Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the costs and difficulties faced by Chinese visitors and tourists wishing to enter the UK.

The UK welcomes Chinese visitors and tourists, and our visa service is one of the most flexible and comprehensive on offer in China. We have 12 visa application centres in China, more than any other country, and provide a range of services and fast-tracking options to improve customer choice and experience. We continue to enhance this offer and in recent months have introduced the UK-Belgian Visitor Service, which has streamlined the UK and Schengen visa application processes, and expanded our on demand mobile visa service, to make it easier for Chinese nationals to apply. On 20 October the Prime Minister announced further improvements for Chinese visitors, including piloting the extension of standard visitor visas from six months to two years multiple entry, and plans to introduce a new ten year multi-entry visit visa at the same price. Our mobile visa on demand service will also be further extended to an additional 50 cities. Demand continues to grow, and in the year ending June 2015, the UK issued 377,427 visit visas to Chinese nationals – a 19% increase on the previous year. The UK processes 99% of applications in China within the 15 working service standard, with an average processing time of less than seven days, and 95% of Chinese applicants are successful.