Originally Posted by
Swanhunter
Do leave plenty of time to get your visa. Hands down the most painful and incompetent experience I have had. I was sent away at least twice as "the visa wasn't ready" depsite it being well past the date they had given me and met several other people who had to change flights due to the embassy incompetence.
Do not take photos on the metro!
I had no problem with my visa. Went in person to the embassy in Holland Park. They didn't accept payment there, so had to pay at a Barclays (I think) branch. I walked to Kensington High Street, paid the money in, posted one copy of the receipt to the embassy and they posted me the passports with visas within a week. The Tajik embassy was a different story - they lost our passports.
Baggage reclaim and immigration at TAS was quite an experience. Tip: you have to fill in the customs form in duplicate, so they can give you one to keep for departure. If you protest, as I did, they will let you leave without a copy, which will create trouble later
.
Second tip: if you are flying out J, there is a completely separate check-in area which is not signed. Go to the far right hand side of the terminal and there is a VIP entrance. We queued for 90 mins in the main terminal to be told we could not check in there and had to go to the VIP terminal
Agree re. photos in the metro. They are really hot on it and there are reports of cameras being smashed, but I managed to get a few shots off.