Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to prioritise visa applications for the relatives of UK citizens and residents affected by the recent earthquake in Turkey.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The UK government continue to support British nationals with relatives impacted by the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. Where family members do not have a current UK visa, they can apply online via one of our standard visa routes, which remain available, and biometrics can be submitted at the nearest Visa Application Centre (VAC).

UKVI will aim to process any compassionate cases as quickly as possible in line with current guidance.

Should individual circumstances require a quicker decision, customers should flag this with visa application centre staff when submitting their biometrics and UKVI will consider this as part of their wider application.

If customers have an existing visa application and have been impacted by the earthquake, then they should please contact the UKVI Contact Centre, details can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-inside-outside-uk.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of processing times for Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The latest data on ECAA matters is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.

The most recent published data for outstanding ECCA applications can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Under Visas and Citizenship Data, Tab VSI_03 includes the number of straightforward applications and non-straightforward applications which remained outstanding at the end of the last reported period.

The Home Office had been prioritising Ukraine Visa Scheme applications in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has impacted on the delivery of some of our service standards. Resource has now been restored to the ECAA team.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the processing times for Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The latest data on ECAA matters is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.

The most recent published data for outstanding ECCA applications can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Under Visas and Citizenship Data, Tab VSI_03 includes the number of straightforward applications and non-straightforward applications which remained outstanding at the end of the last reported period.

The Home Office had been prioritising Ukraine Visa Scheme applications in response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, which has impacted on the delivery of some of our service standards.

Full resource has now been restored to the team.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time is for Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The latest data on ECAA matters is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.

The most recent published data for outstanding ECCA applications can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Under Visas and Citizenship Data, Tab VSI_03 includes the number of straightforward applications and non-straightforward applications which remained outstanding at the end of the last reported period.

The Home Office had been prioritising Ukraine Visa Scheme applications in response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, which has impacted on the delivery of some of our service standards.

Full resource has now been restored to the team.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of Turkish Businessperson visa extension application decisions have taken over 6 months in the most recent period for which data is available.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The latest data on ECAA matters is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.

The most recent published data for outstanding ECCA applications can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Under Visas and Citizenship Data, Tab VSI_03 includes the number of straightforward applications and non-straightforward applications which remained outstanding at the end of the last reported period.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications are currently outstanding; and how many of those have been waiting for more than 6 months.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The latest data on ECAA matters is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.

The most recent published data for outstanding ECCA applications can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Under Visas and Citizenship Data, Tab VSI_03 includes the number of straightforward applications and non-straightforward applications which remained outstanding at the end of the last reported period.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time was for Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The latest data on ECAA matters is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.

The most recent published data for outstanding ECCA applications can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Under Visas and Citizenship Data, Tab VSI_03 includes the number of straightforward applications and non-straightforward applications which remained outstanding at the end of the last reported period.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the (a) average time taken to process a Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications and (b) proportion of those applications which have been refused in each of last five years.

Answered by Kevin Foster

The current average processing times of work routes visa extensions is 6 months.

The transparency data includes a range of processing data and the latest data can be found at: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The Home Office publishes data on ECAA Businesspersons in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release(opens in a new tab)’.

Data on applications for ECAA Businesspersons are published in table Vis_D01 of the entry clearance visa detailed dataset. Data on the number of ECAA Businesspersons issued and refused are included in table Vis_D02. These data may be selected using the ‘ECAA Businessperson’ visa type subgroup.

Information on how to use the entry clearance visa detailed dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to year ending March 2022.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many ECAA visa renewal cases are waiting to be processed.

Answered by Kevin Foster

This information requested is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.

The most recent data that is published can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Information relating to ECAA Businesspersons under consideration can be found on worksheet VC_03.

Data for Q4 2021 will be published in the next transparency data release.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when people with outstanding Turkish Businessperson visa applications will receive a decision on their application.

Answered by Kevin Foster

We received a significant increase in Turkish ECAA overseas applications before the route closed. Caseworking teams in UKVI continue to process ECAA applications and are focused on resolving them as quickly as possible.

At times, we may identify further information which is required in individual applications and need to contact applicants for this.

Some applications also require additional checks to be undertaken by the Home Office which may cause delays pending these essential checks being undertaken.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made in assessing outstanding Turkish Businessperson visas, for applications made in 2020.

Answered by Kevin Foster

We received a significant increase in Turkish ECAA overseas applications before the route closed. Caseworking teams in UKVI continue to process ECAA applications and are focused on resolving them as quickly as possible.

At times, we may identify further information which is required in individual applications and need to contact applicants for this.

Some applications also require additional checks to be undertaken by the Home Office which may cause delays pending these essential checks being undertaken.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of Turkish Businessperson visa applications received be her Department in the last five years were successful.

Answered by Kevin Foster

The Home Office publishes data on ECAA Businesspersons in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release(opens in a new tab)’.

Data on applications for ECAA Businesspersons are published in table Vis_D01 of the entry clearance visa detailed dataset. Data on the number of ECAA Businesspersons issued and refused are included in table Vis_D02. These data may be selected using the ‘ECAA Businessperson’ visa type subgroup.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people who will be affected by the retrospective changes to Turkish business visas.

Answered by Kevin Foster

The Immigration Rules and guidance for Turkish business person visas remain unchanged for all applications submitted by the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020.

The global points-based immigration system introduced from 1 January 2021 prioritises what a person has to offer the UK, rather than their nationality. It provides Turkish nationals the same opportunities to live and work in the UK as nationals of any other country, including those seeking to establish themselves in business in the UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the impact on communities of the new retrospective changes to Turkish business visas.

Answered by Kevin Foster

The Immigration Rules and guidance for Turkish business person visas remain unchanged for all applications submitted by the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020.

The global points-based immigration system introduced from 1 January 2021 prioritises what a person has to offer the UK, rather than their nationality. It provides Turkish nationals the same opportunities to live and work in the UK as nationals of any other country, including those seeking to establish themselves in business in the UK.