BLS Spain Visa Application Centre London — Local services in London

I do not want to waste anymore effort, time and energy on this company so I will just post the complaint letter I wrote to them...to which I never received a reply!!

Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing to complain about the appointment booking process and service we received at BLS Manchester two weeks ago. We are a family of four, myself, my partner and our two sons aged 8 and 9 and applied for the non-lucrative visa for Spain.

I actually looked at the appointment availability on the BLS website a several weeks ago and saw that I would be able to book a family appointment for four members. However, when I looked again a week or so later, the option for a family appointment had been reduced to three members...why?! (to make more money...?!)

Before I actually booked the appointment, I contacted BLS to ask what would be best for me to do. I was asked several questions about our family relationships as my partner and I are not married so this seemed to cause some confusion! I was told that my partner had to book a separate appointment as he was not classed as a family member but when I told them that he was the father of our children, I was told that I had to book a separate appointment as I was then not classed as a member of the family!!! I was asked whether the boys were my 'blood' sons and when I explained that yes, they were my biological children, I was told that I still had to book a separate appointment as I had a different surname than my partner and two sons!! It's 2024!!!!

On the 31st January, I tried to book an appointment for myself and my family (partner and two boys) for the next day, 1st February but after I had booked my appointment, my partner was unable to book an appointment for himself and our two boys!! My appointment was at 12:30pm and when my partner went to book straight after me, there were no consecutive appointments available so we were going to have to book for 10:45am. We accepted this but then after completing all of the online forms, the 'selfie' part of the booking process right at the end was not working!! My partner tried this several times but it kept saying that the photo was invalid and then would lock him out of the system for two hours!!! It was extremely stressful and frustrating! We then decided that the best thing for us to do, was to cancel my appointment and rebook for all four of us for Monday 5th February. However, I read that if I cancelled my appointment, I would not be able to rebook for another 15 days! This is absolutely ridiculous!! We are a family of four and needed an appointment together because our application was together!

We then decided to just have another attempt at booking an appointment for my partner and our two boys for the same day as me (which was the next day) but when it came to selecting an appointment date, the 1st February was not available as an option as it was just past midnight! The only option we had left was to contact BLS first thing the following morning.

I phoned BLS at 9am and was advised that we all turn up to attend the appointment that I had booked for myself at 12:30pm and explain the situation in the hope that we would all be seen together. He also said I should write an email, explaining our situation, which I did. I received a reply as we were on our way to Salford but all it said was that they had received my email and would get back to me.

Arriving at BLS in Salford at 11:30am, I explained our situation to the receptionist and she said that it was possible that we could all be seen but that we may have to pay for a premium appointment...what choice did we have but to go along with this?! BLS had us trapped.

(*I have exceeded the character limit so will post Part 2 now!)

Oh...it seems I can't do this...just have low...

Appalling experience overall in my attempt to secure a visa to Spain. Would strongly urge the Spanish consulate to take note of all the negative reviews of the BLS as their chosen outsourced service provider.

Spent forever trying to get an appointment on their poorly constructed, and inefficient website with multiple captcha requirement at each step including every time when refreshing to assess appointment slot availability. There were no appointment slots available in their London branch despite checking multiple times a day, including around and after midnight for both standard/normal and premium service. Finally found out by looking at reviewers here that walk in appointment are offered. Turned up at the center with my documents in order, spent 2ish hours standing outside and finally arrived inside the center where a standoffish and abrupt receptionist checked through my documents and asked me if I’d like to proceed with my application given the just-below cutoff on the financial requirement. Was rushed away before I could think of a solution and when I did think to print off an additional supporting document, I went back to the same receptionist who told me the same queue was for printing too with instructions on how to send document on the signs posted behind her. Waited around for my turn again only to then be told by the very same receptionist who had pointed out the above that she couldn’t print for me as she had already attended to me and I was told to seek printing service outside. This is appalling behaviour - why have signs put up behind the reception counter with details on how to send documents for printing and why tell me the same queue for printing if she was never going to print? I did manage to rush around outside the center (mail box does printing service about 8 mins walk away) and managed to get the document printed and arrived back at the center for the rest of the visa processing through the standard route (not premium lounge/service). Proceeded through and when time to pay arrived, I found out that all walk in appointments are being charged the premium service rate without actually being offered a premium service! This borders on fraudulent - I was not offered a premium service and to charge walk in that when BLS itself has not been able to offer standard appointment slots to 100s of people (see other reviews) appears to be nothing but a money-ripping scam.

Clearly they have far more capacity onsite than they have advertised slots on their website (evidenced by the 100 + visas they process every day; in my observation, in my queue of walk-in appointments, over a span of 4 hours, I counted about 50+ people who they had managed to squeeze in as walk-ins with far fewer people coming through with booked appointments). I can only conclude from that that the availability of standard slots are being intentionally restricted online forcing people to either attend as walk-in where they are saddled with a premium service charge but no premium service or resort to home service with an expensive charge of 400£. I was NOT served a premium service but in fact it was standard service including at least another 2 hour waiting time from the time of receiving a token after the clearance from the receptionist.

This is completely and utterly broken system set up by BLS for what should be fairly straight forward appointment booking system in, what I can only assume, is an attempt to...

Update: I came back after 3 years. Whilst my experience in 2019 was quite horrendous, I’m now giving BLS Spain 2 extra stars as I had a seamless experience on 7 July 2022.

I applied for multi entry visa with Spain as my first and longest destination as I couldn’t find any slots on VFS. I found slots for BLS Spain, but months in advance. So I suggest you make sure you get a slot before booking anything. Mine must have been at least 4 months before my trip. Don’t come early on the day. I arrived half an hour early and was told to wait outside. It was very packed around 12. The staff at reception were rude/short tempered to other customers, so make sure you have EVERYTHING in your checklist. Make sure to bring water, be prepared to wait for a long time. There was a lady asking people to go wait outside, which wasn’t very nice but it was incredibly stuffy in the waiting room. I waited for an hour after my supposed appointment time, so don’t expect to get in and out quickly. There were only 4 active counters on the day. The lady sitting beside me was shaking due to panic, so again I strongly suggest going through your checklist and prepare everything and more! The staff handling your visa were actually lovely, just remember to smile and be nice to them. Prepare everything, I didn’t get questioned as I had 4cm worth of printouts. One thing to note is you should print bank statements AT THE BANK. The whole process took 10 minutes including the biometrics. Pay card, they don’t have any change if you pay cash. I paid £83. Save £25 by buying prepaid envelope instead of using their courier service, £7.65 special delivery royal mail envelope at the post office. I was told I would get my passport back within 2-4 weeks. My passport came on 23 July, so it took 2 weeks to process. I got a message the day before the delivery, and got my multi entry visa.

ORIGINAL REVIEW August 2019: Probably one of my worst experiences applying for a visa here. No customer service whatsoever, everyone were very rude. The waiting room was full and uncomfortably warm, suffocating. They were definitely trying to make money and my life harder. Made me go back and forth to the bank. Instead of telling me everything that was ‘missing’ from my application, the lady decided to say, oh, you didn’t book the accommodation and travel under your name, when it was very clear that I was travelling with my then boyfriend. She proceeded to make me get her a letter of confirmation from my boyfriend, which he did straight away even though he was at work. After that, she said, I need his passport! At this point I was just exasperated and angry. Why are you making things up? If you really needed his passport why didn’t you say in the first place, to save me from going back and forth. Not everyone has time to waste on things like this. I didn’t give her my boyfriend’s passport and my application was accepted. On top of that, they made me print a ‘missing’ travel insurance policy. Made me use their expensive printer for 6 pages of nonsense. I have applied to several other EU countries before in London and they NEVER asked for this. Also unknowingly charged me for SMS reminder, which never came. My request for refund was refused. Worst embassy ever. Avoid at all costs. If you are applying for multi entry visa I’d suggest other embassies....