Daily Times

Pakistani citizens are being counted among the top nationals who have been granted the UK visa in various categories during the year 2020, the Home Office latest figures have revealed.

According to data released by the UK Home Office, Pakistanis have the highest numbers of family visas applications granted (6,662) during the year ending 2020 with the approval rate of 89%. While Indian were granted 3,348, Bangladesh 2,155 and 1,605 applicants from Nepal were issued family visas. Overall, South Asian accounts for 40 % of the total family visas application approved in 2020.

The Home Office says COVID-19 has badly hit the UK Immigration and at the peak of pandemic from the month of March to June they have witnessed a sharp fall in the grant rate due to the lockdown and closure of their offices, through the substantial increase in other months of the year have resulted in a notable increase in grant rate compared to the last year.

The UK’s official Immigration statistics shows that 30,208 Pakistani applicants were granted visitor visas during the same period, showing a significant increase in the overall approval rate for the Pakistani citizens. Home Office sources told Daily Times that UK Visa and Immigration (UKVI) officials have addressed the majority of concerns of Pakistani applicants through their high quality decision making process and proper consideration of each application. All the Visitor visa applications from Pakistan are being dealt by the UKVI processing office in UAE headed by their Regional Director for Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, Pakistan and Turkey (MENCAPT) Teresa Hardy, a senior British civil servant who has been awarded the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) by the Queen for her services to the UK’s border security.

Analysis of the data confirms that 2,223 Skilled work visas known as Tier 2 were issued to the Pakistani professionals, though in total 6,807 work visas were issued to Pakistani’s. However, Indian applicants accounted for almost 50 % of all the work visas granted until September 2020. In the Student category, 4,015 Tier 4 student visas were granted to Pakistani citizens having the approval rate of 93 percent with a 20% increase on the previous year.Chinese (52,698) and Indian (44,992) nationals counts for the half of all the student visas issued by the UKVI during the year ending 2020.

According to the Home office compiled figures, an increase in the numbers of British citizenship for Pakistani citizens has reported as 2,799 Pakistani were granted citizenship during this year as compared to 2,663 in the same period last year. Whereas 134 Pakistani passengers were refused entry into the UK this year compared to 2019 when 197 Pakistani were denied entry.

Moreover, on December 31, 2020 freedom of movement between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) will end and subsequently the UK will implement a new point based immigration system from 1 January 2021. Home Office officials claiming the new immigration system will be a fair system, because it will treat people from every part of the world equally. They said the new system will cater for the most highly skilled workers, skilled workers and students having a range of other specialist work routes including routes for global leaders in their field.

According to the Home Office, the UK’s new Student Route is even more efficient and convenient for Pakistani students to apply for the visa. They will need to demonstrate they have an offer from an approved educational institution, speak English and are able to support themselves during their studies in the UK. Similarly, for Pakistani citizens, if they want to come to work in the UK, all they will need to demonstrate is they have a job offer from the Home Office approved employer, the job offer is at the required skill and salary levels, plus prove they can speak English.