Visa application centres in Lucknow (Alambagh)

Before your appointment in Lucknow

1. 1Head for the first floor of the Alambagh Bus Terminal whatever your country; some VFS records call it the Alambagh Bus stand, but it is the same building.
2. 2For the UK, choose a Wednesday or Thursday slot at the regular desk, or a Monday slot at the optional premium centre, which VFS says does not speed up the decision.
3. 3For Germany, France, Italy, Spain or Canada, book in New Delhi instead, and check which Connaught Place building your country uses before you buy a train ticket.
4. 4For Japan, arrange the fee as a demand draft, the payment method VFS lists for the Lucknow desk.
5. 5For Portugal, book under the Embassy in New Delhi, which covers the Lucknow centre; VFS does not refund its fee for a booking made under the wrong jurisdiction.
6. 6Coming from Gorakhpur or Varanasi on an overnight train, order the flight reservation and hotel booking before you board, and read the names and dates once it arrives.
7. 7If you live and work in the Gulf, read the six-month residence rules for Hungary and Switzerland before booking a Lucknow slot during home leave.

Every desk under one roof at the Alambagh Bus Terminal

Lucknow is easy to navigate because VFS Global runs all of its desks from a single address: 1st Floor, Alambagh Bus Terminal, Alambagh, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh 226005. The UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Czechia, Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Malta, Estonia, Iceland, Cyprus and Japan all sit on that floor. Several records call the building the Alambagh Bus stand, and a few write the PIN as Uttar Pradesh-226005; both describe the same place.

The UK keeps two arrangements here. Its regular visa application centre opens on Wednesdays and Thursdays and carries an extra ‘user pays’ fee. Its optional Premium Application Centre, at the same address, opens on Mondays, and VFS states plainly that “it does not expedite the processing”. Days like these can shift, so check the provider’s page before you go.

Czechia is the newest arrival. The Czech embassy announced on 10 July 2026 that centres in Lucknow and Bhubaneswar would open from 1 August 2026. Sweden’s Lucknow desk is its only centre in North India outside Delhi.

Getting to Alambagh from Kanpur, Varanasi and the airport

Alambagh lies in south-west Lucknow along the Kanpur Road, and its terminal is one of the city’s main intercity bus stations, so an applicant coming by road from Kanpur may step off the bus at the very building that houses the visa centre. Charbagh, Lucknow’s main railway station, is a short ride away for anyone arriving by train from Varanasi, Prayagraj or Gorakhpur.

Lucknow airport (LKO) at Amausi is further out along the same road, and the metro line from the airport runs through Alambagh towards Charbagh. Applicants in western Uttar Pradesh, from Noida and Ghaziabad to Meerut and Agra, may find New Delhi nearer than Lucknow. VFS also runs UK and Ireland premium centres at the Radisson in Noida, C Block, Sector 55.

Who applies in Lucknow, and which embassy decides

Uttar Pradesh is India’s most populous state, and Lucknow, its capital, is the visa-centre city for much of central and eastern UP. Students heading to the UK, families visiting relatives abroad and tourists planning Europe or Japan come in from Kanpur, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur and the districts around them.

For the countries with a desk at Alambagh, Uttar Pradesh mostly belongs to the New Delhi missions: Portugal, Hungary, Belgium, Poland and Japan all list it, and Portugal’s embassy names the Lucknow centre among those it covers. Swiss applications are processed and decided by embassy staff, and Czechia lets anyone legally resident in India apply at any VFS centre. Poland fixes its consulate by the passport’s place of issue or the address in your passport or Aadhaar card, which matters if you moved to Lucknow from another state.

The pattern holds for countries you must apply for in Delhi. Italy’s and Spain’s New Delhi embassies cover Uttar Pradesh, as does South Korea’s, and Germany’s embassy decides national (D) visas for the state while its Schengen files go to the Mumbai consulate.

Countries you cannot apply for in Lucknow, and where to go instead

Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Canada and the US have no desk at Alambagh. All six mean a trip to New Delhi, and they do not share one building there.

• Germany: the German mission accepts Schengen appointments at any VFS centre in India, so the nearest are VFS Global House, #27 K.G. Marg, Connaught Place, and Centrum Plaza, Golf Course Road, Sector 53, Gurugram.
• France and Italy: #27 K.G. Marg, Connaught Place, New Delhi, with Italy’s desk on the 1st floor; France needs the France-Visas online form before the VFS booking.
• Spain: BLS International, whose New Delhi centre is at Dr Gopaldas Bhawan, Upper ground floor, 28 Barakhamba Road.
• Canada: the VFS centre at Shivaji Stadium Metro Station, Mezzanine Level, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, Connaught Place.
• United States: the embassy in New Delhi is the nearest post; the biometrics centre’s address could not be confirmed for this page, so take it from the official US appointment system.
• Also missing from Lucknow: Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Luxembourg, Greece, New Zealand, Singapore and the UAE, plus South Africa, whose short-term applications in Delhi a VFS notice of 20 October 2026 suspended. Australia has no biometrics centre anywhere in India.

Timing your flight reservation and hotel booking for a Lucknow appointment

If your appointment means an overnight train from Gorakhpur or Varanasi, or a dawn bus from Kanpur, plan the reservation around that journey rather than around the day you booked the slot. An unpaid hold lives only as long as the airline allows, and the airline can release it at any point. Order on the evening before the appointment, before you board, and compare it with your passport as soon as it lands in your inbox.

For the UK, that usually means a Tuesday or Wednesday evening order for the regular desk, or a Sunday evening order for a Monday premium slot.

Where the checklist for your country asks for proof of accommodation, a confirmed hotel booking lists the property, the dates and the guests; the service fee does not cover the room itself. The hotel nights should sit inside the flight dates, and both should match what you typed on the application form. A flight reservation is a held booking, not a ticket you can fly on.

Gulf-resident and student applicants from Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow has nonstop flights to the Gulf, including flydubai to Dubai and Oman Air to Muscat, and Thai AirAsia flies to Bangkok. If you live and work in the Gulf, though, a Lucknow application during home leave may not be accepted: Hungary sets jurisdiction by where you have lived for the past six months, and Switzerland asks for six months of legal residence and work in India. Check the rule for your country before you book.

Students bound for the UK must fit the regular desk’s Wednesday and Thursday pattern or use the Monday premium centre. Poland’s Lucknow desk takes national as well as Schengen applications, which helps anyone planning a long stay there. Japan’s desk asks for its fee by demand draft, so arrange one before you set out for Alambagh.

Visa centres in Lucknow

Lucknow questions, answered