The Immigration Blog

NEW DELHI: Facing an unprecedented increase in the number of student visa-seekers from north India, Britain has temporarily suspended accepting such applications as it suspects that there may be attempts to abuse the system.

The UK Border Agency, which enforces immigration and customs regulations and considers applications for permission to enter or stay in Britain, on Saturday announced the suspension in taking visa applications at its centres in New Delhi, Chandigarh and Jalandhar from Monday.

"We took this decision in response to unexpectedly high numbers of student visa applications in these areas at this time of year. The temporary suspension will allow the UK Border Agency to continue to scrutinise applications thoroughly and to manage the visa process efficiently for all our customers in north India," Deputy High Commissioner Nigel Casey said.


These three centres had received nearly 1000 student visa applications from October to December 2007. This number increased to 1,800 in the same period in 2008 while the number climbed to 13,500 in the corresponding period last year.

"Some applicants are trying to abuse the visa procedure to get entry into UK for purpose other than studies. We cannot allow this to happen," UK Border Agency's Regional Director Chris Dix said.Asked what kind of abuse the authorities have come across, Dix said probably certain education agents in north India were misleading the students by telling them that they can get entry to the UK for other purposes by using the student visa route.


"We want to ensure that student visa system attracts bona fide students," he said.

The suspension may continue till the last week of February, Casey said. During this period, the visa centres will not accept applications from customers. However, visa application centres in west and south India will continue their operations as usual.

During this period, the UK Border Agency will undertake thorough scrutiny of the applications to ensure that the applicants are bona fide students and they have the financial backing to continue their studies in Britain.

The authorities will also ensure that the education providers in the UK are following rules.

The rise in number of applications has affected the customer service also, Casey said.

Asked the reason for such unprecedented increase in visa applications, Casey said education in the UK is more preferred by the Indian students. The decline in number of student visa applications to a few other countries could have contributed to the rise, he said.

Inspectors have suspended 140 colleges and shut down 15 in the past six months under new immigration rules, the Government said today.

Since last March, all education institutions which want to bring non-EU students into the country need to be approved by the UK Border Agency and granted a "tier four" licence.

Security minister Lord West of Spithead said a previous list held by the former Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills had a record of 4,000 colleges that regularly had foreign students but the official list now stood at 2,000.

Lord West told peers at question time: "In the last six months we have carried out around 600 inspections, suspending 140 and revoking 15 tier four licences."

But Tory Lord Naseby demanded: "Why is it still so easy for these bogus colleges to operate and bring in illegal immigrants?"

Lord West replied: "I don't accept that we have not got a handle on these various colleges."

He added: "We have a team that go and inspect them. They look at whole areas of the quality of the courses they are doing, we make sure they are aware of what they have to do in terms of if students leave that college where they go.

"There have been bogus ones but we are taking enforcement action."

He said a report into the tier four issue ordered by Gordon Brown in November last year would report back "shortly".

UKIP leader Lord Pearson of Rannoch asked: "Is there any truth in the suggestion that of the 66,000 people who came to this country from Pakistan in the nine months to last September, only 29 were interviewed by British immigration officials and the rest by contracted interviewers in Pakistan or elsewhere?"

Lord West replied: "The system is very much that we look at documentation before any of the people come in to give their biometrics and when we have looked at that documentation we assess whether we need to talk to and have a face-to-face interview. We are actually very content that we are achieving good results."

11 arrested in illegal worker raids

Burger bar workers were grilled and removed from the UK after a series of raids at fast food outlets.

UK Border Agency officers swooped during a busy lunchtime at Burger King on Portway on Saturday, December 5, prompting the arrest of eight people for alleged illegal working.

Three Pakistani men, three Indian men and one Indian woman – all in their 20s – were suspected of breaking their visa conditions.

During a subsequent search at a Springfield house another Indian woman in her 20s was arrested for alleged violation of her visa.

After investigation, four of the Indian nationals were removed from the UK and of the remaining, three are in custody pending their removal while one other has been granted immigration bail.

The Agency's raid this month follows another Burger King swoop at the Midsummer Place branch in Central Milton Keynes.

Three employees were arrested; two Pakistani men and one Nigerian woman. All three were found to be working in breach of their visas. One was deported and two are on immigration bail.

Inspector Dick Stratton from the UK Border Agency said: "These arrests are part of an ongoing clampdown on illegal working in Milton Keynes and across the south east to reduce the attractiveness of the area to illegal immigrants. More operations are planned in the future."

Both Burger King branches are franchises of Milton Keynes-based ADIL catering.

The UK Border Agency warned the franchisee they face a maximum fine of £10,000 for each employee found to be working illegally, unless they can prove they carried out the correct right-to-work checks.

Citizen First yesterday contacted ADIL catering manager Bahir Mahmood who declined to comment on the arrests.