Specialists T&S Immigration Services Ltd maintain a very informative and helpful site - including a blog @ T&S Immigration - News Update

Here's a quick jump to the ending of the latest News Update:

"You've got to laugh or you'd cry
I have to laugh when I see UKBA say that they have 'simplified' the immigration system and that it's now 'very clear'. Workers extending their stay in the UK now have to complete a 57-page application form (the old one was 14 pages). Anyone needing entry clearance now has to complete 2 new visa forms running to 16 pages, rather than the old 1 form with 5 pages.

If UKBA's own officers don't know the rules how is a drummer supposed to cope?"


And, here's the full report, well-worth reading:


"NEWS UPDATE Friday June 5th 2009 – more babbling and advice from the immigration sage (all related to the entertainment sector under the new UK Immigration System)

I was going to start this update by saying that our immigration officers at most air, sea and train ports seem finally able to use and understand the new system.

However, after last weekend I have scrapped that and revised the text of this update. I will go as far as to say this: "The immigration system, as it stands, is not fit for purpose – tier 5 is being woefully implemented and UKBA don't have a clue what they're doing".

Far too often we are hearing of immigration officers who simply don't know how to deal with Tier 5 Certificates of Sponsorship, UKBA officials who give sponsors bad advice, staff at our consulates overseas telling people to apply for the wrong types of visa, visa applications being refused because they're simply too complicated to understand – it often seems as though we are the only ones who know what we're doing.

Everyone is rightly still moaning about the need for sponsors to keep copies of entry stamps for each UK entry a band / crew makes. But there's no point moaning to us about this – you're preaching to the converted. We've been saying the same thing since before the PBS was even introduced. UKBA keep banging on about how they will enforce the rules and come down hard on sponsors who don't comply – this from an organisation which for several years employed illegal immigrants as cleaners. But their own staff don't even KNOW the rules. Here are just a few examples (names withheld to protect the innocent):

1) Famous recording artist and entourage stopped at Heathrow and asked for bank statements. They held valid Certificates of Sponsorship issued by an A-rated sponsor who had ticked the box to confirm that they had sufficient funds. The half-wit officer said "the rules clearly state you need to be able to prove you have £800". He forgot to read the next line in the rules which says this can be done by the A-rated sponsor ticking the box. He eventually agreed to admit them but said they would never be allowed back to the UK unless they held bank statements. This is pure fantasy – the man didn't know his arse from his elbow. He needs to watch his back because we're gunning for him. As this system has been in place for 6 months now there is simply no excuse for this level of downright buffoonery.
2) Entry Clearance officers at our consulate in New York still issuing entry visas with the wrong expiry date. All Tier 5 Certificates of Sponsorship must be used within 3 months. This is confusingly stated as the 'expiry date' on the CoS, but it is actually just the date by which it should be first used. UKBA were daft in terming this as an expiry date and that has led to countless people being granted visas which are too short to cover the work they have been approved to do. We need the Arts & Entertainment Taskforce to get this wording removed from the CoS because consulates still don't seem to understand. What is the point of stating work dates on Certificates if they ignore them and issue all visas for 3 months? What's the point of UKBA saying 12 months is the maximum under Tier 5 if the consulates only grant visas for 3 months? It's beyond belief.
3) Bands coming through Dublin: UKBA initially advised the industry that anyone entering the UK on a Tier 5 CoS without prior entry visa would be working here illegally if they started their tour in Dublin. This is purely because they can't be bothered to check people coming from Dublin, as it is a Common Travel Area. We queried the legality of this because if someone is allowed to perform in Dublin, and then goes on to perform in Belfast for instance, which is within the Common Travel Area (no passport control), how can their immigration status suddenly change? That flummoxed them! They now say that the band should seek an immigration officer to stamp their passports when they come from Dublin. That would seem to be a solution, BUT we have contacted 2 Chief Immigration Officers, at Belfast and Glasgow, and they both said they have a policy of NOT stamping people coming from Dublin – even if you ask to be stamped. This clearly shows the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

We have lost count of the number of band and crew personnel who have been landed on the wrong status or given a hard time by officers who obviously lacked proper training. It is nothing short of a bloody disgrace – this system was planned for 5 years and has been in place for 6 months. It should have worked from the start; why is it STILL not working? Why are we busting our b%%%s to do the right thing when, all around us, 'officials' are screwing up?

On a lighter note, we have not had any repetition of the UKBA payment problems or (touch wood) the problem where the work address was randomly being switched when inputting individuals to the SMS. Hopefully this means those errors have been rectified. Small mercies……

A REMINDER – DON'T ISSUE C.O.S. TO BANDS YOU'RE NOT INVOLVED WITH
Clients are reminded not to issue certificates for artists that you are not actually booking or promoting. Bands who use non-EU booking agents or whose UK contacts are not licensed sponsors are in a tough spot, through no fault of their own. But before you agree to act as their sponsor you need to weigh up whether it's worth it – UKBA will ask YOU for copies of the entry stamps (and possibly more), and HMRC may come to YOU for any tax on what that band earned here. So only sponsor bands you are actually contractually committed to. In the odd circumstance where a band without a sponsor is opening up for one of your acts you might consider acting as their sponsor if all other avenues have been exhausted but you should be aware that UKBA's systems do not properly allow for this or understand it, so you are taking a bit of a risk. Naturally UKBA would say it's illegal to do it, so you need to use common sense and caution.

"ENTERTAINER VISITOR" VISAS – there already seems to be some confusion at consulates and at UKBA about the 'entertainer visitor' route into the UK. Let's be clear here – this is simply a name tag they've hung on a bag of the old permit-free routes. It's nothing new. It covers the permit-free festivals, interviews, unpaid gigs for charity, amateur church choir performances etc. It does NOT cover professional bands doing normal tours (paid or unpaid). Therefore the consulate who recently told a US band they did not need Certificates of Sponsorship to tour here unless they'd be making a profit were talking out of their backsides, and that band is lucky they also consulted us before jumping on a plane. Failure to have the right paperwork to tour here can now result in not just a refusal of entry but also a 5-year UK travel ban. If a band applies for entertainer visitor visas remember they need to prove they have funds, and the daft rule about showing a bank statement with at least £800 in it over the last 3 months applies. While we're on that subject, can we please push the Arts & Entertainment Taskforce to get that dropped – denying visas to a venerable bunch of Moroccan musicians who have been here many times before does no-one any favours and just makes you look daft!

The new Permit-free festivals list has just been released and seems to have been significantly trimmed down from previous years. Here is a summary of which music events are permit-free this year (just the main ones, this is not an exhaustive list):
Barbican Festivals, BBC Proms (does not specify if this covers Electric Proms too), Brighton Festival (but NOT the Great Escape), Cambridge Folk Fest, Celtic Connections, Download, Edinburgh Fest & Fringe, Glastonbury, Leeds & Reading, La Linea Latin Music Fest, Meltdown, The Big Chill, T in the Park, V Festivals, WOMAD and Zee.

U.K.B.A. SPONSOR LICENSING 'COMPLIANCE' VISITS – oh, dear:
We've heard from several clients that have been visited by UKBA officers wanting to check their 'compliance systems' for the new immigration system. There is a lot of confusion and misinformation on this subject (especially from UKBA's own staff, who seem clueless about the entertainment sector). We have taken to giving clients information sheets about which sections of the UKBA Compliance system refer to them and which don't. They can show these to visiting officers if those officers ask questions beyond their remit. This sheet was tested in action yesterday by a client and he found it very useful for cutting through the nonsense the Visiting Officer was talking.

It is regrettable that these Visiting Officers seem to think that promoters, booking agencies and record labels 'hire' bands to tour here by popping down to the Job Centre and putting an ad in the window; "Wanted – Popular rock band to play London O2 Arena; must be Metallica". It's so gormless that, frankly, it's insulting. And don't let them tell you that 1 certificate covers a whole band travel party either – some of them are still labouring under this belief despite us proving it was false last October.

Let's hope UKBA get a clue and stop treating the majority of the entertainment sector like they're bringing in dodgy immigrants who are going to live here and claim benefits.

Using the Sponsor Management System: some recent discoveries –
Because we use the SMS every day, for several different clients, we are making new discoveries all the time. Here are some recent findings –
1) It IS possible for dates on CoS to overlap as long as the first CoS was 'used'. This is contrary to what UKBA told us (they said it was never possible for the work dates on 2 CoS to overlap).
2) It is not possible to withdraw a CoS within the online System if that CoS has been used. By 'used' we mean the holder entered with it in the correct manner and it was logged by an Immigration Officer (which actually only seems to happen in about 50 percent of cases).
3) Switching from work permit holder into Tier 2: Although the guidance notes say that the person will be granted up to the full 5 years, in reality it is not possible to assign a Tier 2 CoS for longer than 3 years. This means that someone who, for instance, has just finished their first 1-year work permit, would need 2 extensions under Tier 2 instead of the 1 UKBA led us to believe.
4) Companies need to remember not to have multiple people logging in to the SMS under one ID. This results in many system errors. Each user needs their own ID and password.
5) If a band member is unlucky enough to need entry clearance (such as a Jamaican, Moroccan etc) and they get refused on a technicality, their CoS shows up as 'used' so it cannot then be withdrawn and re-issued. This is a problem UKBA need to address. There are FAR too many instances of entry clearance being refused on technicalities since the PBS was introduced.

Why am I so set against entry clearance?
When the Points Based System was first conceived the plan was that all non-EU bands would have to get entry clearance, just like a doctor does if they plan to come and live here. The trouble is that entry clearance is a process fraught with problems. UKBA claimed entry clearance would be a 24-hour process – I told them they were liars. Eventually, after 3 years of struggling, they dropped the requirement for most bands. The unfortunates who DO need entry clearance are regularly having to wait several weeks (not 1 day, as claimed) and Entry Clearance Officers (unlike our Immigration Officers at the ports) seem intent to seek reasons to refuse applications. The number of technical refusals has rocketed since PBS was introduced (a 'simpler' system resulting in more people completing the wrong forms and providing the wrong support docs, and more mistakes by officers – how can that be?).
If entry clearance had been mandatory for American, Canadian, Australian bands etc it would already have resulted in hundreds of cancelled gigs this year.

You've got to laugh or you'd cry
I have to laugh when I see UKBA say that they have 'simplified' the immigration system and that it's now 'very clear'. Workers extending their stay in the UK now have to complete a 57-page application form (the old one was 14 pages). Anyone needing entry clearance now has to complete 2 new visa forms running to 16 pages, rather than the old 1 form with 5 pages.

If UKBA's own officers don't know the rules how is a drummer supposed to cope?

Steve"