[AMcWhirter]

Here’s more info in today’s Moscow Times. But there is a catch … to qualify for visa-free transits, the Russians want foreign visitors to fly with a Russian airline.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/visa-free-travel-for-20-countries-to-boost-domestic-airline-profits/488910.html

[FormerlyDoS]

One assumes that the UK would be able to offer a reciprocal 72 hour visa, for arrivals on a UK airline.

[FirstTraveller]

I doubt the US will include Russians in the VWP even with this compromise from the russians

[Swissdiver]

Anthony,

My Godfather and his wife did the ride last year (before continuing to Mongolia) and loved it. The point according to them is to make stops on the way, to have a “real” night and a “real” bathroom. Now they are almost 75 years old so might be a bit more picky. It however makes sense to me…

Paulo Coelho did it as well and describes it well in his book “Aleph”.

[DavidGordon10]

Anthony Dunn on 11/9 – your point about the behaviour of successive Hone Secretaries is well made.

Readers of the Forum may be interested in this note from the London Review of BooKs blog – http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2013/10/31/the-editors/academic-visa-requirements/ I think it is a national disgrace that we treat visitors we should welcome with such contempt.

[Tirana1]

It is not only a disgrace that we treat would-be visitors in such a fashion; it is also costly for UK PLC. In the last year I have had to cancel a seminar for Russian directors in London who could not get visas in time and held a meeting in Paris rather than London when Albanians and Turks could not get visas for the UK in time. The most absurd of all was when a Georgian client was told he had to travel from Tbilisi to Moscow in order to collect a visa because the printer at the British embassy in Tbilisi was not working. When you get to see UK government as foreign visitors seeking visas see it, the result is never pretty in my experience. I fear the Daily Mail with its “Little Englander” agenda has a lot to answer for.

[pdtraveller]

For me it is very simple.

If Visas are hard to get or overly expensive then I go elsewhere. The world is big enough for me, so there is much to see which is not on Russian territory, or indeed anywhere else that has nonsense visa requirements.

As for getting into the UK, well as much of London seems to be owned by Russians, so it does not appear to very difficult for those with the funds. And that in my view is the rub……few British or EU citizens with the means and where with all to travel to China, Russia or many other states with tough visa requirements, would ever actually want to then stay there permanently. (sweeping generalisation perhaps)

On the other hand many Chinese and Russians able to put together the airfare, would want to stay here and can you blame them.

So I am not in favour of relaxing immigration and have no issues with EU / UK visas being hard to get. But, I am also in favour of having systems in place which ensure smooth welcoming experience on arrival at our borders, for nationals or a visitors alike. Singapore excels at this even with “Death to Drug Traffickers” in bold print on the landing card.

[DavidGordon10]

I can’t agree, pdtraveller. I am not argueing about the case of the rich who want to move to the UK, my concern is with honest academics, business people and artists who have a legitimate reason to visit, and who are treated atrociously. Obtaining a UK visa for a proper purpose should not be insulting or demeaning for the visitor. The information required from the visitor, and the effort required, should be proportionate. The process should be quick.

No-one who reads the link from the LRB that I provided earlier can claim that the process described there is reasonable, and if you need more evidence, go to the blog from the University of Oxford historian linked in the LRB piece.

The surliness of the UK visa authorities towards legitimate visitors does us great harm, and there is no evidence that it protects us from anything.

[FormerlyDoS]

DavidGordon10

The blog you post is shocking.

[AnthonyDunn]

I was recently at Imperial College (University of London) for a postgraduate event displaying the results of an inter-disciplinary programme combining engineering, design and production skills, turning ideas into real products and solutions. One idea and mock up caught my (and Snr Management’s) eye as something that had so many potential uses that we were massively enthused with the idea. We were talking to an extremely urbane and polished young man who was the “design guru” behind the concept and who is pretty global in his background. We asked him about his future intentions and, as a non-UK/EU/EEA passport holder, his first comment was that UK visa restrictions were now becoming such a serious issue for him and his contemporaries, that he feared he might have to take the idea and potential with him and develop it abroad.

If this is a part of any trend, then the potential result is likely to be:

Daily Mail/UK Isolationist Party 1 The UK’s economic future 0

As I was so stunned by his comments, I am personally writing to Theresa May via my local MP regarding the draft Immigration Bill and bringing this experience to her attention. I would hope for a rather more considered stance at Westminster than one is ever likely to obtain from the red tops.

[Author]

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