British envoy: Going to UK not too difficult
British Ambassador to the Philippines Asif Ahmad on Wednesday said going to the United Kingdom is not really difficult and that roughly 90 percent of visa applications are approved.
“What you probably don’t know is that Manila is one of our biggest hubs for issuing visas, not only for people in the Philippines but also the surrounding regions,” Ahmad said during his speech at a media reception at the British Ambassador’s Residence at Forbes Park, Makati.
“It’s not difficult, it might be expensive for some of you but I tell you it’s cheaper than a handbag,” he added.
To know more about the process of obtaining visas to the UK, Ahmad urged the public to take part in the Great British Festival at Bonifacio High Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig from March 7 to 9.
The festival is the culmination of a five-month celebration of British culture, food, trade, and fashion.
Ahmad said there will be information booths during the Great British Festival to help demystify the process of getting visas.
The “UK Visas” and “Visit Britain” booths will be open from 1:00 to 8:00 p.m. on March 7 and from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. from March 8-9.
During the three-day event, there will also be a trade exhibit, a British fashion show, a street theater, rugby drills with the Philippine Volcanoes, football drills with the Younghusband siblings, among others.
Football fan
The ambassador, a big fan of football, said his personal mission was to “make football far more popular in the Philippines.”
A passionate supporter of Liverpool FC, Ahmad said he hopes Filipinos would “learn to love this great game, this global sport.”
The ambassador remarked that during his tenure as UK Ambassador to Thailand, the Liverpool FC team went there twice, adding that it might be possible to accomplish that too in the Philippines.
Chevening scholarship
Meanwhile, the ambassador cited the Chevening Scholarships granted by the UK government to a select number of Filipinos every year.
While applications for the 2014-2015 Chevening Scholarships in the Philippines are now closed, Ahmad said the UK government aims to grant 15 scholarships to Filipinos next year for a Master’s degree of their choice.
“We’ll pay everything, your living expenses, tuition,” Ahmad said.
Chevening Scholarships are the UK government’s global scholarship program for outstanding leaders who would like to pursue one-year Master’s degrees— (although some awards are for tailor-made short courses—at any of the UK’s leading universities.
“The UK boasts over 1,800 postgraduate courses and is home to some of the most prestigious universities in the world,” the Chevening website said.
Representatives of leading British schools recently held a conference to encourage Filipinos to consider studying in the UK, where some of the world’s top universities – Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial College – are located.
Master’s courses in the UK usually take a year to finish and cost between P900,000 to P1.3 million. — KBK, GMA News
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