Baldseagull
Well-known member
So what? Are you advocating visa free travel for the purposes of tourism or short business trips should end.
The ones that slip through the net and state their intention is not to live here long term or work but really intend to do both illegally is one of the prices you pay for allowing foreign nationals to visit us and us to visit them under the visa waiver system. The trick is to weed them out at the border, and that skill belongs to enforcement officers.
I can get an ESTA and permission to travel to the states(thats all it is, permission to travel, not permission to enter) but its the border officer who decides if i can enter for my holiday or not. If i and a million Brits abused this and got an illegal job when there instead of just having a holiday then that visa waiver system would soon end. (recent example Iran and Serbia)
Better we are able to ask what their intentions are at the border than not (as in the case currently with EU nationals)
But this is all very different from intending to live long term or work where this necessitates applying for a visa to enter,applications that now increasingly require a criminal check certificate to be pass. Two different entities all together, there is no need to confuse and conflate the two
Brazilians apparently are the worst overstayers, May wanted to change their visa status when Home Secretary but was persuaded not to as Trade Sec advised it would damage trade.
Are you wanting visa only travel for all EU nationals, thereby damaging trade with the EU further?