AFFORD

Chi Onwurah MP, Chair of the APPG for Africa, invites you to a parliamentary meeting to discuss UK visa refusals for African visitors.

On Tuesday 22nd January from 6pm until 7.30pm in the Grimond Room, Portcullis House, House of Commons

The meeting provides an opportunity for guests from a diversity of sectors including academic, cultural, NGO , health and business to share evidence with parliamentarians on the consistency and quality of the decision making of UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) for visa applications. Evidence will be presented to a panel of parliamentarians to feed into a policy brief in advance of APPG for Africa roundtable meeting with the UK Immigration Minister, Caroline Nokes MP, two weeks later.

Some guests will be invited to formally present their evidence to the panel and advance notice will be given. Those not presenting to the panel will have the opportunity to submit written statements in advance of the meeting and to ask questions during the Q&A if time allows.

Written statements should be submitted as soon as possible to Hetty Bailey on baileyh@parliament.uk but no later than Tuesday 8th January. (NB- Statements should be succinct, refer to the questions below, be no longer than 1500 words and in Word document format).

This meeting hopes to gather evidence and information from participants on the following questions:

1) What is your experience of supporting African nationals in applying for visas for African nationals to conferences / events / business meetings/ training sessions in the UK?

2) How many times have you supported African nationals to apply for a UK visa, of whatever type?

3) How many were rejected or approved? What were the most common grounds for refusal given? How many were granted, but too late to allow the participant to attend?

4) For those that reapplied, how many were granted visas? What circumstances changed in their application? Did they resubmit with additional information? And did the visa arrive in time for them to attend the event?

6) Have you seen any evidence of inconsistency in decision-making regarding visa applications?

7) What do you understand to be the main barriers to submitting successful visa applications for African nationals? And can you estimate how many might have decided not to visit the UK because of the difficulty of obtaining a visa?

NB- Please note that numerically presented evidence is particularly valuable.

Guests are actively encouraged to invite their local Members of Parliament to attend the meeting and listen to the evidence.

A guest list will be in operation. If you are interested in participating please e-mail the APPG for Africa at baileyh@parliament.uk with your name, role and organisation.

This meeting in being held in a collaboration between the APPG for Africa, The Royal African Society, AFFORD and the APPG for Malawi.