Good find DJB Personally I found the comments to be much more revealing than Tom Fletcher's 2012 'humbug blog'. Just my 2 centavos
Interesting article but it seemed like common sense to me. Seems like it was just saying "Make sure that your documentation is correct." I realize that there is a lot of frustration with the service, but that's par for the course when dealing with immigration officials and governments. I personally went through several years of hassles applying for a US green card, and to be honest, the UK visa process was a walk in the park compared to that. On the US visa application you need to fill in answers for a long and interestingly paranoid list of questions (for all applicants including a five year old) than includes such gems as: Do you intend to try and overthrow the government? Have you ever been arrested or accused of a crime of which you were not convicted? Have you even been involved in vice, prostitution or illegal gambling? And, my personal favourite: Do you intend to practice polygamy whilst in the united states? On one occasion, we received a notice that we needed to get some medical examinations re-done because the doctor hadn't ticked a box on the form. They had to be re-done and resubmitted within 30 days or the entire application would be cancelled. The only approved doctor they would accept was several hours drive away and had a long waiting list. The whole process was truly horrible - you feel like you're a non-person to be honest - you're a resident Alien with an 'alien number' (A# number). You have to be photographed. You have to be fingerprinted at special centres with all fingers and thumbs of both hands (and your application is cancelled if you have cut any of your fingers by accident). The female members of the party had to undergo an examination of their private parts by a male doctor (and no a female one isn't available and if you don't like it, then your application is cancelled) in a search for stds. This is all in the rules. And even then, the whole application took more than a year to process which was considered very quick. A friend of mine had his application take twelve years. So. Compared to all that. The UK visa system is quick, simple, efficient and relatively humane. It's not so bad, and I'm personally thankful for that.
