Business Visitor visas ... new rules!

Announced today .... click here.

Hi

My (US citizen) boyfriend is here as Business Visitor, and will stay till the 14th of January.
I assume the new rules are not retrospective.
However, we will be going to Italy for a week to see my family at the end of the month, and again for Christmas. Shall we expect problems on our way back in? Will he be allowed in again, on the basis of the Business Visitor stamp he was given few weeks ago?

I can't find that much information about it...
Ok, I'll be patient and wait for them to publish something more, but if it goes live very quickly, then we won't have the time to apply, besides, he is already here, I assume he will have to apply FROM the US...  I'm panicking.

Thanks
Maria

It looks as though the full published guidance has not gone live yet.  However, it could depend when he is going to return.  As the new scheme looks to mean that even US nationals will need to apply for a business visit visa in advance of coming to the UK, it may be that he cannot enter as a business visitor, though would still be able to enter as a tourist.

We should know more in a few days.

Vicky

We argued against this and lost.  UK-Yankee participated in the consultation UKBA sponsored last year.

This segregation is bad news for the less fortunate family visitors.

I can't find that much information about it...
Ok, I'll be patient and wait for them to publish something more, but if it goes live very quickly, then we won't have the time to apply, besides, he is already here, I assume he will have to apply FROM the US...  I'm panicking.

No.

Non-visa nationals do not require an entry clearance.  Except for academics, who do require entry clearance.

Garry, isn't the point that yet another class of non-Visa Nationals will be required to obtain Entry Clearance .... a visa ... before coming to the UK?

Surely the announcement this week changes the previous situation? That is :-

Under strict new rules those wishing to come to the UK on business for up to six months must apply for a dedicated new business visa and prove they will be carrying out the following activities:

• attending meetings or conferences;
• arranging deals, negotiating or signing trade agreement or contracts;
• undertaking fact-finding missions, checking details or goods; and
• conducting site visits and promotional activities.

John, the non-visa nationals (e.g., Americans) will apply for business visitor at their port of entry.  It will not appear much different to the end-user.

The process is a standard landing interview except that the business visitor will be asked to show their business id.  The IO will write down the name of the company.  When they get enough names of a particular company being visited, it will trigger an audit.

We (i.e., the UK) do not have the infrastructure to take in entry clearance applications for the sort of volume needed here.  Also there are big-time doubts that the fee stream is adequately provisioned (as in 'legal').

Same thing for sports visitors and entertainment visitors.  Non-visa nationals do not require entry clearance.  But sports and entertainment on T5 *WILL* requrie entry clearance, with the exception of T5 Creative.  T5 Creative is the sole cateogy within the PBS not needing an entry clearance.

Back to business visitors.  As I alluded to earlier in the thread, they don't really give a monkey's about keeping track of business visitors.  The objective is to segregate and isolate the less fortunate FAMILY VISITORS into their own category.  Then they will be able to stitch up family visitors without anybody noticing.  And they are SERIOUSLY intending to do just that. 

John, the non-visa nationals (e.g., Americans) will apply for business visitor at their port of entry.  It will not appear much different to the end-user.

Absolutely not saying you are wrong, but I would not have guessed that from :-

Under strict new rules those wishing to come to the UK on business for up to six months must apply for a dedicated new business visa .......

After all, and increasingly so, non-visa nationals do require visas for all sorts of situations, such a Marriage Visitor Visa, which were not required just a few years ago.

I am just amazed that no further detail has emerged from the Home Office, or indeed on the Parliament website. The Ministerial Statement mentioned that something has been lodged in the House of Commons Library, and I suspect that will give a lot more detail, but even though everything lodged in the Library is now lodged electronically, nothing has yet appeared on the Deposited Papers List.

Also, no change to the immigration rules has appeared since July.

, nothing has yet appeared on the Deposited Papers List.

Criminey, John, what an interesting page!  Thanks for that link. 

Scanning through that list, yup, there it is pretty as you please.  DEP2008-2378.  Posted the day before yesterday.

Entry clearance requirement for visa
nationals only (except for academic visitors
who are non-visa nationals and are visiting
for more than six months);

I had seen this when it was just some power points (which I *THINK* I passed along to you and Leah, but that might have been something else).  In this latest incarnation it's got a forward from the new guy, but the guts of it have been cut-n-pasted in from the power points.  Please read it and see if your take is the same as mine.   

So now it's an SOI, which means it's about 6 weeks before any rules can be laid down.

Scanning through that list, yup, there it is pretty as you please.

  I had just assumed that the list was in date order!

Clearly some very useful documents there .... click here.

What's your take on the entry clearance requirement?

I think that the only real difference is that the ECO's / IO's may be asking for more evidence to confirm that this is what the applicant is going to do.  At the moment, there are a lot of people conducting work when on business visit visas, and part of this is because it has been unclear as to what is and isn't permitted.  It is a good thing that this is being clarified.

Vicky

Update.  They are going to fix the inaccuracies in this announcement.  If you are tracking these developments, you'll have to read the page again after its been fixed.  No timeframe for when.

Garry, there are now some changes on that page. The paragraph that previously read :-

Under strict new rules those wishing to come to the UK on business for up to six months must apply for a dedicated new business visa and prove they will be carrying out the following activities:

-: now reads :-

Under new rules visa nationals wishing to come to the UK on business for up to six months must apply for a dedicated new business visa.  Non-visa nationals do not require a visa when travelling under this category.  Applicants will need to demonstrate they will be undertaking business activity including:

How do I know? Comparing a Google cache of the page with the one that is currently being produced. Naughty UKBA .... retaining the date on that page of 16/10/2008 and not telling the reader that there have been changes!

There might be other changes ..... but tonight I cannot spot anything else.

I am glad it was inaccurate.  I can tell a few folks to stand down on the freaking out bit.