Last week saw some interesting, useful and rather arrogant UK immigration stories emerge.
The first of these was reported on
iol.co.za and looked at the efforts of the Home Affairs Department in South Africa to stop the UK Government imposing visa requirements on SA residents in the future.
Earlier this year, the UK Border Agency conducted a visa waiver test on all non-European countries to assess the threat they pose in terms of illegal immigration, crime, security etc. Along with eleven other countries, South Africa was identified as ‘high-risk’ and was given until the end of the year to prove they could take the necessary steps to lower their risk to the UK or face the prospect of strict visa regulations.
Some of the steps being taken to avoid this include reducing the time frame of the late registration of birth process, introducing airport liaison officers to increase inspectorate at major airports and introducing new passports as well as the ID smart card. The authorities in South Africa are also doing their utmost to ensure their youngster don’t miss out on opportunities in the UK due to the new Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) which is based on reciprocity of participating countries.
Negotiations are also being made with regard to the returns agreement linked to both the visa waiver test and the YMS.
The second story was published in the
New Zealand Herald and focused on New Zealanders cutting short their traditionally popular ‘Overseas Experience’ due to the current economic downturn in the UK. In the story it was stated that Helen Clark, prime minister of New Zealand had secured an exclusive visa-free agreement with Gordon Brown that allows Kiwis to holiday in the UK for up to six months. Oh Please! What absolute rubbish! New Zealand is simply a non-visa national country. Residents of these countries, which also include South Africa and Australia among others, are not required to apply for visas before they travel to the UK, provided it’s not for more than 6 months, and receive their visas at the airport. This is not an exclusive agreement between New Zealand and the UK!
Finally,
CPA Australia has reported an error on the UK Border Agency website. The points-based system (PBS) calculator allows users to check their eligibility using drop down menus but two menu errors have been made resulting in miscalculation. Members of CPA Australia have been told they need to inform caseworkers of their CPA designation as changes to the site cannot be made until the next scheduled update in March 2009!