Massive increase in ECO workload in Manila

Thats a lot of applications for one individual to process in one day.

My feeling, for a long time, has been that something hasn't been right. I sometimes thought it was negligence or maybe just incompetence but this suggests not enough allocated consideration / deliberation time per visa - work overload. Knowingly under resourcing. I am annoyed as the visas are very expensive. All I can say is, based on the stats above, that they are raking in a lot of money just to process them so very quickly. :f:

This info is surely even more ammunition to have in your back pocket at appeal time.

Indeed. And it certainly answers a few of the questions I had on the topic.

I think you may be underestimating the workload - I'm not disputing the number of visa applications but questioning the available working time. These are civil servants and would almost certainly be entitled to (at least) four weeks annual leave and in addition to that, the office would probably be closed for the Christmas/New Year fortnight and would also be closed for Philippine public holidays and special non-working days - of which there are many. So the available time is not 48 working weeks but closer to 44.

This brings me on to the question you didn't ask: how many ECOs and ECMs employed in Manila are British nationals? Border Agency staff would not be diplomatic passport holders and the Border Agency is not an Embassy function therefore I think it's highly likely that, as an employer, it would have to abide by Philippine employment laws. As the work is essentially routine in nature and ECOs have to follow set scripts, I rather doubt they could convince the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) that the work can not be performed by suitably-qualified Filipinos. Also expatriate staff would have to be paid at a significantly higher rate - they'd be entitled to an overseas allowance in addition to their normal salary and may also be provided with accommodation.

If as I suspect, UKBA is employing local staff as ECOs then this may give rise to another possible avenue for appeals. Even the most highly-schooled Filipinos, unless they have spent some time living and working in the UK, will not understand some of the nuances of the English language; idioms that you and I understand may not be fully comprehended by them. That may lead them to reject applications purely on the basis of a lack of understanding of the language used.

But I do doubt UKBA would give a definite response to that question. An admission that decisions about applicants' abilities to enter to the UK are being made by non-UK citizens would be a presentational nightmare, even though there are savings to the public purse.

Yes. It seems that of the huge sum that is charged for a settlement visa, there is a lot of "profiteering" going on, on the part of the Embassy there. Great for the UK Taxpayer, maybe, but not so great for the applicant! And indeed, by using local staff and pushing the applications through on high output but low focus basis the "profits" are certainly being maximised. Doesn't give a lot of chance for good QC.

It's difficult to get a good picture of what's actually going.
The ECO's do make the visa decisions, but they are supported by VFS staff and also by at least ECA's (Entry Clearance Assistants)
Just how many ECA's support each ECO is unknown from the UKBA response.

I believe the Manila Hub has a pretty good record of meeting their standard service targets.
The caseworking team could include quite a few folk.

It is scandalous that the Home Office has subcontracted such a sensitive area to foreign nationals who owe no allegiance to the UK whatsoever. There are issues of national security here - remember we do have some pretty unsavoury groups, such as Abu Sayaf, which might try to take advantage were they to know that visa decisions in respect of Filipinos and Indonesians are made by Filipinos and not by British staff.

In that case, an appeal hearing needs to hear evidence from those who actually live in the Philippines and can explain the differences in language and culture. One of Mae's cousins is an English Teacher: she learned the language not from her university course (only 12 out of 40 units even touched on the language) but from American TV shows!

Filipinos do not take ownership of problems and they are unable to admit to making any wrong decisions. "Face" is a very important part of the culture and Filipinos will do anything not to lose face. Perhaps you should ask UKBA how many visas were refused in 2012 by its Manila Hub and of those how many were granted on appeal/re-examination. The answer to the second part is likely to be close to zero.

I do remember that Theresa May is on record for stating that the full cost of processing visa applications is to be met by the applicant. If each ECO is processing 55 visa applications a day, that's one application every 8 minutes - based on a 7 hour working day. If an ECO spends one hour on processing settlement visas at around £800 each, he has earned £6,000 for the Exchequer! Does Mrs May really believe it costs £100 per minute to process a visa application? Gee and I thought the Philippine Bureau of Immigration were bad enough for chiselling cash out of foreigners - UKBA has them beat by a HUGE amount.

Exactly my "beef" for a long time.

This is very good work, Sean. We all owe you a vote of thanks.

There are some very interesting comments to that Guardian piece:

Even a former Immigration Officer is somewhat critical about the state of the modern Border Agency:

There are a good number of applicants for FLR who are members on the "dark side" who are in the same position. Having waited some 6 to 9 months for their FLR outcome. They can't go anywhwere as they have no passport and can't work as they aren't allowed to till they are awarded FLR. Plus, of course, all the uncertainty and stress. I seem to recall one guy's wife has been waiting since April last year for their FLR outcome. Whats more, when people phone in to find out about the progress of their application then they are fobbed off with little or no update.

I was driving up to speak to our friendly Immigration officers here, this morning and the below was plastered all over the radio.

UKBA backlogs: Inspectors find thousands of new cases

"Immigration inspectors have discovered more UK Border Agency (UKBA) backlogs, totalling more than 16,000 cases.

The chief inspector of immigration said the latest backlogs, relating to requests to settle through marriage, were "unacceptable".

The backlogs included people waiting a decade to hear if their partner had permission to live in the UK.

Immigration Minister Mark Harper denied the Border Agency was a "shambles", and said managers were "getting a grip".

The marriage or civil partnership-related backlog is thought to be the 10th category of unresolved cases that has emerged in the past two years.

Inspectors looked at how well the agency was handling applications from people from outside the European Economic Area who have a partner already in the country, such as a husband or wife who is British."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21170495