ukswus wrote:I disagree that referees are expected to confirm the information in the application (after all, how are they supposed to know if someones police record is clean, or that their listed dates of absences are correct? I myself would not sign such an application, especially given that it threatens with quite severe criminal penalties.) In the form itself they are directed to take a look on a single page only, ie containing the name of the applicant and their date of birth, stuff like that.
Yes, you are right. It is just a particular page that is referred to, which I missed mentioning when responding before.
They are not even asked if they believe if the applicant is of good charachter or not- they are just asked to confirm their odentity. In the notorious John Vine's report, it was even mentioned that Home Office might reconsider their approach in relation to referees, given the introduction of biometrics...
I wasn't really commenting on the approach used by the HO in this instance, or whether it added any value to the whole process.
But now that you raise it, I'd have to agree, I don't particularly see how the new or previous approach in having a referee sign a declaration has added much to the overall process. Especially since the referees have not even been contacted in many cases. I haven't seen the report you refer to, but am certainly not surprised.
There may be some logic to how they decide, which applicants' referees to contact, but its not really clear at the moment. I know for instance when you include someone as an endorser for a ACRO Police report they only contact the endorser if something on the form stands-out or doesn't add-up, or for example the photo provided is significantly different to that in the identity document provided. The only exception mentioned was if someone's application is randomly selected for a spot-check & endorser verification. I was given this information when I spoke to their helpline with some enquiries for another immigration application, it all seemed logical, and they were quite open to sharing information on their process, explaining the volume of applications they get and how impossible it would be if they had to contact very single endorser. Which was all informative and quite useful. I've gone off the topic, but as it was somewhat similar, thought I'd share it.