While some reports indicated that a pilot scheme involving a refundable 3,000 pounds cash bond for visitor visa applications from the six Afro-Asian countries originally shortlisted was to go ahead as planned, a Home Office spokesperson insisted ‘we are not confirming the list of countries at this stage and our original statement on the issue stands’.
Besides India, the other affected countries are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Ghana. The pilot scheme is expected to run for a year from this November before being extended to all visa types.
"We're planning a pilot that focuses on over-stayers and examines a couple of different ways of applying bonds.
"The pilot will apply to visitor visas, but if the scheme is successful we'd like to be able to apply it on an intelligence-led basis on any visa route and any country," the Home Office said in a statement, without confirming the list of countries being targeted.
"This is the next step in making sure our immigration system is more selective, bringing down net migration from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands while still welcoming the brightest and the best to Britain.
“In the long run we're interested in a system of bonds that deters overstaying and recovers
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