Columbia added to visa national list from 3pm today

Columbia has been added to the list of countries that must apply for a visitor visa in advance of travelling to the UK. From 3pm today Appendix Visa National is amended to include Columbia and Appendix ETA National List will be amended to remove it as they will no longer be included in the countries that can use the Electronic Travel Authorisation process (this was due to take effect for Columbia from tomorrow).

The latest available published statistics demonstrate this trend with the number of asylum claims rising from 2, 4 and 7 in the first 3 quarters in 2022, to 105 in quarter 4 of 2022. There were 211, 176, 173 and 294 asylum claims in the 4 quarters of 2023, and there have been 227 and 241 asylum claims in the first 2 quarters of 2024. This compares to 19 asylum claims in 2019, 11 in 2020 and 6 in 2021. There have been more asylum claims per quarter in 2023 and 2024 than in the entire 10 years preceding the visa lift.

There will be a transition period in place whereby Colombian nationals who have a confirmed travel booking made before 3pm on 26 November 2024 for travel to the UK before 3pm on 24 December 2024 will not be required to apply for a visit visa before travelling. If they already have a travel booking but it is to come to the UK after 3pm on 24 December 2024 then they will need to apply for a visitor visa in advance, the Explanatory Memorandum says that visa processing times are currently three weeks so best to apply now. Changing the date of travel on an already confirmed booking so as to arrive within the transition period will not help, a visitor visa must still be obtained in advance.