Visa matters

It is good that the British home secretary Theresa May has promised that processing time will be reduced to 15 days.

Since 2009, delays in processing UK visas have been running into months, with some applicants saying their documents have disappeared altogether. In the case of the latter, the matter was taken up with the British authorities by the Pakistan government. Through all this, London has insisted it has been trying its best — though it has accepted that problems exist. From Britain’s point of view, it has to be said that the delays have to do with several issues. One could be the security situation with Pakistan’s tribal areas, according to western intelligence, being the centre of terrorist threats to Europe. The other could have to do with a recent scandal involving massive abuse of student visas by an organised racket that fronted as a college but existed only on paper. It accepted money from people (not those who were necessarily prospective students) overseas and issued admission letters which were then used to apply for visas to the UK. Once this network was busted, the UK Border Agency was directed by the Home Office to do a comprehensive review of the visa policy and the result, for applicants from Pakistan, has been long delays and more stringent checks.

Those who abuse the system in this way are partially responsible for the delays that even genuine applicants face, especially since there is no way to tell, when a visa application is received, who is genuine and who isn’t.  That said, given the large number of people who travel to the UK from Pakistan every year, it is good that the British home secretary, on her recent visit to Pakistan promised that processing time would be reduced to 15 days. The US – a prime target for militants – remains able to run an efficient service from Islamabad. Perhaps London needs to think about why it cannot manage the same and win back some of the goodwill it has lost through years of mismanagement.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2010.