Fast-track UK immigration for rich passengers

United Kingdom, 19th September: Soon, wealthy travelers wanting to move to the UK may be fast-tracked to pass through immigration at UK airports.

This has been revealed by the head of the UK border force, Brian Moore.

London welcomes super-rich foreigners—If you happen to be rich and willing to immigrate to the UK, you are in for a great and a welcoming surprise. That’s because the UK is considering to throw open the nation to highly placed individuals hailing from countries including India.

This move is aimed to calming down several claims of long delays faced by passengers at UK airports while clearing immigration formalities. Many among those who spent hours together while going through immigration checks at Heathrow included Indians especially before the Olympics.

Fast-track immigration plans being reviewed--Revealing its plans to expedite immigration for high-value business persons, Moore informed the home affairs select committee that the matter is under discussion currently.

Meanwhile, reports have been rife regarding delays encountered during immigration checks by rich and high valued executives hailing from non-EU nations wanting to do business in the UK.

As per the head of the International Airlines Group, Willie Walsh, this proved as a deterrent for rich foreigners wanting to come to the UK. Reason for such immigration delays is shortage of required number of UK Border Force officials at the UK airports.

So, efforts are on to offer special privilege to who may be termed as ‘high value individuals’ keeping in view special contributions of these people to the UK economy.

Ministers are reviewing how the proposal can be put into practice and the way of selecting highly influential business people from overseas.

According to Willie Walsh, chief executive of IAG (International Airlines Group), UK is losing out on business by robbing many rich businessmen the opportunity to come to the UK due to long immigration delays at airports. Hence, the aim is to restrict immigration waiting time to less than 25 minutes for travelers hailing from European Union.

And from those from non-EU, tentative time could be up to 45 minutes, he informed.

Fast track options already effective—Some fast-track immigration options are already in effect for facilitating speedy immigration of rich passengers into the UK.

For example, some airlines offer a dedicated immigrate route exclusively to rich travelers. And there is a service named ‘Heathrow by Invitation’ which costs £1,500 along with VAT for lounge facility to wealthy travelers.