Newsstand - Visa clampdown plans spark family protests

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jY40M169NpA2wpoaeZ2dFQFW-NRg

Britain unveiled plans Tuesday to tighten visa rules for tourists from outside Europe, drawing protests that it would hit immigrant families with visitors from countries such as India.
Under the proposals families would have to pay a cash bond to ensure that visitors left the country, while the standard six-month tourist visa would be cut in half, to three months.
The bond, which would be refunded when the visa-holder left the country, could be up to 1,000 pounds, according to the plans set out by the Home Office.

As if BAA wasn't making travel to/from the UK miserable enough... :(

Glad I've seen the UK plenty of times already; they obviously don't want visitors. :mad:

Don't they want visitors or not?

visitors would be fine but the immigration system is so slack that the borders leak like a sieve, once here, they disappear and somehow the National Health service which is free at the point of use, gets mistranslated into free-for-all and a whole family drip feed into the country,to use the free housing, healthcare and schooling at the expense of people who pay their taxes. the tourists are being reduced to 3 months in line with UK citizens entering the US, Commonwealth countries, AUstralia, NZ, Canada, have different set of arrangements so they can stay longer.
Cant really see why anyone would want to come to our tiny overcrowded island with gas at $10 a gallon anyway, many more people and i am sure we will sink!!!

visitors would be fine but the immigration system is so slack that the borders leak like a sieve, once here, they disappear and somehow the National Health service which is free at the point of use, gets mistranslated into free-for-all and a whole family drip feed into the country,to use the free housing, healthcare and schooling at the expense of people who pay their taxes. the tourists are being reduced to 3 months in line with UK citizens entering the US, Commonwealth countries, AUstralia, NZ, Canada, have different set of arrangements so they can stay longer.
Cant really see why anyone would want to come to our tiny overcrowded island with gas at $10 a gallon anyway, many more people and i am sure we will sink!!!

This thousand pound deposit requirement tied to 90-day limits doesn't apply to the countries you mention -- in other words the UK is not doing this in line with the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada or the Commonwealth countries in general.

if you actually read the post, you will see that I was pointing out that along with the £1000 deposit for visiting families, there is also a reduction in tourist visa time from 6 months to 3 months which is the same as UK citizens are allowed in the US,since the US cant even decide between 3oz and 3.4 oz being 100ml they would never be able to understand the principle of 90 days being a similar amount of time to 3 months
and that the arrangements for Commonwealth counties would still be on more flexible terms because we trust them and they have somewhere decent to go back to

Mrs WHBM :) is Russian and I am British. We already have to go through all sorts of expensive visa hoopla for us to visit the family in Russia together, and its the same in reverse.

The 6-month validity visa is arduous enough to get - we have to send utility bills and bank statements, etc, to Russia so family can take them to the consulate, wasting a day doing so. At least they can do a couple of trips on the visa. Now they will only be able to do one. It is after all only a 3-hour plane trip to Russia, we come and go for weekends. I've seen people say "3 months is a long enough stay" without understanding that these are multiple-entry visas valid for 6 months.

How the £1,000 deposit (which of course within a year will become £2,000, then £5,000) will be administered, goodness knows. Will they have to go to the consulate AGAIN to show they are back home ? Will there be some burden on airlines to report them going which will get all sorts of errors and have to be ultra-secure to prevent frauds ? Will I have to pay a £200 fee for someone to come to the house and find they have left ?

Just not thought through.

Will they have to go to the consulate AGAIN to show they are back home ?
UK is going to introduce exit controls - a case of "I counted them all out, and I counted them all back."

UK is going to introduce exit controls - a case of "I counted them all out, and I counted them all back."
This should be a hoot with a totally uncontrolled border between the UK (Northern Ireland) and an independent country (Irish Republic).

UK is going to introduce exit controls - a case of "I counted them all out, and I counted them all back."

I'll believe the effectiveness of that when I see it, including for -- but not limited to -- the reason mentioned by WHBM.

Presumably the exit controls will build up all the data until they have a million departing visitors, then put it all onto a computer disk and ...... lose it.

Wow ! Another £1billion for Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling to p1ss down the drain. What a brilliant wheeze !

Presumably the exit controls will build up all the data until they have a million departing visitors, then put it all onto a computer disk and ...... lose it.

Wow ! Another £1billion for Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling to p1ss down the drain. What a brilliant wheeze !

I have kids like that in my class, "I gave him my homework to give in and he lost it" do you suppose the next excuse will be
"my dog ate the discs"

Presumably the exit controls will build up all the data until they have a million departing visitors, then put it all onto a computer disk and ...... lose it.

Wow ! Another £1billion for Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling to p1ss down the drain. What a brilliant wheeze !

They "lost" data under Blair too and then "reminded" the persons who knew about OSA.