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| April 5, 2010 | Online handling of British visa applications by US company sparks off security fears | | London: The online handling of British visa applications by an American firm has sparked off security fears here, reports The Telegraph. British visa
applicants have been asked to apply online through Computer Services Corporation
websites instead of attending a British embassy and without conducting face-to-face
interviews with any British diplomatic staff. CSC won the 300 million-pound five-year
contract in 2007, along with the Swiss-based firm VSF Global, to conduct outsourced
visa checks for Britain . Although the Home Office still has the final say in
whether a visa is accepted, security experts fear that the "tick box system" makes
it easier for bogus applicants and potential terrorists to slip through the net.
Sir Andrew Green, a former British Ambassador and Director for the Middle East
in the Foreign Office, said: "The crucial interview with experienced staff has
been replaced with a system where, as long as you say the right thing on the forms
and have the right documents, your application will be approved." He told the
Mail on Sunday: "The government says that official still have the final say but
the reality is that, unless someone in London picks up on a forged document or
some other scam, the filtering is done "in country" by the agency staff and it
would be rare for someone in Whitehall to raise any questions." CSC and VSF Global
deal with around 80 per cent of the 2.75 million visa applications each year from
109 countries. Around two million of these are successful. | |
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