UKBA: Freedom of Information Requests

Kuya · Jan 18, 2013

As all of you know, I have an ongoing beef with the UK Border Agency and one of the new hobby's I've taken up is asking them questions that I need answering. And I've had one reply.. So I will keep up asking those questions raised in my mind and any more that come in the near future..

So I asked them..

Dear UK Border Agency,

Please answer the following questions under the freedom of information act.

Do entry clearance officers and or entry clearance managers have targets to reject 30% or any percentage of applications for settlement visas under the family migration route?

Do entry clearance officers and or entry clearance managers receive financial incentives to reach their targets, such as quarterly or monthly performance based bonuses?

If an entry clearance manager reconsiders an application, if they grant an entry visa for settlement, does this change the figures for that month or for the month the entry clearance officer originally dealt with that application?

Yours faithfully,

Sean Ryan
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And here is their answer..

Dear Mr Ryan

Your request has been handled as a request for information under the freedom of information act 2000.

Thank you for your email on 14 December, in which you asked:

Do entry clearance officers and or entry clearance managers have targets to reject 30% or any percentage of applications for settlement visas under the family migration route?

Do entry clearance officers and or entry clearance managers receive financial incentives to reach their targets, such as quarterly or monthly performance based bonuses?

If an entry clearance manager reconsiders an application, if they grant an entry visa for settlement, does this change the figures for that month or for the month the entry clearance officer originally dealt with that application?

There are no targets to reject a percentage of settlement visa applications. Each application is assessed on its merits and the Immigration Rules, if the rules are met then the visa will be issued. There are no financial incentives monthly or quarterly to meet targets and there is no correlation between the number of settlement visa applications refused and performance targets. The UK Border Agency has published customer service standards indicating a time frame that a decision can be expected by an applicant. The customer service standards can be found on the UK Border Agency's website at, http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk which states:

Our standards say that we will process:

90 per cent of non-settlement applications within 3 weeks, 98% within 6 weeks and 100% within 12 weeks of the application date; and

95 per cent of settlement applications within 12 weeks and 100% within 24 weeks of the application date.

On the occasions that an Entry Clearance Manager overturns a decision the recorded figures will be adjusted accordingly e.g if a decision was made in January and then overturned in February, the original refusal event will be revoked for statistical purposes and there will be one less refusal recorded for January. The reviewed visa decision will be recorded in the amended February statistics as issued.
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The rest of the letter is about responding if not happy with the reply, but for those questions I think they are all answered.. Just a few more I am waiting on now

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UKBA: Freedom of Information Requests

Kuya The Geeky One Staff Member

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