Britain will go ahead with a plan aimed at curbing illegal immigration by imposing a cash bond worth 3,000 pounds ($4,600) each on visas for visitors belonging to six of its former colonies in Asia and Africa, Britain’s Home Office said, on Monday, despite heavy criticism from the shortlisted countries.
The Home Office, in a statement issued in June, had named India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Ghana as the countries that would be covered under the plan.
The scheme, which Britain said is a pilot to “test the effectiveness of bonds as deterrent against visa abuse,” will run for 12 months starting in November, and could be expanded later to cover all types of visas and other countries.
“The pilot will apply to visitor visas, but if the scheme is successful we'd like to be able to apply it on an intelligence-led basis on any visa route and any country,” Britain’s home secretary, Theresa May, told Financial Times in June.
Britain’s clampdown on visa abuse comes at a time when the U.S. Congress is considering a landmark immigration reform bill, which if passed, would slap higher visa fees on Indian outsourcing firms that depend heavily on temporary visas to bring workers into the U.S., and disrupt their business model.
The British Home Office said children under 18 years will be exempt from the rule, and that the bond payment will be refunded if the visitor returns home within the timeframe mandated by their visa.
India’s commerce and industry minister, Anand Sharma, who visited UK in late June for talks on trade and investment, had expressed “serious concerns” over proposals to categorize India as a high-risk country and subject its citizens to cash bonds on visa applications, according to a statement issued at the time by the High Commission of India in London.
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