No Interview, No Same-Day, just Appeals

UKBA staff are slowly all becoming computer operators.  This is why human contact is discouraged.  Is it better to clog up the 'appeals' system than to exercise judgement to resolve a case?  Well, follow the money: each application brings thousands of pounds in 'fees' and many more thousands in consultant and solicitor/barrister fees.

Would it surprise you if I said that many of these advisors in the appeals business worked for the Home Office at some point, and still have strong connections?  It cannot be termed corruption, but it it is an incentive for more revenue on all sides and pressures the system in a certain direction.

UKBA says: Appeal our Blunder

In this interesting case, UKBA is asking the person to appeal their blunder, and then rejecting the appeal as being late.  The story also contains an interesting anecdote about kids being forced to return due to income rules Daily Mail Story.  The mother of the children in the story had died in South Africa and the British father cannot keep them in the UK with him as his income is too low.  They would be deported to South Africa to live in foster care.  Of course, an appeal would solve it!

Deterioration of Same-day Service

A few years ago, tired about complaints about long delays for routine renewals, UKBA put in 'same-day' service at some of its public offices with substantial additional fees.  It was a good idea: an officer would make the decision based on the provided facts, just as UKBA officers at the border make.  In case the information provided needs to be verified, it would take a few extra days but the decision would stand if the information was verified.  According to what some foreign professionals in UK told me, it used to be a valuable service and the additional cost was well worth it.

Increasingly, same-day service became just another place to submit forms, and the decisions themselves were delayed.  In the time-sensitive scenarios of renewals, it is a minefield.

Avoiding Overstaying Crime by 2 hours, thanks to the Web

Overstaying is a crime, but the various 'rules' - 28 days, six months etc. - make it almost into a non-crime as the 'rules' do not provide any notice.  Nevertheless it is a crime.  In one case, the same-day officer was asked by an applicant to calculate timelines properly and she said it is all fine, but 'additional verification' is required.  The additional verification turned out to be a refusal although the information was verified properly.

The notification of refusal was received by this Australian professional through a mailman dropping a parcel notice in the mailbox on a Friday.  When he returned home at 7 p.m., he rushed to the post office which was luckily open until 8 p.m.  At 8:30 p.m., he read the letter that was 'curtailing' his leave to midnight on the same day.  At 12:01 a.m. he would become a criminal.  He whipped out his laptop and filed the appeal online by 10 p.m.  Whew!  Thanks to the Ministry of Justice that provides this service and thanks to the builders of this government website -- a website that actually works.

Needless to say, our friend left the UK within weeks, disgusted with UKBA processes.  When he came to the UK on a trip a few months later, he was held for additional questioning at Heathrow.  Guess what?  They pored over his past and let him in, observing wryly that he had filed the appeal on the same day as the curtailment deadline and thus had not been an overstayer.  Had he been an overstayer, he would be denied entry.

Of course, had he not read the letter on the same day, he could have appealed to clear his name of the sheer unjustness of the curtailment.

And of course, he could have appealed the decision and probably won the appeal.

No common sense allowed.  Only computerized application of rules.  And then -- appeal, appeal, appeal, appeal.

UKBA Passport Hoarding Fetish

Passport fetish

Not only does the UKBA find it opportunte to revoke and keep British passports, it finds it convenient to grab passports of other nationalities at will and upon the slightest excuse: an application, an appeal, anything.

The reasoning behind this is probably that since most countries (including the EU) have exit procedures and stamps for visitors, the UK (together with other Anglo countries) does not.  Nothing prevents Britain from having such an exit process except more manpower.

So, UKBA decides to keep passports -- of everyone in UK who applies for any renewal or change in status -- even from those who need it to travel for work or to prove their identity. There is an extensive logistics facility to enable the storage and collation of the documents at a central facility.  Theoretically, a return of documents is allowed to prove identity, I have never see it work in practice.  A solicitor told me that his clients have asked and got their passports back, but I have never seen it happen.  Perhaps, the published rules have selective implementation.

On another note, hats off to Jameel, who has been leading aid convoys to Syria and is not worried about losing his passport to the UKBA.  If more people like him stood up, and did not take this lying down, normality may return to UKBA.  In light of the statement below, it is apparent that UKBA is definitely at the boundary of expected normal government behaviour since at least the 19th century.  Jameel says:

Why are people like Jameel willing to take the risk? The government has warned against travel to Syria "under any circumstances". It says people who do go could have their passports or permission to remain in the UK taken away. Jameel is ignoring this: "They want to take my passport from me? They want to jail me? Arrest me for taking baby milk, for taking ambulances, baby food? Being made stateless for taking help to the Syrians - fine – if that happens, so be it." (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/01/british-muslims-aid-syria-refugee-camp)

Lord Howell: "nasty" impression of UK, people "in despair"

The encouragement for this series of blog posts is Lord Howell's timely and appropriate criticism of the immigration system as partially modified by the Tory/LibDem Coalition government.

The peer did not mince words, and neither does the report by the committee he chairs: 

"we call on the Government to present and communicate their visa and immigration policies with a level of balance and in a tone that do not discourage those who would add to the UK's prosperity from coming to the UK and supporting its businesses and trade. We do not believe that this is always the case at present"

"we feel that there is a real risk that anti-immigration rhetoric will lead immigrant communities in the UK to feel less welcome and less a part of the UK, with injurious consequences for the unity of the nation."

Favouring "Top Businesspeople"

The BBC story presents this as proof that something is being done: Home Secretary Theresa May has announced an invitation-only, fast-track visa service for top businesspeople.

At the risk of sounding cynical, this probably means Russian oligarchs and others who shuttle their money through London's financial markets.  Who else can identify invitees except those who have access to their financial dealings?  What a banker-friendly government forgets that these people rarely make the UK their home, pay very little taxes and park their assets in offshore havens.

Where the UK is losing out is on attracting the innovators and entrepreneurs who add real business value, enhance the skills of UK citizens and bring foreign customers to UK businesses, not foreign 'top businesspeople.'

United Kingdom Border Agency Roulette

UKBA (the United Kingdom Border Agency) faces a continuous struggle to manage the sensitive and complicated task of immigration to the United Kingdom.

The Coalition government has established a simple and effective long-term approach: a foreigner enters the UK with temporary intent or permanent intent and that intent cannot change while in the UK.

One Process does not Fit All

The processing and legal side of UKBA, the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice has not kept pace with this development and they still try to squeeze everything down the same process tube.

Here, I will summarize some of the pitfalls faced by professionals, investors and others who intend to, or have immigrated to the UK as they are processed through the same mill, with strange consequences.  With a choice of applications to make, and with all applicants going through the almost the same process rules as visitors, it doesn't matter if you have been here 1 year or 2 or 5 or 10 -- you will still be playing ROULETTE with your future.

This 'roulette' has spawned an industry of immigration advisors, solicitors and others who try to game the system or devise strategies which may or may not work.

This industry, and the high high revenue generated for UKBA by repeated applications, there is no incentive for reform.