One of the by-products of being a British colony was that India got to be a part of the Commonwealth, but that’s where the vanity of it stopped. The UK government has of course considered it to be mandatory to make visa very expensive for Indians to access their country, and as per what I read the visa cost went up thrice over the first half of this year itself. The money United Kingdom asks for a 6-month visa, the United States of American would usually grant a 10-year multiple-visit visa to Indian passport holders.
However, the UK seems to be surely losing the plot and the intent to get more Indian passengers who seem to be going over despite the economic slowdown. In a new, crazy, middle-east kind of move inspired to keep away illegal immigrants, India is on a list of 6 countries where the UK is considering a move to impose a 3,000 Pounds cash bond, which has to be given away to them before arriving, and the amount would be refunded back after exiting the country. And what smacks as a discriminatory move, all the high-risk countries as the UK Border Agency prefers to call them, are only from South Asia or Africa (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Ghana). This is supposedly applicable for those who seek the C visa (tourist category).
Like another blog bangaloreman puts out the numbers, UK got approximately 330,000 Indian visitors last year, and as per the Greater London Authority, they expect to benefit from higher traffic from the Indian community, and then they propose this stupid move.
I’m clearly going to keep off the UK borders on principle if this goes through, and because visa fees and entry barriers are usually based on reciprocity, I sure hope the Indian government would also put up a high bond value for all Brits to enter the country. That is going to be a sweet number, since about 800K Britishers visited India in 2011.
What would you do, guys? Go or no go?
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Unfortunately, Indians have this umbilical chord thing with the UK and the lure of ‘belait’ is hard to ignore – so I am sure suckers will continue paying £3,000 to visit. To that extent, this is an astute move on the part of Blighty!
While I personally do not need a visa to enter the UK, I started avoiding the UK long ago – ever since the first round of departure tax (APD) increases. That, combined with BA’s outrageous fuel surcharges, makes it an easy decision to avoid the UK.
I like Brazil’s policy with the USA and hope India will charge 3000 pounds for British tourists to visit India.
@Hans Vorge…whenever I see people talk about illegal migrants…a darker side of me wakes up. Not sure if you are British, Hans, but even as recently as 60 years back the Britishers were illegal migrants in India. And they were illegal migrants for a good 350+ years. Pls give up this “what are these leeches doing in my house” line. Afterall the current illegal migrants are not looting Britain the way British looted India.
If Britain wants to stop illegal migrants or stop tourists from overstaying, they better find a better way than shooing away genuine tourists from visiting Britain.
And if my plan is to stay illegally, this 3000 pounds is going to deter me ? Hair-brained idea !
i wonder how many of those 330,000 visitors violated their visa and stayed back..that should pretty much sum up the reality of the situation.
Whilst the UK will greatly miss those visitors who decide not to come as a result of this change – if it ever happens – the control of a country’s border is a domestic matter. I am sure that reciprocity will have an impact on UK visitors to India and I regret that also.
Quite ridiculous….. to visit a country and spend my money to upkeep their economy…forget it.. who wants to give to keep 3000 pounds….and then there is no assurance that they will return the money on time.. what with their bureaucrats… they might just delay the return…
Certainly will not visit…
The Indian Government should have a quid pro… I agree
correction: i guess DRC is not the correct example. The republic of congo is ex-French.
I personally don’t care. If you have lived in England you’d figure how many indian immigrants are around, and how many of them don’t have legal status in the country. It is even harder to have illegal immigrants removed in the UK than in the US or Canada and the UK has not traditionally been a immigrant-friendly country to begin with. South Africa has similar programs in place for what they consider to be high-risk countries and even some not so wealthy south american countries have similar policies (e.g. Ecuador has a distinct visa category specifically for Chinese nationals which requires many seemingly unnecessary things, although Ecuadoran citizens usually don’t have any trouble getting a Chinese visa in Quito). France also requires airport transit visas for certain nationals…if you look at that list it contains essentially countries in war (Afghanistan, Iraq etc.) and ex-french colonies in black Africa (eg. DRC).