Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Education regarding plans to extend the time incoming exchange students can stay in the UK from 6 months to one academic year without having to apply for a Student Visa.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Under the new simplified immigration rules which came into effect on 1 December 2020, study for up to six months at an accredited institution is permitted under the visitor route.
The visit route is for a person who wants to come to the UK for a temporary period, usually up to 6 months.
Visitors may also learn about and undertake research as part of a course they are studying overseas.
There are no plans to allow visitors to study for more than six months.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase the workload capacity of her Department in response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We are committed to ensuring our operational teams have the resources they need to run an efficient and effective system. We actively monitor workflows to ensure sufficient resources are in place to meet demand, including from pressures relating to Ukraine.
The Home Office is continually making efforts to simplify the application process for Ukrainian refugees and keeps this under regular review.
UKVI has redeployed caseworking staff in the UK to work seven days a week to process Ukraine applications, and has temporarily loaned in staff from other departments like HM Revenue and Customs to help manage demand.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of the Ukrainian refugee crisis on her Department’s ability to process ordinary immigration applications in a timely manner.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office is currently prioritising applications made under its Ukraine Schemes, in response to the humanitarian crisis arising from the invasion of Ukraine. As a result, customers with standard applications in study, work, and family routes may experience some delays in the processing of their application.
We have also suspended a number of Paid for Priority and Super Priority services so staff working on these could be reallocated to other work, including our Ukraine Schemes.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in what proportion of cases her Department responds to representations from hon Members within the 20 working day response time target.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Department works to a target of responding to 95% of Hon. Members’ written correspondence within 20 working days.
Performance has been impacted by a very significant increase in the volume of correspondence received, including the unprecedented amount of correspondence about the situation in Afghanistan, and more recently Ukraine. Ministers and officials have also had to instigate a remote process for drafting and signing correspondence during the period of COVID-19 restrictions.
The Department recognises that it has not been able to meet service standard in some cases, but has implemented an action plan to clear backlogs and drive up performance. The Department has recruited additional resources and expects to return to answering Hon. Members correspondence within the service standard early in the new financial year.
Data about intake and performance in answering Hon. Members’ correspondence are published quarterly with the latest quarter available at: Customer service operations data: Q4 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) . This includes data up to and including the end of quarter 4 - 2021.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for settled status from EU students are pending decision.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office publishes data on the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) in the ‘EU Settlement Scheme statistics’.
The latest published information on EUSS applications received and applications concluded by nationality to 30 September 2021, can be found in tables EUSS_01 and EUSS_03 available at: EU Settlement Scheme quarterly statistics, September 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Information on EUSS applications which relate specifically to EU nationals studying in the UK is not recorded on our case management system and is therefore not available.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average length of time is for an applicant who has been successful on an immigration appeal to receive their visa.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The requested information cannot be accurately extracted from our internal systems. To provide this information would require a manual trawl of successful appeals and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
Where an appeal has been allowed in favour of the appellant, and is not subject to onward appeal, we take all reasonable steps to implement the allowed appeal in a timely manner.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what income the Government received from Spouse Visa Applications from EU Nationals in the 2019-20 financial year.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office does not hold the information in the format requested. Amounts received in immigration fees are not recorded or categorised by visa type. So we do not have separate codes or fields for either income received for spouse visa applications, or nationality.
Total visa and immigration income data is published annually in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts. Please see page 152 of the Home Office 2019-20 Annual Report and Accounts for the most recent disclosure of visa and immigration income. Home Office annual report and accounts 2019 - 2020 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to extend the time incoming exchange students can stay in the UK from 6 months to one academic year without having to apply for a Student Visa.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Under the new simplified immigration rules which came into effect on 1 December 2020, study for up to six months at an accredited institution is permitted under the visitor route.
The visit route is for a person who wants to come to the UK for a temporary period, usually up to 6 months.
Visitors may also learn about and undertake research as part of a course they are studying overseas.
There are no plans to allow visitors to study for more than six months.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the potential economic and cultural benefits of extending the amount of time exchange students can remain in the UK under the visitor immigration route from six months to one year.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Under the new simplified immigration rules which came into effect on 1 December 2020, study for up to six months at an accredited institution is permitted under the visitor route.
The visit route is for a person who wants to come to the UK for a temporary period, usually up to 6 months.
Visitors may also learn about and undertake research as part of a course they are studying overseas.
There are no plans to allow visitors to study for more than six months.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the impact of the sixth-month limit on how long incoming exchange students can remain in the UK under the visitor immigration route.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Under the new simplified immigration rules which came into effect on 1 December 2020, study for up to six months at an accredited institution is permitted under the visitor route.
The visit route is for a person who wants to come to the UK for a temporary period, usually up to 6 months.
Visitors may also learn about and undertake research as part of a course they are studying overseas.
There are no plans to allow visitors to study for more than six months.