'Ridiculous' UK visa rulings

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6768405.stm

'Ridiculous' visa rulings set out

Ignorance of UK sites was a disadvantage
UK tourist visas are often denied to would-be visitors because they
"plan a holiday for no particular purpose other than sightseeing", a
report says.

Others were turned down because they had never previously taken any
foreign travel or could not speak English.

The "ridiculous reasons" for rejecting visas were set out in a report
by the independent monitor of UK visas.

Linda Costelloe Baker's report said that despite such flaws there had
been "significant improvement in quality."

But she said entry clearance officers could use "some ridiculous
reasons when refusing visa for tourist visits".

She said a common reason for refusal was "you wish to go to the UK for
a holiday. You have never previously undertaken any foreign travel
before and I can see little reason for this trip".


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Source: Independent Monitor

In her report she says "this is a common reason for refusal but there
was a first time for everyone who has gone abroad on a holiday and not
having done it before is an acceptable reason for travel".

Another reason to reject a tourist visa was "you plan a holiday for no
particular purpose other than sightseeing".

On the use of that reason, she says: "But that's what the UK is famous
for, sights worth seeing."

'Live like a housewife'

She said the numbers of British people "going on their hols" would be
cut if other countries emulated the UKvisas officials who rejected a
tourist visa request because the applicant did not have a "sufficient
command of the language for the purposes of tourism".

She also highlights the case of a person whose request was rejected by
an officer because they had "little or no idea what you plan to see or
do".

This was, she discloses, because the person had answered the question
on a form asking why they were going to the UK, with the words "annual
leave vacation".

That was a "perfectly sensible response", Mrs Costelloe Baker said.

Another woman was criticised for not researching the UK's background
when she said she wanted to spend her four-month visit to her fiance
to "just live as a housewife".

"I suspect being a housewife for four months was all she wanted to do
and the Immigration Rules allow that," Mrs Costelloe Baker said.

She said it was "a little naive to worry about a list of tourist
sights" being outlined if applicants wanted to visit close friends.

An applicant in St Petersburg wrote: "I just want a holiday, my
friends live near the seaside" to which the officer wrote "you have
not named any places you will see".

Mrs Costelloe Baker said this was not the case - the applicant had
named the "seaside".

'Plain English please!'

In one case, a man was refused a visa because the officer thought it
not credible that he was going to stay in a hotel in Cirencester "far
from [his] friends in Surrey and Kent".

The hotel was in fact in London and the man had told the officer that
he had not wanted to put a burden on his friends for his entire 28-day
visit.

Mrs Costelloe Baker said the man had been offered another application
free of charge and she hoped he would get an apology as well.

She also said there had been improvement in the language used to
explain refusals to applicants since the "very strange wordings" seen
during her previous assessment.

But she still called for "plain English please!"

The report covers the first nine months of 2006, which had been a very
busy period for UKvisas.

Mrs Costelloe Baker, who is independent but appointed by the Foreign
Office, concluded that overall "there has been a significant
improvement in the quality of UKvisas work compared with 2005 and I
have found that refusal notices are more consistent and less
idiosyncratic".