VFS Global - Birmingham 5 South Road, Smethwick B67 7BN

"Yesterday I visited VFS Birmingham for my passport renewal. It was some good experience. The person who is verifying the documents suggested all the required copies and provided proper information and given the token. The person in the counter also very polite and listens our concerns in the application. She had suggested everything with great polite and with beautiful smile. There should be some easy way to take copies of the missed documents in the centre and also Photo they ask take in Photo Booth. They are all expensive here. To take copies need coins and debit/credit card is not accepted. I will suggest those who are visiting should go with all the required copies and required size of the photo. Once you have all the documents and got the token, Serving is quick."

"Be super careful before coming here. Printout your appointment, for what reason I do not know. Copy all of your documents regardless of whether you need them or not. They make an obscene amount of money from photocopies at 50p per sheet. They have one PC and one printer and a queue an hour long. The photo machine is up and down like a yoyo so take extra photos. Also be prepared to wait in line for passport photos. The stress levels are palpable and people are sweating so take of layers. Be ready to be turned away and rescheduled for the smallest thing. You may have to make multiple trips to get a simple thing done. Its Indian bureaucracy gone wild. One silver lining is the lovely guy who ushers you in and asks you your appointment time. Make a beeline for him and be nice to him he will help you so much if you speak to him in a kind manner."

"*My advice would be before submitting your application online check and double check you have filled it in correctly if it isn’t correct you will have to re do it and the computer for public use is not always working ,one family in the queue had had to go home and re submit their forms and re book .( It took 6 weeks to get a new appointment ) *Get your appointment letter ,application and passport photocopied before you go and take your photos with you (2inch square ) not passport size . *There is a long queue so be prepared to stand waiting outside without shelter for an hour to get into the building regardless of your appointment time . *Once inside there is seating and toilet facilities, the staff are lovely, working very hard and are efficient and polite , the process still required a 45 minute wait to be called for document processing."

"Excellent service. Staff deal with a huge variety of problems with patience and good humour. Always helpful to those who fail one or more of the hurdles, but they have to follow the correct procedures too. We slipped up as our application form was for the London region, little knowing that we should have selected Birmingham. We were allowed to complete a new form on-line and complete the application there and then, albeit after some anxiety. Very easy to make the same mistake as we did as the appointment windows are few and far between. We would have much preferred to visit a centre in our home county of Yorkshire, but that was not an option. We checked and double checked all our paperwork and still made a mistake. Our advice would be to follow everything to the letter and if it states a photo of 2" by 2", do not expect a passport sized photo to suffice. If you do make a mistake there are facilities in the centre to amend these, naturally at a cost. You will also need to have a photocopy of your passport and of the application form. Yes, 2 copies of application form. Take along some £1 coins for photocopier. Everything else can be paid by your plastic friend. Once again, many thanks to long suffering and overworked staff at the centre."