The main point of an embassy is to provide consulate services TO IT'S OWN CITIZENS and to act as a diplomatic outreach. It's not to provide services to the citizens of other countries. They are not a McDonald's or a service organization.
It does not make sense for them to have an expensive consulate staff with the expensive visa issuance tools and software in a country where the citizens do not need a visa.
They expect you to plan ahead or do not travel, and they will also need time to verify your financial status and ensure you will not go missing and be an illegal.
If you think the typical sg-style self-entitlement bang-fist-on-table will impress the European embassies, think again. ;-)
i didn't say providing services only for visa application.. basically it's for any kind of services.. not limited to visa
if it's about cutting cost/lowering human resources in respective local country then i see no way they can provide good and fast services
plan ahead? sure definitely.. but not in 12 weeks time ahead just for applying visa (judging from 100% ratio).
now the problem is we don't know whom we can get the info from about the exact time.. will they be able to make it in time or not, if not we can simply withdraw the application..
everything have to go thru agency.. and the agency cannot advise anything about the exact timing..
another problem is only to get our docs returned could take up to 20 working days.. this is totally insane, don't you think so? what kind of service is this??
to be honest they don't have standard/requirements what to submit though they have docs guidelines.. they just mention to submit whichever docs you would think useful in supporting the statements that you have made in the application form.
and for me i submitted everything in a hope they can speed it up.. but i doubt so.. i think now the bottleneck is on the 1 point of approving party of British High Commission.
so many application coming in from different countries no wonder it takes that long..
