Full UK visa service resumes in Libya

I am pleased to announce that the UK has now re-opened its a full visa service in Libya, after the service closed in February 2011.

Libyans are now able to apply for their UK visa at the Visa Application Centre in Tripoli.

Minister for North Africa Alistair Burt said:

“I am delighted that Libyans wishing to travel to the UK can now apply for their visa in Tripoli.

“This move will further enhance the growing relationship between our two countries and will promote stronger political, economic and cultural ties. There has been sustained progress in all these areas over the past six months and I am confident this will continue. Better transportation is an important driver of this, and I look forward to the resumption of direct flights between the UK and Libyan as soon as possible.”

From today, Libyans will be able to apply for the full range of visas – including for business, education, family visits or tourism. Libyans who wish to transit at a UK airport need to apply for a Direct Airside Transit Visa (DATV), unless they are travelling to or from the US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.

Source: Foreign and Commonwealth Office

No more Arabic Translation to passports required!

The Libyan Government (General People’s Committee) has officially announced that an Arabic Translation is NO longer required for obtaining visas to Libya. All Libyan Embassies abroad have been notified by official letters.

This is another good step Libya took towards making visa process much easier. Now travellers to Libya can now submit visa application without the need to worry about it.

Furthermore, Libya recently introduced a single entry business visa which can be obtained at Airports.

SOC Libya gained the news from reliable Libyan officials.


Photo taken from Temehu website

LIBYA: A MARKET CONTENDER EVENT

AS you may know that Libya is a country full of potential opportunities in all sectors for international companies and especially UK businesses the sectors such as oil and gas, tourism, construction, educational etc, and the UK visible exports to Libya totalled £280m in last year which was about 21% from the year before of 2007.

So for the reasons above and many more, London Chamber of Commerce organised the event which took place Tuesday 17th Nov 2009 and was held at the chamber’s head office in London from 3.30pm till 7pm in which I was one of the attendees.

It was a good chance to networking and to meet up with some people who I already know and more new and talk about Libya and the Libyan market in general and I have to say that all speakers mentioned how nice, kind and polite there and more importantly how professional and skilful they are in terms of doing business and negotiate.

Of course there was a lot of talk about how difficult the Libyan market can be, starting from obtaining visas to finalising deals and agreements.

The programme of the event was as follows:-

3.30PM REGISTRATION AND TEA

3.50PM CHAIRMAN’S OPENING REMARKS
Michael Thomas
Director General
Middle East Association

4.00PM DOING BUSINESS IN LIBYA
Paul Austin
Chairman
British Business Group, Tripoli

4.20PM POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
Adela Gooch
Programme Director, Key States
Wilton Park

4.40PM COMMERCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
John Parr
Deputy Director General
Libyan - British Business Council


4.50PM SECTOR FOCUS: CONSTRUCTION
Dominic James
Director, Middle East and Africa
British Expertise

5.10PM CASE STUDY: APOLLO INSULATION
Colin Hawkes
Director
Apollo Insulation

5.25PM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

5.40PM CHAIRMAN’S CLOSING REMARKS

5.50PM DRINKS AND NETWORKING

7.00PM CLOSE