Hoops and hurdles

The new visa and immigration points-based system for the arts sector has been in operation since the end of November 2008 and it is clear, after four months, that it is not working satisfactorily. Moreover, some UK Border Agency officials in the UK and overseas do not have a clear grasp of the policy and legislation. The National Campaign for the Arts (NCA) has received streams of emails from members (and non-members) highlighting flaws in the system: some of these can be amended through tweaking the IT, others will require some changes to the rules and regulations. At present, the main complaints we hear are about the cumbersome IT for users of the sponsor system. Arts professionals never had the opportunity to test the IT and give feedback on its suitability. Now we have a situation where hundreds of hours are wasted entering information in an inefficient manner. The sector has been promised IT updates that will solve some of the problems, but these are not being prioritised, and in the meantime our members are wasting time and money.

The UK’s loss
Just as concerning is the lack of consistency in advice and approach across the board. There are several examples coming through about officials at the end of a helpline not being able to help (if you’re lucky enough to get through in the first place); instances of wrong advice being given; artists in some posts overseas being charged the wrong prices for their visas (invariably too much); the wrong papers being issued; and artists turning up at UK ports to be met by border officials who are baffled by the paperwork, or lack of paperwork, because a Certificate of Sponsorship is actually an identifier number and not a piece of paper. In other words, it is a shambles. More worrying, however, are our concerns about the gradual erosion of UK cultural life, as the difficulties and implications for some artists travelling to perform in the UK become too onerous to justify. We have already heard the example of Grigory Sokolov stating that he will no longer perform in the UK because of the time and expense of interrupting his schedule to submit his biometric data (now required for visas). The NCA has learned that some Malian musicians have said they will no longer perform in the UK, as it is too expensive and too dangerous to travel to Senegal (some thousands of miles away) to apply for their visas, and unreasonable to expect them to hang around for up to 15 days while their applications are processed in The Gambia, leaving them without their passports or travel papers. We have yet to know how many other performers are thinking along these lines, but anecdotal feedback indicates that this is a real threat.
Need for speed
Even with the need to collect biometrics, we cannot understand why it should take so long to issue a visa. The UK Border Agency has in the past quoted a timescale of five to 15 days for processing a visa, yet their published service levels are four weeks (from April), while the Royal Opera House has a recent case where it took nine weeks for one of their dancers to receive his visa. A fortnight ago, the NCA led a delegation of arts sector representatives to take these concerns to the Minister for Immigration and Borders, Phil Woolas. The Minister was very amenable and sympathetic to our concerns. He was struck by the potential long-term negative impact on the cultural sector and indicated that his team would be flexible in trying to reach solutions. After all, it was as much in their interests as ours that the system worked effectively and efficiently.
So, what are we actually asking for? Well, we’re not so unreasonable or unrealistic as to expect them to rip up the rule book and start again. If truth be told, many arts organisations welcome the sponsorship system which allows them greater ability to control who comes in and out, but it does need to work efficiently and be sympathetic to the vagaries of how the arts sector operates. In the first place we have some simple requests: dedicated case workers at the end of the phone who understand how the cultural sector operates and can answer questions; and for the IT issues to be resolved as a priority, so that arts organisations and sponsors can get on and run their businesses efficiently. Going forward, we would like there to be: more biometric data collection and processing points, including the provision of mobile biometrics units, particularly in remote countries such as those in western Africa; a much quicker turnaround to minimise separation of artists from their passports and documents – ideally a maximum processing time of 5 working days; provision of an agreed fast-track procedure for emergency situations, such as last minute illness and indisposed major artists; a review of the system and its impact on artists and the economy after six to 12 months, when we would have had more experience of how the system is working.
The Minister has agreed to another meeting with arts delegates in November, with a view that this meeting could be cancelled if our issues were resolved. He would like to be in a position to cancel that meeting. So would we, Minister, so would we.