A Briggs Passport and Visa Expeditor

What A Briggs used to get completed in less than 3 days takes CIBT a minimum of 5 days and at a higher cost!
I have used A Briggs for nearly 2 years. Now that A Briggs has been bought out by CIBT, the entire experience has drastically changed for the worse!
CIBT is total corporate bureaucracy with slow turnaround times, high fees that are not fully disclosed upfront, and extremely poor customer service! I have never seen a company that wants your credit card number upfront without disclosing the total cost of services to be rendered! BEWARE!
Thanks to flippant customer service agents that are only robots reading off a computer screen, I will have to find another Visa service for all my business travel. Thanks for wasting my time CIBT and still not getting me a travel visa!

This is the WORST company I have EVER dealt with — worse than cable providers and airlines. I ordered a Visa using their Rush Service on their website. After paying over $ 300 and rushing to get all my information Fedexed to them, I received an email from them when they received my paperwork telling me they could not process my Visa anywhere close to the time frame I had ordered on their website (I asked for about a 1 week turnaround and they told me they needed at least 60 days). When I asked for a full refund, they said they would only refund me the service charge but not the shipping fee. When I objected to this because of the fact that their order form in NO WAY indicated that they could not process my request (in fact, it asks you to specifically select the date you need your passport returned by, and does not reject the order if they are unable to return your passport by the date specified, so there is no way to know if they are unable to fill your order until you pay the shipping fees and send your info to them), they stopped replying to my emails, which is UNBELIEVABLY unprofessional and rude. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. There are NUMEROUS other companies that CAN process a Visa within a MUCH shorter time frame (I used another service and got my visa back in 3 days) and with MUCH better service. These people were rude and totally incompetent.

My company needed me to fly to Sao Paulo in 11 business days. Unfortunately that did not leave me enough time to mail in my Brazilian visa application for it to be processed. I love on the West side of Pennsylvania so in order for me to apply to a consulate in person to have the visa expedited I would need to apply at the NYC consulate. I found A Briggs online and called to ask if they could apply for me in person due to the distance but they said I would have to do that. They offered to pick up my passport once it was processed and mail it back to me for a very high fee. So, the following night I flew to NYC and went to the consulate the next morning. Immediately after leaving the consulate I went to A Briggs to hand over the original ticket that is required for pick up. They were polite and confirmed I should watch online in case it was done early so they could pick it up early for me. I was also told I would receive tracking information when it was shipped to me.
The passport was to be ready on Aug. 7 and I saw online that it has been processed and was ready for pick up on Aug. 5. A Briggs went to pick it up but were told they had to wait until the 7^th. I received a call the night of the 7^th from A Briggs that the consulate refused to give them the visa without explanation and they could try again the next day. I was panicking as my flight departed on Aug. 10 (Sunday) which was quickly approaching. Nina from A Briggs confirmed that she could arrange a Saturday delivery for an extra fee. I literally laughed and declined paying a fee and suggested they handle this as if it were their nearly $ 2,000 flight to Brazil that was in jeopardy, since they weren’t. I also requested the carrier call me from the consulate on Friday and confirm if he received the passport or not before leaving in case he was declined again. This way I would at least be given answers to why.
Friday Aug. 8 the carrier called and confirmed he received the passport and was over night mailing it to me. I never receieved tracking information and had to email Nina to request it.
I spent several hours on the phone with A Briggs and was very disappointed in their lack of urgency in handling this matter. Their phone answering service is sporadic and was never answered by the city you called for. I would not recommend them and will never use their services again.

I used this company to help me get a visa to UK. I was working with Lucas (I think he handles all UK visas) he was helpful, all my paperwork was in order, but one of the document needed to be original, and he called right the way after their working hours, asking to overnight it. That’s what I did. Got my visa in 9 business days. (promised on website 5days) I was in a rush, so it was nice of them to send my package with Saturday delivery with no extra charge. Overall I’m satisfied with their service and will use them again if needed.

Don’t go anywhere else in New York for travel visas. I’ve worked with lots of these companies in many different states. These guys are really amazing to work with. They made no promises when we brought them an impossible ask around the World Cup, but they managed to deliver regardless.
It’s a small company and everyone we met was a pleasure and they did what they said they would. Rather than a mail-​order service, they have real people who were immediately reachable wheneand followed up in-​person with the consulate daily. Can’t thank them enough.

I needed a rush visa for China and Vietnam. Money was not an object but I’ve done this before and I know it is expensive. They have the resources to handle it.

I worked with Lucas on expediting my UK Tier 2 General Sponsored Visa. He caught missing paperwork that 2 attorneys in the UK missed. I had an email from UK consulate within 24 hours approving my visa. Very pleased with their service and will use again.

Expensive and not Worth It
I picked A. Briggs, which isn’t the cheapest service, for their alleged expertise (and connections) in «expediting» official documents. However, my documents were not expedited one bit. In the future, I will opt for a different provider or do it myself.
To be fair, my impression is based on interactions with a person named Lucas Harvie in the New York office. The fellow is quick to respond, but also tends to be short-​tempered and overconfident. I can hardly overlook the former, and certainly can’t ignore the latter. On several occasions, he made very confident statements that turned out to be completely false, causing unnecessary delays.
With his cocksure attitude, Mr. Harvie undermined my trust in the company. In the future, I will opt for a cheaper provider.
By the way, you can find a complete list of approved passport and visa couriers on New York University website. Simply search for «New York UK Consulate Courier». You can save yourself time and money.

I used their service to expedite a tourist visa. The instructions were clearly laid out, and on following them I got the visa in exactly the time predicted.
The website is pretty good, too; I could always check status and see what was going on.