CIBTReviews of cibt.com

I applied for a UK Business VISA from my residence in Austria. When the visa was approved, for some reason I was asked to send [by myself] passport to Serbia. As I am not allowed by law to ship my ID documents across the border, I have been trying to raise my concerns directly with my CIBT manager over the last few days by phone, unfortunately without success; I have always been redirected to customer service based in South Asia, who seem to be unaware of the regulations; the only answer they could give me was: "speak directly to TLS"; "now it is your concern, you have to deal with your situation yourself...". Furthermore, I was charged >1,000 EUR for my visa application, without even any express services. I find the service charge unreasonably high. No quote was provided beforehand. Furthermore, the amount was quietly charged without my consent. The invoice was only provided weeks later when I noticed an unknown transaction on my credit card and contacted the agent. Despite the fact that I provided my credit card details at the time of booking for insurance purposes [as we do in hotels], I expected that the agency would only be able to enforce payment in the event of unlawful behaviour. CIBT also has a policy that a customer can never reach the person responsible for the service on the mobile phone. They use an intermediary call centre that never connects a caller to the responsible agent. This makes it difficult to address any feedback or issues directly.

Not happy at all with the handling of our application for visa and medical travel plan, we were charged £150 for being handled, and the invoice was only revealed after the payment of £475 was taken from the account. Asked to cancel the travel plan and the answer was that they cannot cancel it...a massive complaint is coming their way. I just want my money back. What a hassle...

2 major issues 1. CIBT sent me someone else's passport application!!! Completely unacceptable. Barely an apology or an appropriate response as to why/how this happened and what would be done to rectify it. I was only told "no one received your information." I have no way to verify that or not. 2. I selected the 2-3 week timeframe for process knowing I was applying a month out from my departure date. After I received my correct application and sent in my documents, I receive an email saying there isn't enough time to process. I call and state 2-3 weeks is right up until my travel date. She said "it's 2-3 weeks in business days so that means 15-21 days to process because they don't work the weekends." Then state BUSINESS days in the description or state 4-5 weeks! And yes, I already concluded you don't work on the weekends...... So disappointed in this service and only used them because this was what my employer recommended.

Awful experience. Stone walling. No intervention. Applied in plenty of time but numerous errors on CIBT’s part have led to us going down to the wire. We have 7 working days to our departure and no idea yet if we will be able to go. They do NOTHING. Hang up on you if you ask to speak to a Supervisor. Run away from them. EDIT: Z0632684.

It was a terrible experience, I was provided with information to finish my visa application only after my business trip and there was no way to cancel it for free so they charged me 270$ without even providing a visa. And I also had a very bad experience with customer service saying that it was basically my fault and that there was nothing else to do other than pay a cancellation fee.

Avoid total rip off charged over £450 for 2 visas and expected to print yourself just for a week visit when offered free from Indian embassy

I applied for a 2-day express visa service from CIBT. I didn't receive any updates from them for 8 days and my travel date was fast approaching. Feeling distraught, I contacted their customer service and was told that my visa is still in processing. I got my visa the next day, but found my visa was already approved in the first day itself and CIBT failed to send it to me sooner. This is unprofessional and doesn't comply with the promised service agreement. Very disappointing.

Nothing seemed to work - initial premier appointments somehow never got confirmed so we lost over a week not knowing (no warning on website that email confirmation needed. Website said "submitted successfully". Then had to upgrade to door to door service. Even that was a nightmare with 2 appointments cancelled, one because CIBT had apparently had not paid sub-supplier(BLS).