New visa checks are to be introduced for five countries after they failed to pass Britain’s strict new Visa Waiver Test

Following Britain's first global review of who needs a visa to come to the UK, regimes will now be introduced in Bolivia, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland and Venezuela.  Already, three quarters of the world’s population need to apply for a visitor visa.

The Visa Waiver Test reviewed all non European countries and regions to determine the level of risk their citizens potentially posed to the UK in terms of illegal immigration, crime and security, by not having to apply for a visa before they travelled.

In July 2008 the UK Border Agency (UKBA) found 11 countries fell short of the required standard and over the past six months, along with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), has worked closely with them to improve their passport and border control systems.  With the mitigation period over, it was decided visa checks would now be required for five of these countries in order to stop fraudulent attempts to enter Britain.

• Since 3 March 2009, South African nationals have been required to have a visa to enter or transit the UK. A temporary exemption is in place for any South African who has previously travelled to the UK and has evidence of their visit in their current passport (i.e. a UK entry stamp). This temporary exemption ends on the 1st July 2009 and from that date onwards all South African passport holders will require a visa to enter or transit the UK.
• From 18 May 2009 anyone travelling to the UK on a Bolivian passport will require a visa.
• From the 18 May 2009 anyone travelling to the UK on a Venezuelan passport will require a visa. There is an exemption to this requirement for any Venezuelan holding a new biometric, machine readable passport containing an electronic chip, that was issued since 2007.
• From 1 July 2009 anyone travelling to the UK on a passport issued by Swaziland or Lesotho will require a visa.

Anyone wishing to travel from these five countries via the UK en route to a third country will also need a transit visa.  The same transit visa requirements have also been extended to Jamaican nationals wanting to pass through the UK.

Britain's tough border means that nationals of over 100 countries - three-quarters of the world's population - must apply for a visa to come to the UK.

The UK’s visa checks now requires everyone to be fingerprinted, locking them to one identity, and checked against Government watchlists.  They are then screened and counted in and out of the UK using the UK Border Agency’s e-Borders system.

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