Correspondence Apr. 24 2024
Committee: Welsh Affairs Committee (Department: Wales Office)Found: Immigration Salary List and the general salary threshold, changes were also made in relation to Student Visas
Correspondence Apr. 24 2024
Committee: Welsh Affairs Committee (Department: Wales Office)Found: horticultural sectors where drives to recruit labour locally have met with little success with low levels of applications
Apr. 23 2024
Source Page: I. Universal Credit guidance April 2024 [update of previous guidance, deposited Oct 2023, DEP2023-0791]. 204 docs. II. Letter dated 15/04/2023 from Jo Churchill MP to to the Deposited Papers Clerk regarding documents for deposit in the House libraries. Incl. file list at Annex 1. 9p.Found: they will receive a Digital Status Confirmation (DSC) letter accessible through their UK Visas
Mentions:
1: None [Relevant document: e-petition 652602, Don’t increase the income requirement for family visas to £38,700 - Speech Link
2: Paul Blomfield (Lab - Sheffield Central) The announcement of family visas fails that benchmark. - Speech Link
3: Siobhan Baillie (Con - Stroud) look at exemptions and special appeal routes so that families can put together their cases and make applications - Speech Link
4: Stephen Timms (Lab - East Ham) However, as we have been reminded, family visas accounted for only 5% of total entry visas between January - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Baroness Pitkeathley (Lab - Life peer) There have been multiple failures identified in the Home Office system for awarding care worker visas - Speech Link
2: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con - Life peer) to the year ending December 2023, show that we have issued more than 146,000 health and care worker visas - Speech Link
3: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con - Life peer) I reiterate that we will go after people who are abusing the visas and the individuals. - Speech Link
Apr. 22 2024
Source Page: The six-monthly report on Hong Kong: 1 July to 31 December 2023. 37p.Found: Following its launch in January 2021, until September 2023, there were approximately 191,000 applications
Apr. 22 2024
Source Page: I. List of ministerial responsibilities. 88p. II. List of non-ministerial departments and executive agencies. 22p. III. Letter dated 19/04/2024 from Alex Burghart MP to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee regarding documents for deposit, and copying them for deposit in the House libraries. 1p.Found: policing ● Fire prevention and rescue ● Securing the UK border and controlling immigration ● Considering applications
Mentions:
1: Kim Johnson (Lab - Liverpool, Riverside) for years to the UK bringing over family members who are fleeing the conflict, or extending student visas - Speech Link
2: Andrew Mitchell (Con - Sutton Coldfield) If the Labour party wants to launch a campaign for extra visas and a special scheme matching the one - Speech Link
3: Stuart C McDonald (SNP - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) First, given the circumstances people are having to live in, why is it taking over a year for many applications - Speech Link
4: Alison Thewliss (SNP - Glasgow Central) had with his counterparts in Egypt, who, as far as I understand, are still suspending the issue of visas - Speech Link
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Hong Kong residents born before 1997 have been granted British National (Overseas) visas under exceptional circumstances.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
All applications are determined on a case-by-case basis depending on their individual circumstances.
The Home Office does not hold data on the number of applications that have been granted a British National (Overseas) visa specifically under exceptional circumstances.
The Home Office releases data on the BN(O) route as part of the quarterly migration statistics which can be found at the following link: Safe and legal (humanitarian) routes to the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of granting a visa waiver for Ukrainians visiting relatives and friends (a) displaced by the war in Ukraine and (b) temporarily resident in the UK.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Visit visas are an important part of securing the UK’s border.
Waiving visa requirements for a specific cohort of Ukrainian nationals would not be consistent with the purpose of the visa requirement. There is no obvious mechanism for delivering the utility of a visa application and biometric enrolment, which underpin the role visas play in securing our border, whilst also distinguishing a cohort of Ukrainian nationals who have the requirements waived. Identifying those individuals and enrolling their biometrics would require a process which would be, in practice, nearly identical to a visa application.
Ukrainians who want to visit relatives and friends in the UK can apply for a standard visitor visa, including multiple-entry visas. The UK has a visa application centre (VAC) in Kyiv, and a VAC network in neighbouring countries, enabling Ukrainians to access these services and apply for visas.
This is in no way a reflection on our support for Ukraine which remains, and will always remain, steadfast. The Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme remains open for new applications from those wishing to come to the UK, seeking temporary sanctuary from the conflict.
To provide future certainty, we recently announced the new Ukraine Permission Extension scheme, which is a new visa scheme for existing Ukraine scheme visa holders who have made the UK their temporary home. It will provide permission to stay in the UK for an additional 18 months and is due to open early in 2025.