All overseas visitors coming to the UK will have to apply for permission and will face criminal background checks, the Home Office has announced. Travellers will have to submit biometric information and detail what their plans are in the UK before having their background checked and their names run through a number of watchlists.
Anyone with a criminal record will have their application to enter the UK reviewed, reports The Telegraph. Anyone who has committed a number of crimes or spent more than a year in prison could be banned from entering the country.
The new system, which will cost between £10 and £20 per person, will start in October, with visitors from Qatar first to have to apply for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA).
