" Mid Sussex MP Nicholas Soames has welcomed new policies announced by the Home Secretary to combat immigration abuses and to cut net migration further. Theresa May MP has set out plans to extend the use of interviews in visa applications instead of relying on paper applications alone. The new measures come shortly after the latest migration statistics showed that the Government’s reforms of all the routes of immigration have cut net immigration by a quarter, with the total number of visas issued at its lowest since 2005. Mr Soames said: “Thanks to Conservative reforms we have already seen net migration cut by a quarter compared to last year and the total number of visas issued at its lowest since 2005. “Under Labour immigration was out of control. It accounted for more than half the growth of the English and Welsh population between 2001 and 2011 – with total net immigration of 2.2 million. “These new plans to cut out abuse of the system will help bring the numbers down even further. “This new approach will help us to root out the abuse of British visas, improve the integrity of our immigration system and bring the numbers down even further.” Mr Soames, who lives near Slaugham, is co-chairman the cross-party group on “Balanced Migration” with Labour’s Frank Field, MP for Birkenhead. The new measures include extending the use of interviews in the visa application process. Starting with the highest-risk countries and focusing on the route to Britain that is widely abused, student visas, the number of interviews will be increased considerably to more than 100,000, starting next financial year. “From there the interviewing programme will be extended across all routes to Britain.” " "The new plans will extend radically the Border Agency’s interviewing programme. Starting with the highest-risk countries and focusing on the route to Britain that is widely abused, student visas, the number of interviews will be increased considerably to more than 100,000, starting next financial year. From there the interviewing programme will be extended further across all routes to Britain." http://www.nicholassoames.org.uk/content/nicholas-soames-welcomes-new-immigration-controls
No surprise at all. They did this in the past - suspended then reinstated interviews at seemingly random intervals. Back in 2005 when Elsa applied for her spouse visa, they were doing interviews then, but soon switched to VFS a few months after.
