The UK Border Agency has now finished their upgrade to their website which, we assume is supposed to be state of the art and streamlined to make life easier. After all their moto is ‘a fairer system for all‘!
However; users will be forgiven for thinking that the new website is, in keeping with UKBA policy, even more complicated than anything that went before it. Try finding an application form on the new website. The UKBA link takes you to the form finder web-page. This will ask you to answer a few ‘simple‘ questions about yourself and supposedly directly you to the correct form that you need. However; we have tested the site with sample answers to that question based on the profile of some of our clients and we find that most often you will be presented with a choice of forms, and, more worryingly, very often the correct form that is required for that particular application is not displayed or recommended. For example, try a Brazilian national wanting a form to apply to remain in the UK as the spouse of an EEA national and the Brazilian national is applying from inside the UK. The correct form is an EEA form, but it is not even an option in the questions section!
Many of you will be aware that many UKBA applications are refused on the basis that the ‘wrong form’ was used to make the application. An applicant refused on this basis will not usually be aware of the refusal until after the expiry of their visa and that will have serious repercussions on the validity of any further applications made from within the UK, not least because an applicant must be here legally to apply for most types of leave to remain and once an application is made when your visa expires, that too is another automatic ground for refusal. Now, is that ‘a fairer system for all‘?
The problems don’t end here either. The new UKBA website claims that applications can be made online, or, by way of a paper based application form which you fill in and post in to them. The UKBA website claims that if you prefer, you can download an old fashioned paper based application form instead of applying ‘online’. Now that all sounds very simple. But the mystery unfolds when you start to search for the paper based application form. Apparently every form is supposed to be available in paper-based format as well as online. Try finding one for yourself. They simply are not there!
That begs the questions where do we get the paper based forms from? We called the UKBA to ask them to send us a pack of forms. They stated that they do not provide packs of forms. We then asked them to send us one form? They stated that they do not send out any forms! We then asked them how we were supposed to obtain the new forms in a paper based format? They said ‘online’! We told them that there are no links online on the UK Border Agency website to download a paper based form? They said there is! We asked them to provide us with the address of the webpage where UKBA application forms can be downloaded in a paper based format? The phone line went dead…
We called them again and again, altogether spending 3 hours of our very valuable time chasing a form. Regretfully the UK Border Agency have as yet been unable to direct us to the page on their new streamlined website that allows users to download a paper based form. We ask, is that ‘a fairer system for all‘?
Added to this is the new gizmo that you need to register an account with the UKBA to download their forms. You have to understand that UKBA application forms are now so valuable, and indeed rare, that the UKBA needs to know the identity of every person who downloads and uses one of the UKBA application forms! To register, all you need is to divulge a mass of personal information, create several passwords and an account and then you are free to download all the forms you want. What the purpose of this new requirement is, we do not know.
Regretfully our first impressions of the new UKBA website are not very good. Perhaps the UKBA need to consider employing a new website designer and channelling a few of the millions of pounds of money that they charge applicants whose applications are refused for using the ‘wrong form’ to create a website where the ‘right form’ can be found!
The conclusion of all this is, in our opinion, quite clear. There is no ‘fairer system for all‘. The UKBA will tell you that you do not need a legal adviser to help with an immigration application because, they claim, their system is simple to use and straightforward. Perhaps so, if you have a degree in law and computer programming! This so called simplified system is now so complex that even the UKBA appear to have lost themselves in the maze of their new website!