Visas

For some time now I and my Lib Dem colleagues have been interrogating government on their approach to visitors and visas, principally as they apply to overseas students but also for tourists and business people who are such an important source of economic benefit to the UK.

It is particularly absurd that students are classified as immigrants when the vast majority are here for the duration of their courses only. We need to make sure that students are not included the government policy of reducing permanent migration or the migration figures

 

Here is my recent article for the House Magazine (7th November) 

Our visa policy in the UK over the past few years seems to have been  expressly designed to cause maximum damage to our economy and our  reputation.

For example: Students? Let’s make uk higher education unattractive for overseas students compared to the US, Canada and Australia and all but[c1]  abolish the Post Study Work Route visa. No wonder student applications from many countries outside the EU have fallen away drastically.

Tourists? Let’s make the UK an unattractive destination for high spending overseas visitors by making the UK visa more expensive and complicated to obtain than the single Schengen visa, obtainable for 26  other European destinations.   No wonder Paris attracts an estimated five times more Chinese visitors than London. We appear to be foregoing something of the order of £ 1.2 bn in income by comparison.

Particularly as regards Chinese tourists and students, visa policy to date appears to have taken no account of the risks and rewards involved. The level of abuse by Chinese students for example has been minimal-after all Chinese post- Graduate students have excellent prospects in China. On the other hand over 100,000 Chinese students bring huge benefits to our higher education institutions and their host towns and cities- this could be as high as 4 or 5 billion per annum

Likewise Chinese tourists mainly visit Europe in groups and spend per head more than any other nationality, delivering some £300 million[c2]  annually to the UK economy or £1,600 per head. Quite apart from the immediate benefits, today’s tourists are also often tomorrow’s business visitors and potential investors. Student alumni are a growing and important source of soft power for the UK and cultural bridge for British business.

Finally however it looks as though there is a change of heart in the offing for Chinese visitors.

The Chancellor’s recent [c3] announcement in China ( the Home Secretary announced it both last December and in April) of a pilot scheme which should lead to a simplified process for group visas, through closer alignment with Schengen applications, is a welcome move. This would allow Chinese tourists to apply for a UK visa using the Schengen form through approved Chinese travel agents organising group tours.

We need to go further however both in process and promotion for both students and tourists as organisations such as Universities UK, London First and Walpole British Luxury have urged .

First we need to co-locate our visa application centres with selected Schengen countries – especially in respect of collection of biometrics data, soon to be introduced as a requirement by the rest of Europe.

Second  The latest improvements need to be extended to the Free Independent Traveller category (FITs), which is a growing segment of the Chinese outbound tourism market.

Third we must make sure that all visa application forms can be completed in the Chinese language, not least as a symbolic gesture of welcome .

Fourth, as Australia did we must re-introduce a post study work route option for internships as the Australians have now done which would be hugely for the benefit of China UK trade.

Finally, although  there are signs of a more user friendly approach since Visas & Immigration was spun out of the UK Border Agency earlier this year, we need to alter the perception that overseas students are not welcome in the UK. We need a change of rhetoric starting at the top. Inclusion of students in the net migration figures sends out all the wrong signals. We know well that students really are temporary migrants. The Home Office’s own evidence shows that of those students who entered in 2006 only 1% had settled permanently by 2011. The sooner the Government sees sense  and excludes students from the figures the better it will be for the health of our Higher Education Sector.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldhansrd/text/130606-0003.htm#13060664000083

Here is some of my past activity on the subject:

25th April 2013

Lord Clement-Jones: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have assessed the economic impact on the United Kingdom tourism industry of new visa restrictions for visitors from Brazil.

See the reply and debate here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201213/ldhansrd/text/130425-0001.htm

25 November 2011

Lord Clement-Jones what evaluation they have made of the impact of the new student visa rules on the intake of overseas students in United Kingdom universities for the academic year 2011-12.

see the reply and debate here:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/111115-0001.htm

16th February 2011

Lord Clement-Jones: To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they expect to make a decision on the criteria for granting tier 1 post-study work visas, following the recent consultation paper.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/110216-0001.htm

There have been full length debates on visas in which I have participated:

Visiting Performers:10th March 2011

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/110310-0002.htm

Student Visas: 7th September 2011

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?gid=2011-09-07a.352.0

I signed an open letter with other business people in the Sunday Times in July  last year:

http://www.cihe.co.uk/foreign-students-key-to-uk-business/

Here’s a piece I wrote last year year when the new rules for overseas students came in:

http://www.westminster-briefing.com/news-detail/newsarticle/student-visa-system-is-self-defeating/