---|---|
| Home Office | Mark Sedwill | Mike Parsons |
Status
Recently passed the live Digital by Default Service Assessment and migrating to the live service.
Watch a short film about the public beta service to apply for a Visit Visa from China, filmed January 2014:
Watch a short demo, extending permission to work in the UK, filmed January 2014:
You can also watch a demo introducing the service, filmed July 2013:
Video: Exemplar 21: Visit visa applications - Demo
Successes
The service passed its live Digital by Default Service Assessment.
The service manager is supported by a great product team.
Members of the service team are very good exponents of agile delivery.
The China Visit Visa beta was delivered on time and budget.
Extensive user research has been carried out with a range of groups, including overseas users, English second-language users, agencies and UK legal representatives.
Provided foreign language guidance in simplified Chinese and established a multi-lingual framework for managing translated content.
The service has received excellent feedback from users with an average satisfaction of 80%.
Over 60,000 Visit Visa applications from China have been completed so far.
The case working process is benefitting from the new, clearer service as the quality of submitted data is improving.
We’re frequently improving the service based on user feedback.
Challenges
Existing teams and suppliers having to step up to new ways of working.
Building Civil Service capability in digital skills.
Generating digital content that balances the different needs of law, policy, security, an english second-language audience, and GOV.UK content guidelines.
Creating translated content that retains the same meaning and balance across these disparate needs Improving the governance of the service to embrace agile principles.
Next
Continue to iteratively improve the Standard Visit Visa for China based on user feedback and research.
As a priority, develop service for travel agent groups from China.
Develop the current model for service management to meet the standard required for a GOV.UK live service.
Reuse the exemplar technology for other types of Visa.
Refine the agile team and recruit more Civil Service capability to support its work, filling several team vacancies.
Help to establish a new service governance model based on agile principles.
Prepare for live Digital by Default Service Standard assessment.
Digital strategy statement
From the ‘Home Office digital strategy’ — December 2012:
…a single intelligent interface which adapts the questions it asks the user based on business rules: avoiding unnecessary questions and providing a dynamic, streamlined process that users (many of whom are not native English speakers) find simple and accessible.
Scope of exemplar
Better visa process is a political priority to drive UK growth by promoting visits from tourists, students and business people. Currently 3.57m visas are issued at a cost of £649m/year, £182 per transaction.
Digital inclusion
GDS has mapped the exemplars against the digital inclusion scale to help show where these services may be difficult for some people to use. See the rating for Visas.
Delivery Status
Discovery
Completed: Discovery — February 2013.
Read about the discovery phase.
Alpha
Completed: Alpha build — July 2013.
Beta
Completed: Private beta development — September 2013 to January 2014.
Completed: Visa extensions private beta release — February 2014.
Completed: Chinese visitors public beta release — June 2014.
Completed: Visa extensions public beta release — October 2014.
Live
Service goes live (depending on Service Standard assessment) — March 2015.
Anticipated volume
3.4m visas issued a year
Service link
Service performance
See how the Visas service is performing.
For further information about this project please visit our blog or contact us.