Demystifying the UK visa service

I went to see “Skyfall” recently. I think it’s the best James Bond film in a long while. Apart from anything else there are some excellent scenes of London and Scotland. Thankfully, my own journeys on the London Underground are less eventful than 007’s. 

It’s commonplace to make jokes about James Bond and British ambassadors. But my own contribution to the well-being of the United Kingdom is more likely to take the form of organising business missions, such as the one we brought to Manila last week to promote UK expertise in public private partnerships. And for many Filipinos, the most important aspect of my work is the Embassy’s visa operation. Here too there tends to be a degree of popular mystery and a lot of misconceptions.

We need to be clear: every country has border controls to protect national security and enforce its migration rules. The UK is no different. So our application process is thorough, and not all applications are successful. But in the vast majority of cases, applying for a UK visa is a lot more straightforward, and usually a lot faster, than popular rumor might suggest. In 2011 for example we had well over 50,000 visa applications from Filipinos globally, with 87% of those approved. The overwhelming majority of those applications were processed in under 15 working days. 

Visa work is a huge part of what we do at the British Embassy. We don’t just process applications from the Philippines. UK visa applications are made in some 11 other countries and regions of Asia-Pacific. In some ways, it’s our own version of business process outsourcing or shared services. As Ambassador, I’m not personally involved in the visa decisions but I’m determined that we should offer excellent customer service.

To that end, the UK Border Agency has introduced a number of important customer service innovations here in the Philippines, such as a priority visa service and the option for customers to make applications on a Saturday morning at our visa application centre in Manila. The priority visa service enables business visitors or applicants with a strong international travel history to have their applications turned around within two to three working days. Customers pay an additional fee to use both these optional services.

We’re also giving customers more choice about where to apply. In October, I opened a new UK visa application centre in Cebu, at the Keppel Centre in the Cebu Business Park. In return for an additional fee, this provides a convenient alternative location for applicants from the Visayas and Mindanao to file their applications, without needing to come to Manila.  We also offer the priority visa service there.

The new Cebu visa application centre opens at a time when the overall number of Filipinos visiting Britain is on the increase. I expect this trend to continue, and not only because of the extra attention generated by the London Olympics and Paralympics. Britain is at the heart of the open global economy, with large numbers of foreign companies based there or coming to do business. We’re also home to some of the world’s most prestigious schools and universities. Britain is open for business, study and tourism. Operating an effective visa system supports this, while protecting our borders.

(Stephen Lillie is British Ambassador to the Philippines.)