Archive for April, 2008

It is the end of another month and our first month in India.  We always knew we had many clients in India and have enjoyed working with them. But this month we have learnt so much particularly about the difficulties of running andoffice - from the need for excellent air conditioning in 40 degree heat to finding printers of the highest order. 

With this all done we now have hundreds of people who want to use our services to leave India.  People want to know about Immigration to Canada.

Nothing in India seems to happen quickly and it is clear to us that developed countries do not want highly skilled Immigration but highly skilled white Immigration.  Our UK Visa team in India are very busy helping new clients. Many Immigration consultancies in India prey on the people of India taking people’s money without providing any real help.

We went to see the South African High Commission in India who said that we help our South Africa Immigration services in India as we are the only registered agents available.  For us all in Global Visas it has been a busy but exciting month.

Roll on June and the opening of our new South African Office!

Being an immigration practitioner for Global Visas, I have noticed a huge trend in South Africans partnering up with Brits and moving back to South Africa.

Because most South Africans in the UK at the moment work in the hospitality industry, we have been inundated with enquiries from chefs and waitresses wanting to take their partners home with them.

Many of the UK visas that are available do not apply to South African working holiday makers and the options to extend in country are limited, therefore they must return home. This means that the Brit will have to follow the Saffa to South Africa if they want to pursue their relationship. 

In some cases it is possible for the South African to apply for a de facto Visa in the UK based on the existing relationship but 2 years of cohabitation is needed to apply for this and since the working holiday maker programme is only for two years, this is 99% of the time an impossibility as the partnership would only have started while the Saffa is in the UK. 

Another problem facing the couple is when applying for a life partner visa for South Africa, one has to prove cohabitation and often the couples do not live together. Compared to the Tier 1, spousal visas and business visas the life partner visa is relatively easy to get as long as you use an immigration practitioner. 

The South African High Commission are relaxed with approving life partner visas as long as there is proof that the relationship has existed for an extended period of time and the department is convinced that it isn’t a marriage/partnership of convenience. 

At www.globalvisas.co.za, we have recognised this trend and we go out of our way to reduce the hassles experienced. With our excellent relationship with the High Commission in the UK and the Department of Home Affairs in South Africa we are bale to apply for visas with great ease. 

We still maintain our 100% success rate for visas for South Africa and we are extremely proud of this feat.  

Today I wrote a letter to our clients speaking about the new PBS tier 2 system.  I have written some of it out here for you.

“It is good to have such pro-active clients and it is a great help for us to avoid the expected problems of the summer. A Home Office official has informed me that they have now doubled the size of the team issuing new licences to a total of 12 officers.

I have been asked to provide links to authoritative sites so people may read more on the subject. So here they are:

The Home Office BIA

The federation of small businesses

The C.B.I Response to the new laws

Global Visas

As the CBI and FSB suggested, this is no small task. It is estimated that over 770,000 people are currently working in the UK on forged documents. With possible fines of £10,000 per illegal employee the government stands to make quite a few pounds.

As a small plug for our team and an offer of reassurance, Global Visas employ ex immigration officials who are highly trained in the different forgery detection techniques while working in the Home Office.”

I hope it gets their attention because they need to get this sorted quickly as time is running out.

Today the Home Office start to collect Bio Metric data from non E.U. nationals.  The pilot scheme will run in Lunar House in Croydon and only open to people who are extending their visa on grounds of marriage and students.  This is the first of a national roll out which will soon apply to all non E.U. Nationals.  Next the E.U. Nationals entering the UK will be required to have facial recognition processing on entry to the UK or use their bio metric Passports. 

All this on the day when the USA have pushed through Bio Metric testing on embarkation fromt he States.  It seems that we are entering a new age when a person will be the travel document.

All of us in Global Visas can see the local issues affecting people in different regions but because of our unique reach we are also starting to see many trends suggesting a single Immigration policy allowing for the mobile classes and the non mobile classes.

With the EU Blue card, Australia immigration and Canadia Immigration policies and tier 12345 in the UK a clear pattern is forming. 

I know this sounds like robot from Star Wars but unfortunately it is not so cool.  Instead it is down right uncool and a really low stunt by what is clearly an embattled and confused Boarders Agency where the Minister Liam Bryant actually believes and has acted upon the believe he is doing the UK a favour by removing a piece of protection that allows families to stay together.

It infuriates me a family may now possibly be separated if one person is a non E.U national who overstayed in the UK.  With the new restrictions on marriage it is not impossible or even unusual for two young people to fall in love settled down and start a family as they want to be together.

The removal of DP3/96 mean that as the young couple mature and their children grow a little older they are no longer able to declare their love in the secure understanding they will be allowed to remain in the UK as a family even though they have been together for several years and have Children they are now at the mercy of Some Civil Servants to decide on their future.  A Civil Servant who does not have the resource or authority to ever get to know the family.

This has been done in the name of “tighter Immigration Control” that is not tighter Immigration control but the worst form of State interference.  As you know I am passionate about Immigration and even after nearly 20 years I have sleepless nights praying for all those people who are going to effected by some idiots idea of progress.

Our Office in India are still finding the new tier 1 visas difficult to deal with while in Canada the UK Visa section has no such issues dealing with tier 1 in Canada.  While in the UK tier 1is becoming another headache for employers and much needed skilled workers alike.

Today I am delighted to be able to say Global Visas has a new member of our family of websites www.globalvisas.co.za The site is specifically designed for South African people who are currently based in South Africa who are just thinking about immigration.  It is also geared up to help people who wish to remain longer in South Africa. 

Global Visas has always had many clients coming from South Africa but in recent years we have found an increasing number of companies moving their staff into South Africa for employment as the Skills shortages in South Africa bites and emplyers are forced to ship those skills in from their offices around the world.

We are currently preparing to open our new office in Cape Town in June.  We have just signed the lease on our new offices in the Strand and are currently preparing it for our team to move in.  We are all very excited about our new office and are all looking forward to helping people and business locally.

Our South African site is the latest of addition to our family but watch this space as we continue to develop our network of offices world wide. 

I was asked recently to provide information on the state of UK Immigration in India.  To assist the UK’s Independent Commission on their visit to India regarding the issues faced locally.  So I asked our India Office www.globalvisas.co.in to provide their feedback on the situation.  It is a shame they reported the issues below.

The issues are that people applying for tier 1or other visas are being told by VFS their staff will assist with the application.  This maybe the actions of well meaning individuals however VFS are paid for by the British Goverment and as such can not represent an individual.  This is a complete conflict of interests which must be stopped.  People who trust untrained if well meaning VFS staff to assist in their application are coming across difficulties later.  It is only when they complain that they realise VFS should not assist in the completion of applications. 

I have raised this matter again with UK Visas and pointed out people who require assistance and legal advice must be sign posted to a registered and qualified team of experts to assist them.  Currently VFS are not sign posting anybody to anywhere.  In effect this restricts the persons access to legal representation.

The final point I raised is that Working Holiday maker visas are taking 13 months to complete.  These visas are relatively straight forward compared to the complex tier 1 visa which is currently taking between 15 and 25 days to complete.

It would appear on the surface there is a clear policy to discriminate against India nationals as Working Holiday visas in Canada South Africa and Australia are being completed in a matter of days.

I have raised this now with the British Government so we must now wait and see.

They once killed a man for saying the world was round and the sun was at the centre of our galaxy!  Then we had the rivers of blood speech only 40 years ago.  Quite simply some people find progress very frightening.  It was once said there were more Irish in London than in Dublin and their Catholic religion was alien and worrying to many.  What people now forget is that due to the problems this swift increase in population created went on and led to the creation of some of the most important things a modern city requires and the world now takes for granted.

A good example of this is Sir Bazeljets work.  he was forced into creating the worlds first  city wide sewage network  which flows under our cities ever since at a steady 1.2 miles per hour.  He also created the first underground train line.  Not only did the Immigration issue of the time be his mother of invention but the Immigrants themselves even built the systems as cheap labour.  Immigration is progress and anyone who denies this one simple fact always reminds me of King Canute. 

Today with Immigration such as the tier 1 visa people from across the globe are able to take advantage this progress.

Today I went to St Georges Hospital in London to visit a very sick friend.  I was met by a beautiful Staff Nurse from Namibia a country of only 1.2 million people.  She has been in the UK on a tier 1 visa for the last 3 years.  She is heading home in a couple of months for good. 

I asked her why she came to the UK to nurse our sick and she said ”One night I was surfing the Internet and the media always hold up England as a promised land.  Frankly I know now it is not and I love my home.”  I couldn’t help thinking when she returns home she will be missed.

My friend was taken to their new ward by a porter from Ghana who only started working that night but his happy go luck smile was infectious and had us all smiling in no time as he spoke about the World Cup and Football.  A truly great bloke.

On the ward we were greeted by a Nurse called Annie from the Phillipinnes and and another from Nigeria.  The Consultant was an Irish lady who clearly cared a great deal about the wealfare of her patients and her team.  Most of the people I met were on Tier 1 visas including the young Dr from Canada I promised to help complete their tier 1 visa as a small token of my admiration for the great job they were doing.  If ever there was a reason to celebrate tier 1 visas and UK Immigration it was then. 

I walked away from St Georges Hospital and their team tonight knowing my loved one was in the best hands and those hands where only there together through Immigration.  As for the idea of racism well let us just say I delighted the banter was constant about who had the best team :) 

I have worked in the visas and Immigration industry for nearly 20 years and in that time I keep seeing the same old stories.  About Immigrants conflicting with UK “Values”.  I have to say this is as British as talking about the weather and drinking tea.

Immigration History shows the debate has continued since the Middle Ages and no doubt less well documented prior to the invention of the printing press!

The long and the short of it is Immigration is as natural as the tides of the sea and with more people on earth the more people will move.   To add the invention of the jet engine and the Internet people are Global Citizens.  If there are still going to be any people who will be able to claim “My family has lived here for generations.” in another generation or two I will be very surprised.

The world is forever changing and we should celibrate the free movement of people.  The alternative of caging people into the area where they were born and restricting their freedom to move would be a real backward step. 

If a person does not like the place they are living the simple answer is they should emigrate.  Recently I see the newspapers full of stories about criminals who are drawn to new countries as Immigrants.  If this is truely the case a solution would be a quick criminal records check like they do in Australian Immigration it would solve this problem and allow for Immigrants to hold their heads up high.

I am sure if all the Immigrants in the world returned home the world would be a much worse place.  I am sure in another thousand years the debate will continue but the old fashioned idea of “this is our land” will be a dying concept as international mobility grows.