ISLAMABAD: The United Kingdom (UK) Border Agency (UKBA) will implement new global changes to the immigration rules for those aspiring to work or study in the UK, read a British High Commission blurb issued on Friday.
Full details of the changes, which come into effect on April 6, could be found on the UKBA's website. These changes would not be applied to marriage settlement applications.
The UKBA is also introducing new measures to help improve the level of customer service to applicants from Pakistain, including a new online application system and a priority visa service.
From 1 May, all applicants and their dependants who are applying for a UK visa must use the online service to fill in their visa application forms.
UK High Commissioner Adam Thomson said, "People-to-people links are the foundation of the strong bilateral links between the UK and Pakistain. These changes to our visa system are good for the British people and good for Pakistain. Our relationship is too important to allow fraudulent behaviour to tarnish genuine travellers."
The blurb also read that from April 6, those applying for work or study visas (points-based applications) must do so online; From 1 May, applicants and their dependants who are applying for a UK visa must apply online. From this date, the UK Border Agency will no longer accept manually completed paper application forms.
On April 1, the British High Commission will introduce a priority visa service. This will be available to customers who are applying for a UK visit visa; and have travelled to the UK within the last two years; and have complied with the UK's immigration laws.
The fee for the service is Rs 8,400 per application, in addition to the visa application fee, and is payable at the visa application centre. Applicants need to obtain a receipt for every transaction.
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UK High Commissioner Adam Thomson said, "People-to-people links are the foundation of the strong bilateral links between the UK and Pakistain. These changes to our visa system are good for the British people and good for Pakistain. Our relationship is too important to allow fraudulent behaviour to tarnish genuine travellers."
And now we know why they call him the "high" commissioner...
About the headline: Iran Press TV's journalist thought the detail of the concerned party's gender important. Who am I, a mere American housewife, to question it?
A Mohammedan man from Croydon has fallen victim to Britannia's rising Islamophobia ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... , as he has been sacked on the first day of his new job at a phone shop because of his beard.
Shahid Saleem who has a beard due to his religious beliefs is now taking legal action after the discrimination he faced at Vodafone shop in Sutton High Street, London.
Saleem had an appointment with the store manager on September 9, 2011 after being placed there by the recruitment agency, Adecco. But he was told that he could not work at the store because of his beard.
The 21-year-old then asked the manager to see the dress code to check whether Vodafone had an official policy through which the employees should be clean shaven. But his request was refused and was instead escorted to the exit door and told to talk to his job agency.
"Throughout the whole time [the store manager] was talking to me, he spoke to me condescendingly in public in front of a Vodafone employee, which completely demoralized and upset me as well as causing me distress," Saleem said.
"What [the store manager] did was blatant discrimination, and discrimination in this country is illegal, especially in regards to the work place."
Vodafone then probed Saleem's complaint and sent him an apology, claiming the manager thought Saleem's appearance was "rather scruffy and not business appropriate" but confirming he should not discuss about Saleem's beard.
The store manager was then asked to join a training course to help him comprehend more about the diversity and the company's policies. Ah. Diversity Training. That solves everything... Continued on Page 47
Two men were found guilty and jailed for life today for the murder of a police officer shot dead by dissident republicans in Northern Ireland.
Brendan McConville, 40, and John Paul Wootton, 20, were convicted by Lord Justice Paul Girvan at Belfast Crown Court for their part in the ambush of Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Constable Stephen Carroll.
The officer, aged 48, from Banbridge, County Down, was the first policeman killed by Republican terrorists since the peace process reforms which saw the Royal Ulster Constabulary replaced by the new-look PSNI.
Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Continuity IRA
It's worth keeping in mind that Islamicists aren't the only thugs whose lives center on hatred and murder. More on the Continuity IRA here.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Two men were found guilty and jailed for life today for the murder of a police officer shot dead by dissident republicans in Northern Ireland. 
