Visa fiasco is not the first time that the UK failed Hong Kong students

Several adjectives could be applied to the British government’s performance in handling visa applications from Hong Kong students this summer. My personal favourite is shambolic, but chaotic and shameful would also be strong contenders.

The time taken to process student visas suddenly rocketed from around two to three weeks to six weeks or more. Those who paid extra for a priority process, with a promised one-week turnaround, were only getting their visas after three weeks or longer. Air tickets, hotels and land transport bookings had to be cancelled, or rebooked with losses or extra fees. Those who delayed buying an air ticket until the situation was clarified were pushed into a more expensive booking period.

Anxious students line up outside British visa centre as processing delay presses on

The situation placed an extra psychological burden on everyone involved, at what is already an extremely stressful time. I know this from personal experience: my own daughter flies later this month to take up a place at an American university. Both parents will be escorting her in this major step in her young life, and the entire extended family plus a small army of childhood friends will be at the airport to see her off. Others are planning to meet us in Los Angeles. Imagine the logistics involved in this exercise concerning just one child. Now multiply it by more than a thousand.

Number of Hong Kong students studying in England soars

Explanations offered for the chaos were many and varied. Some blamed the reported move of the processing office from Manila to Sheffield. Others claimed greater use of electronic submissions instead of hard copies had resulted in photocopying problems. Whatever the reason, the result was a fiasco.

The response of the local government here was commendable. A hotline was opened, largely – one suspects – to facilitate the venting of displeasure, as the process is entirely a British one. The post office did its best to help speed things up by opening special counters for collection of passports once the visas had been issued and returned. And the unfortunate British consul, Andrew Heyn, was called in for a ritual – though no doubt very civilised – roasting.