The first proposal is that UK citizens who finance their relatives' travel will now have to pay a deposit for them. The amount of the deposit has not yet been announced, but according to British media, it will be £1,000 per person. This money will be refunded after the guest returns home. Of course, provided that their visa has not expired. According to Immigration Minister Liam Byrne, such rules will only be mandatory for those who arouse suspicion among British authorities. Skeptics call the innovation unfair to less wealthy families. But the government has no intention of backing down from its plans. 'Our goal is to make the system more secure and Britain more attractive for tourists,' Byrne said.
The UK will continue to issue multi-entry visas valid for six months, but one can stay in the country on such a visa for no more than three months per trip. Meanwhile, according to official data from the International Passenger Survey, only 1.1% of tourists visiting the UK stay longer than three months.
In addition, new types of visas will appear - a special business visa to the UK and visas for specialists, as well as separate visas for attending a one-time cultural or sporting event, such as the Summer Olympic Games to be held in London in 2012.
As for fingerprinting, British embassies abroad began introducing this procedure in September 2006. Since then, according to the UK Home Office, over 1 million fingerprints have been collected. Now, anyone wishing to obtain a UK visa who is over five years old must personally come to the British embassy for photographing and fingerprint scanning. No additional fee is charged for these procedures.
By April 2008, these rules should come into force in all countries of the world where British consulates are present. The procedure is as follows: the fingerprint of each finger of both hands is scanned individually, as well as four fingers of each hand except the thumb together. According to the Home Office document, thanks to this innovation, British authorities have identified about 10,000 people who previously violated immigration law and have now reapplied for a visa.
As for the total number of visa applications, the leader in this indicator is Pakistan. According to the annual report of UKvisas, which is jointly managed by the Home Office and the Foreign Office, in 2006-2007 more than 177,000 applications were submitted there, of which only a little over 109,000 were granted (as of the end of July this year). The highest percentage of visa applications granted is in Russia - 96%. In 2006-2007, about 128,000 applications were submitted there and 121,800 visas were issued.
It is planned that consultations on the proposed changes by the UK Home Office will end on March 10, 2008. Meanwhile, the British government has already called the new proposals the biggest shake-up of the migration system in the country's history.