Comment by 7952

10 years ago

I wonddr if the whole "visa free travel" thing is the real problem. Better to make it easy for everyone to apply online before they actually board a flight. Ask sufficiently nuanced questions so that people know exactly what kind of visa they actually need.

3 comments

7952

codecamper 10 years ago

That would require software and software is hard. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/us-visa-system-100-computer-experts...

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2490412/database-admini...

DanBC 10 years ago

Here's the UK version.

https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa

1) What's your nationality as shown on your passport?

2) What are you coming to the UK to do?

    Tourism, including visiting friends or family
    Work, academic visit or business
    Study
    Transit (on your way to somewhere else)
    Join partner or family for a long stay
    Get married or enter into a civil partnership
    Visit your child at school
    Get private medical treatment
    For official diplomatic or government business (including transit through the UK)

Here it's pretty clear that she's coming for "work, academic visit, or business".

3) How long are you planning to work in the UK for?

Answering USA, Work, less than 6 months takes you to this page: https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa/y/usa/work/six_months_or_le...

That was ast updated on 9th June, so let's look at archive.org - they have 2 snapshots, one of which is from May 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150509170713/https://www.gov.u...

At the top, in bigger font and bolded font are the words "You may need to apply for a visa".

It links to the standard visitor visa: https://web.archive.org/web/20150518091959/https://www.gov.u...

That page says:

    If you visit the UK on business
    You can apply for a Standard Visitor visa if you want to visit the UK for business-related activities, eg:

    you’re coming to the UK for a conference, meeting or training

and the permitted paid engagement visa: https://web.archive.org/web/20150518091959/https://www.gov.u...

No matter how it's described I can't imagine why people feel it's okay to travel to a different country to take part in a business meeting (even if that's unpaid) without either getting a visa or getting good quality legal advice.

My anger here is reserved for the conference organisers who didn't say "We don't know, let us ask a lawyer".

Silhouette 10 years ago

I'm pleased to see that web site has been improved. We went through this with some invited guest workers not so long ago, and at the time, the type of visa they needed was described in a very counter-intuitive place on the government web site. Much more time and money was spent trying to figure out what they needed than should have been necessary. It didn't give us much faith in the relevant authorities that even a relatively simple case where everyone was actively trying to do the right thing caused so much hassle, so it's nice to see that at least that particular issue has now been fixed and the part of the site you linked to would now give someone in the same position the right answer in a few seconds.