Strange Telephone Call

[naomisri]

My husband just called to say (he's on a business trip to Bangkok) that the British Embassy just called him to ask him questions about his last trip to the UK. We made the trip, last year, according to the application (my Grandad is 97 and his health is failing him) and haven't been back since despite being granted a six month visa. I just called the number that came up on his phone and it is indeed the number for the British Embassy. I called back, but the Visa section is at lunch so I have to call again after 1.30pm.

He said the woman that called him was asking him questions like "When did you last go to the UK?", "How long did you go for?" and "Why did you go to the UK?". He's actually driving to Bangkok so told her he couldn't talk further at the time.

Anyone have any idea as to what this phonecall might be about, is this common practice for the UK Embassy now? We have had two visas prior to this one and never been called as a follow up. Has anyone else experienced this kind of thing?

I'll try to update as and when I find out anything, strange though!

[naomisri]

Just spoke with the Embassy. Random checking carried out on 500 previous applicants. Useful to know, although I'm not sure whether she was speaking from a statistical perspective or from the perspective of catching out those who had deviated from the trips that they applied for i.e. went back a second time, or stayed longer than originally stated. Not sure calling and asking would be the best way to go about the latter.

[sua yai]

We got the same telephone call this morning.

See below for my thread.

[the scouser]

How bizarre! What is to be achieved by the embassy by checking up in such a fashion? A visa applicant's phone number may have been reassigned, or they may have got a new SIM card, or they may have their Thai mobile with them in the U.K. and simply lie. It's hardly a scientific way of establishing who has abided by the terms of their visa.

Scouse.

[Eff1n2ret]

How bizarre! What is to be achieved by the embassy by checking up in such a fashion? A visa applicant's phone number may have been reassigned, or they may have got a new SIM card, or they may have their Thai mobile with them in the U.K. and simply lie. It's hardly a scientific way of establishing who has abided by the terms of their visa.

Scouse.

It is bizarre. I wonder if it's a UK Visas initiative going on at embassies in several countries, or whether it's something dreamed up locally in Bangkok. If the latter, one wonders what use they can make of the info they glean. There's little justification, as I imagine that Thais entering or remaining in the UK illegally barely register on the radar compared with many other nationalities.

I suspect it might be the former, dreamed up to try and provide Dr Reid or his successor with an estimate of how many overstayers there are in the UK.

This is a problem inherited from the complacent t-osser-s who 15years ago decided to abolish embarkation controls to save an estimated £3million which they said would be used to "solve" the asylum problem....

Their successors appear to have little more idea if they're coming up with mickey-mouse schemes like this.

[naomisri]

You would think that they would rather

i) check up on people on their first visa

ii) check up on people that still required a personal interview to qualify for the visa

neither of which applies to us. Smacks of a bit of a waste of time to me too.

[the gent]

Sounds to me like they are conducting some sort of risk analysis albeit a crude one measuring their quality of visa issue.

In the absence of a data capture system upon embarkation it would be difficult to envisage any other means by which they could assess Thai returning as per their intentions.

The worth of this is questionable but I suppose it passes the time of day for some clerk or other.

Intelligence led action is all the rage in Bliar's Britain in the war against his enemies and this is probably symptomatic of the thinking which, in a delusional sense, is meant to reassure Joe Public that the "authorities" know what they are doing when in truth they generally bumble about in their time honoured way.

I quite like the notion expressed in the other thread that visitors et al should be " swiped " in and out of the UK. If this computerised databank is to be used in the fight against terror and immigration abuse generally, then presumably Brits will also have to be included since currently it is the Brit who represents our greatest danger.That said, the system will have to handle over 250 million transactions a year since that is about the average number of passengers now using UK airports. Just think, all that information to be stored for who knows how long and for what purpose? Just so that we know who left when? Well that's a load off, ain't it. We haven't the faintest idea what they did whilst in the UK but at least we know when they left. T'riffic.

I do wish people would read their Orwell more.