A visa to UK is easier now

It is easier and safer to get a visa to migrate to Britain on one's own than via agents.

British High Commissioner Sir Michael Arthur, who was in Chandigarh last week, said the risk assessment unit of the British High Commission in India observed in the past three years a large proportion of the applications turned down by the High Commission were routed by agents.

He said the High Commission was running 11 Visa Facilitation Services Offices across India, of which two (Chandigarh and Jalandhar) were in Punjab. He said 300,000 visas were issued last year to Indians, the time period ranging from six months to ten years.

He told Business Standard many people did not know it was easier to get a visa through the Visa Facilitation Services. At the same time it was cheaper as the agents charge somewhere between Rs 50,000 and Rs 100,000 to move the application for one person.

He announced that two new methods would be introduced by the end of 2007 to facilitate the foreign visitors. The United Kingdom will introduce Biometric recognition in visa where the figure prints of the applicants would be taken to confirm the identity.

For the frequent corporate travellers iris scan would be introduced. It would be like a gold card membership, where the iris in the eye of the traveller would be scanned at the Hithro airport and this would drastically reduce the time for the security checks at the airport.

"We will also be cracking hard on those who try to enter through the back door", said Sir Arthur.

The Indian corporates who need to send their staff regulaly to Britain would be issued express visa. About 500 Indian Companies are operating in UK and India id number 8 investor in the UK, he added. He pointed out that Indian diapora is 2 per cent of the Britain's population and contribute to about 4-5 per cent of country's GDP that is quite significant.

He told that the number of applications for visa has been increasing 25 per cent every year. Last year about 500,000 Indians visited England and about 400,000 Britishers came to see India.

Every week 55 flights ply between India and Britain.

He said that the Punjabi community was in significant numbers in Britain. "I simply want to communicate the upcountry Indians that come to us directly and do not let yourself exploited by the crooks".