Getting a UK visa now becomes tougher

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Immigrants to Britain will now have to sail through a compulsory English language test and those having marriage prospects in mind will have to wait just a little bit more as the minimum age for a marriage visa has been raised from 18 to 21.

This initiative will assist the British government's "crackdown on forced and sham marriages" as it is aimed at protecting vulnerable women from the Indian subcontinent, who come to Britain through arranged marriages and find themselves exploited because they do not know English.

It is estimated that some 17,000 spouses from the subcontinent came to Britain in 2006. Among these, there has been widespread concern over reports of exploitation of young, often semi-literate, brides from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh by their husbands and or in-laws. As these women cannot speak English, they are not able to approach police or social services.

So the move is related to attempts to ban "forced" marriages that are blamed for domestic violence against vulnerable women from the subcontinent.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the idea was to make sure that those who came to Britain to join their spouses were not exploited for lack of knowledge of English.

"We will introduce a new English language requirement for those applying for a marriage visa and planning to settle in the U.K., both as part of our determination that everyone who comes here to live should be able to speak English and to make sure that they cannot be exploited," Brown said.

"We are consulting on changes to the process for applying for a marriage visa from overseas, including more in depth interviews for couples, raising the minimum age of a spouse and their sponsor from 18 to 21, and additional scrutiny of multiple applications submitted over a short period," he added.

Speaking on 'Managed Migration and Earned Citizenship' at the Camden Center, London, Brown said those applying for a marriage visa and planning to settle in the UK will now have to pass a new English language test.

Brown also shared how he proposes to counteract the illegal immigration issue.

"We are considering a new system for visit visas where British citizens can sponsor relatives to come for short stays in return for payment of a bond to guarantee departure," he said.

"From next year we will be counting people in and out of the UK electronically, allowing us check identities quickly and securely against passports or visas, and then to match that against the identity register and the warning indexes for crime, terrorism and immigration," the prime minister said, adding, "Early identity checks have already led to 18,000 alerts and 1,500 arrests."

In order to deter employers from engaging illegal workers, the penalties have been raised to up to 10,000 or two years in prison for each subsequent offence.

The announcement is close on the heels of the 'three-stage route to citizenship' that was introduced recently and which has apparently made procuring a British passport an uphill task.

Recently, the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, declared that migrants will now have to 'earn' the right to become British citizens under a new deal.

Under the proposals, initially, a limited number of migrant categories will be granted the status of probationary citizens for a set period within which they can earn full citizenship or permanent residence.

However, full access to benefits - such as jobseeker's allowance and income support will no longer be granted to some migrant categories unless the immigrants has been in the UK for five years.

Applicants will instead have to wait until they have completed their probationary period.

Smith said that Britain was a "tolerant and fair country" but expressed the need for carefully managed migration.

Smith said that migrants will be refused full access to benefits and public services until they complete a "mandatory probationary citizenship phase."

"If people won't play by the rules in this country their journey to citizenship should be halted or slowed down," she added.

Minor offenders will be in for a three years' probationary citizenship and extra time may also be imposed on applicants who have been convicted of violent, drug-related or sexual offences.

"Parents whose children committed crime could be barred from citizenship or permanent residence in the UK," the home secretary said.

Amid opposition from the MPs, the prime minister has defended the moves saying, "Citizenship is not an abstract concept, or just access to a passport. I believe it is - and must be seen as - founded on shared values that define the character of our country."

These values were founded on a vision of citizenship that entailed both responsibilities and rights and it was on this basis that the government was advancing the concept of "earned citizenship," Brown said.

"In the future, the aspiring citizen should know and subscribe to a clear statement of British values, proceeding toward a citizenship explicitly founded not just on what they receive from our society but what they owe to it," he added.