The cancellation of all visa appointment slots nationwide has made applicants for Swiss Schengen tourist and transit visas in the United Kingdom invalid, according to a report from Bleeping Computer. The cancellations were put down to an IT incident at TLSContact, the government’s choice of an IT company to make it easier for nationals of other nations to apply for visas. Manchester, Edinburgh, and London were the locations of the impacted TLSContact centers.

When planning to visit Switzerland, Belgium, France, or Germany, residents of the UK who are nationals of nations that require a visa for travel to European countries are urged to submit an application through TLSContact. These nations are a part of the EU’s Schengen Zone, which enables travelers and business travelers with valid visas to enter all Schengen-member nations without further documents at internal borders.

The Swiss Embassy’s London office’s automatic response to the predicament stated that the visa appointments at TLSContact had to be canceled and rescheduled owing to technical issues. They are actively working with TLSContact to find solutions to the problems as soon as possible, and they will inform candidates of their revised appointment dates.

Third-country nationals frequently contact partners in outsourced IT and visa processing like TLSContact, VFS Global, and BLS International for assistance. However, there have been instances where the application process did not go as expected during the hectic summer season.

In a different incident that was previously reported, VFS Global brought attention to the fact that con artists were selling fraudulent Schengen visa appointments in the United Arab Emirates while disguising themselves as firm workers. This year, there have been more con artists giving phony appointments, which has caused some unfortunate people to become the victims of fraud.

The demand for travel has significantly increased in EU countries as a result of the lifting of COVID-related limitations and the improvement in the epidemiological condition. Data from AirDNA, which shows a record-high occupancy rate of 66% in Europe last month with the supply still four percent below pre-pandemic levels, reflects this increase in travel.