UK Immigration News

Inspection Report of the UK Border Agency Visa Section in New York

The Independent Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency (UKBA), John Vine CBE QPM, has recently published his inspection report of the UK visas processing in New York section.

As part of the consultation on the development of inspection plan for 2012-13, this inspection focused on the UKBA's handling of three separate visa categories: Family Visitor, Other Visitor and Settlement. At the time of inspection, between January and March 2011, the Chief Inspector "was impressed with the strong customer service ethos and commitment to providing high levels of customer care exhibited by managers and staff in New York. This was demonstrated by their recent success in being awarded accreditation in the government's Customer Service Excellence standard".

He found that the quality of decision-making in New York was generally fair, and indeed higher than in some other posts he had inspected. However, the Chief Inspector identified some concerns about the quality and consistency of decision-making. He said that in some circumstances, UK visa applicants might be refused because of the additional evidential requirements, which weren't included in the UKBA's published guidance. Additionally, there was a high percentage of cases where the original decision was overturned before cases were allowed to proceed to appeal, which make Vine concerned as the Agency had not conducted any analysis to find out whether or not the original decisions had been correctly made.

As a result, the Chief Inspector put forward some recommendations for UKBA, including:

• Providing applicants with clear information and guidance about the requirements for UK visas in advance of their application; and
• Ensuring that when applicants have followed published guidance, but Entry Clearance Officers require further information to make a decision, applicants are given an opportunity to provide this.

If you are interested in UK Visas, contact Migration Expert for information and advice on which visa is best suited to you. You can also try our visa eligibility assessment to see if you are eligible to apply for a visa to the UK.