07 February 2018 – Useful and just interesting UK & EEA Immigration Law news and updates from the Legal Centre - www.legalcentre.org – Mob : +44(0)7791145923
Важные грядущие изменения в работе UK BA
>>> Important notes from the meetings with the UK BA Business and Immigration Committee – upcoming changes in the way the UK BA will be operating:
UKVI international operational update
Most of the Points Based System (PBS) out of country applications - 98% - are decided within the 15 days with the current performance being as follows :
-PBS employment routes, majority of priority cases being handled within 5 days;
-Majority of standard T1/2/5 cases being handled within 12 days;
-Approximately 150 cases are currently taking longer than that;
-Majority of Tier 4 Priority cases decided in 4 days. Standard (non-complex) cases decided within 10 days
Brexit update
-The document on Citizens rights, published in June 2017 is currently under negotiation;
-The intention is that EU citizens resident for over five years have a light touch process in place to convert to Indefinite Leave to Remain. This will take a simple, digital approach;
-The process will of course need to consider criminality and fraud aspects of any application;
-UKVI are exploring new ways to bring core data from different sources together to make the application process as easy as it can be;
-EU nationals resident less than 5 years will be eligible to stay in the UK providing they arrived prior to a cut off date yet to be agreed with the EU;
-Rules for family members, export of benefits and mutual recognition of professional qualifications remain under discussion.
and
-A white paper will set out proposals and is likely to be published shortly;
-EU Regulations are likely to remain as they are throughout any implementation period;
-The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) is due to report in September 2018 on the economic considerations;
-An Immigration Bill to be introduced early next year which will set the framework, with secondary legislation to complete the details as negotiations and the feedback from HMG/MAC publications take effect.
In-Country Update
-Sponsorship operations are continue to process pre-licence applications within 28 days;
-Premium services for sponsors are currently running at well below capacity;
-Compliance activity is being improved by providing sector specific training so compliance officers have a better understanding of the sectors they work within;
-71% of targeted compliance visits resulted in an outcome, usually around record keeping practises;
-Currently 87 premium sponsors with some additional household names expected to sign up; and
-Tier 4 account management function has 184 sponsors and handled 13000 queries between July and August 2017.
and
-Tier 4 surge in country was delivered ahead of schedule and was able to lend some resource to Entry Clearance operations;
-Tier 4 postal priority cases are being turned around within 3 days;
-Online forms being introduced for settlement;
-Automated biometric enrolment letters have been launched to various routes including some family routes;
-EU cases remain within the 6 months target;
-Further resource is being flexed to ensure this remains the case;
-95% of EU applications are now made online; and
-90% of Administrative Reviews are completed within 28 days.
Transformation
-The UK BA will become entirely digital at the front end in terms of application processes with assisted digital services for those who are less able to access;
-The Premium Service Centre network will be replaced with a commercial provider capable of offering modern, comfortable settings with premium services;
-Commercial providers will be allowed and encouraged to innovate and develop new technology to help customers interact with the visa system as well as offer premium services for customer comfort and convenience;
-The new contract will replace several contracts with different providers with a single contract;
-Complex human rights routes and vulnerable individuals will still have access to UKVI staff via a network of reporting centres;
-The UK BA is currently conducting Data sharing trials with HMRC to secure applicant data directly from source rather than asking the customer to supply. This is under our Application Programme Interface (API) project;
-The long term vision being that the UK BA will be able to reduce the requirement for documents by checking data at source. Eventually the system will be able to check the data needed for the application automatically and advise the applicant whether they need to submit any documents at all from the comfort of their own home.
And the overseas perspective
-From spring 2018 UKVI will trial self-enrolment biometric technology in Visa Application Centres (VAC), which will allow applicants to enrol their biometrics independently of an operator The stage following this will be to trial kiosks outside of the VAC at remote locations (e.g. travel agents);
-Biometric re-use work continue where customers are automatically matched with their existing record so they do not need to re-enrol again;
-A pilot of technology allowing applicants to upload and index their own documents will start in Spring 2018;
-UKVI is working with commercial partners to improve how the documents are scanned and reaffirmed that UKVI are committed to making the application process as digital, self serving and accessible as possible.
Digital Permissions Pilot
-The work is being undertaken towards introducing an electronic visa (e-visa) to replace the existing paper vignette that is currently manually inserted in a passport. This builds on the transformation work and already in place where much of the visa application process is increasingly digitised. It will bring a number of benefits including the opportunity to improve the customer experience by further modernising processes, making them faster and more efficient for the customer while also strengthening of the security of the visa process itself.
Although the concept itself is quite a simple one, its introduction is less so due to the many touch points through the full span of the customer journey (from receipt of a visa, travelling to the UK, crossing the border and when in the UK) where the vignette plays a role. The UK BA needs to understand the impact of an electronic permission at each of these touch points. As a part of this process the UK BA plans a number of trials to understand the issues in more detail and to test different aspects arising at the different stages.
As a first step, the UK BA has a small trial in place with a handful of US Tier 4 students who will travel to the UK with both an e-visa and a vignette over the coming months. This will help the UK BA validate their understanding of some of the key concepts. The UK BA will look to develop further trials with different groups which might include different visa types, such as Tier 2 visa holders, and different demographic and cultural groups) to test the requirements of the change.
Premium Services Review
These services mostly focus on quicker and more convenient border crossings and include services like Registered Traveller, Fast Track and general aviation services for small airports. These services have traditionally been developed in isolation of other Home Office departments but Border Force have more recently started working with UKVI, DIT and DCMS to develop feedback and market insight which will lead in to more joined up products. Current pilots being considered include:
-Group travel pilot to join up visa applications with border crossings for tourist groups
-Sponsor subscription service for access to e-gates or similar
07 February 2018 – Useful and just interesting UK & EEA Immigration Law news and updates from the Legal Centre - www.legalcentre.org – Mob : +44(0)7791145923 Важные грядущие изменения в работе UK BA >>> Important notes from the meetings with the UK BA Business and Immigration Committee – upcoming changes in the way the UK BA will be operating: UKVI international operational update Most of the Points Based System (PBS) out of country applications - 98% - are decided within the 15 days with the current performance being as follows : -PBS employment routes, majority of priority cases being handled within 5 days; -Majority of standard T1/2/5 cases being handled within 12 days; -Approximately 150 cases are currently taking longer than that; -Majority of Tier 4 Priority cases decided in 4 days. Standard (non-complex) cases decided within 10 days Brexit update -The document on Citizens rights, published in June 2017 is currently under negotiation; -The intention is that EU citizens resident for over five years have a light touch process in place to convert to Indefinite Leave to Remain. This will take a simple, digital approach; -The process will of course need to consider criminality and fraud aspects of any application; -UKVI are exploring new ways to bring core data from different sources together to make the application process as easy as it can be; -EU nationals resident less than 5 years will be eligible to stay in the UK providing they arrived prior to a cut off date yet to be agreed with the EU; -Rules for family members, export of benefits and mutual recognition of professional qualifications remain under discussion. and -A white paper will set out proposals and is likely to be published shortly; -EU Regulations are likely to remain as they are throughout any implementation period; -The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) is due to report in September 2018 on the economic considerations; -An Immigration Bill to be introduced early next year which will set the framework, with secondary legislation to complete the details as negotiations and the feedback from HMG/MAC publications take effect. In-Country Update -Sponsorship operations are continue to process pre-licence applications within 28 days; -Premium services for sponsors are currently running at well below capacity; -Compliance activity is being improved by providing sector specific training so compliance officers have a better understanding of the sectors they work within; -71% of targeted compliance visits resulted in an outcome, usually around record keeping practises; -Currently 87 premium sponsors with some additional household names expected to sign up; and -Tier 4 account management function has 184 sponsors and handled 13000 queries between July and August 2017. and -Tier 4 surge in country was delivered ahead of schedule and was able to lend some resource to Entry Clearance operations; -Tier 4 postal priority cases are being turned around within 3 days; -Online forms being introduced for settlement; -Automated biometric enrolment letters have been launched to various routes including some family routes; -EU cases remain within the 6 months target; -Further resource is being flexed to ensure this remains the case; -95% of EU applications are now made online; and -90% of Administrative Reviews are completed within 28 days. Transformation -The UK BA will become entirely digital at the front end in terms of application processes with assisted digital services for those who are less able to access; -The Premium Service Centre network will be replaced with a commercial provider capable of offering modern, comfortable settings with premium services; -Commercial providers will be allowed and encouraged to innovate and develop new technology to help customers interact with the visa system as well as offer premium services for customer comfort and convenience; -The new contract will replace several contracts with different providers with a single contract; -Complex human rights routes and vulnerable individuals will still have access to UKVI staff via a network of reporting centres; -The UK BA is currently conducting Data sharing trials with HMRC to secure applicant data directly from source rather than asking the customer to supply. This is under our Application Programme Interface (API) project; -The long term vision being that the UK BA will be able to reduce the requirement for documents by checking data at source. Eventually the system will be able to check the data needed for the application automatically and advise the applicant whether they need to submit any documents at all from the comfort of their own home. And the overseas perspective -From spring 2018 UKVI will trial self-enrolment biometric technology in Visa Application Centres (VAC), which will allow applicants to enrol their biometrics independently of an operator The stage following this will be to trial kiosks outside of the VAC at remote locations (e.g. travel agents); -Biometric re-use work continue where customers are automatically matched with their existing record so they do not need to re-enrol again; -A pilot of technology allowing applicants to upload and index their own documents will start in Spring 2018; -UKVI is working with commercial partners to improve how the documents are scanned and reaffirmed that UKVI are committed to making the application process as digital, self serving and accessible as possible. Digital Permissions Pilot -The work is being undertaken towards introducing an electronic visa (e-visa) to replace the existing paper vignette that is currently manually inserted in a passport. This builds on the transformation work and already in place where much of the visa application process is increasingly digitised. It will bring a number of benefits including the opportunity to improve the customer experience by further modernising processes, making them faster and more efficient for the customer while also strengthening of the security of the visa process itself. Although the concept itself is quite a simple one, its introduction is less so due to the many touch points through the full span of the customer journey (from receipt of a visa, travelling to the UK, crossing the border and when in the UK) where the vignette plays a role. The UK BA needs to understand the impact of an electronic permission at each of these touch points. As a part of this process the UK BA plans a number of trials to understand the issues in more detail and to test different aspects arising at the different stages. As a first step, the UK BA has a small trial in place with a handful of US Tier 4 students who will travel to the UK with both an e-visa and a vignette over the coming months. This will help the UK BA validate their understanding of some of the key concepts. The UK BA will look to develop further trials with different groups which might include different visa types, such as Tier 2 visa holders, and different demographic and cultural groups) to test the requirements of the change. Premium Services Review These services mostly focus on quicker and more convenient border crossings and include services like Registered Traveller, Fast Track and general aviation services for small airports. These services have traditionally been developed in isolation of other Home Office departments but Border Force have more recently started working with UKVI, DIT and DCMS to develop feedback and market insight which will lead in to more joined up products. Current pilots being considered include: -Group travel pilot to join up visa applications with border crossings for tourist groups -Sponsor subscription service for access to e-gates or similar