UK sets visa deadline

Apr 01 2009 10:46:29:503PM
The British High Commission has announced from which date South Africans travelling to the United Kingdom will need visas.
Cape Town - South Africans travelling to the United Kingdom will need visas with effect from July 1, the British High Commission said on Wednesday.
The temporary visa exemption for South African visitors with a previous travel history to the UK, which began on March 3, would cease at midnight on June 30, the high commission said in a statement.
From Wednesday, July 1, all South African visitors to the UK would require a visa.
Visa regimes for Bolivian and Venezuelan nationals would begin on Monday, May 18, and Lesotho and Swaziland also on July 1.
The high commission said the global expansion of the UK's visa processes was just one part of an on-going exercise to secure its borders.
"We have already rolled out the biometric capture of information, enabling us to fix someone's identity from the moment the visa application is made.
"This will deter many of those who seek to enter the UK under an assumed identity or on fraudulently obtained South African documents," the high commission said.
It would also reduce the risk of South African passengers being unnecessarily delayed on arrival in the UK because of current concerns over the security of South African passports.