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1985 to 8,714 in the first ten months of 1986. Resources
to deal with the paperwork involved have not matched the
increased workload.
Simplifying procedure for some categories will take
time to work out and to put into effect. Meanwhile, officials
have identified three areas, listed below, where improvements
are needed to make the present system operate more efficiently.
The first two are matters for the Foreign
Office. On the third, I should be grateful for your help.
First, many Chinese applications contain insufficient
details. Time is lost obtaining these either from sponsors
in the UK, or by going back to the Chinese. We intend
to get the Chinese to cooperate in providing the necessary
details in full at the time of application. Where essential facts are missing or vague, the Embassy will automatically
seek them from the Chinese rather than wait for queries
from London.
Second, it is clear that, during the summer, there
were delays in the Foreign Office in handling some Chinese visas due to misunderstanding of the procedures by officials.
Steps have already been taken to put this right and to
prevent any recurrence of the problem.
Third, I understand that there have also been delays
in Home Office processing of applications as a result of
the increase in numbers. I have been told that one officer is trying to cope with over 100 applications a week from China alone, in addition to a similar volume of work on East European visas, although a total of 70-100 cases is about the maximum that can be handled in a week by a single
individual.
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