Olympic accreditation card acts as UK visa waiver

February 09 2010 by Liam Clifford

The Security Minister Lord West has announced that 20,000 foreigners will be allowed to enter the country without UK visas during the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012.

This group of people will carry Olympic or Paralympic Accreditation Cards, which will work as a UK visa waiver system throughout the games, which are to be held in London in 2012.

The card carriers will include athletes, coaches, media, support staff and a “small number of representatives from high-level global sponsors” according to West. He made the statement in a written parliamentary reply to shadow community cohesion minister Baroness Warsi. He stated that the visa waiver system would apply to a "limited number of the accredited Games Family".

The statement said that around 40,000 foreign nationals would be accredited and, "of these, just over half are expected to be nationals of countries who would normally require a visa to enter the UK or other persons coming for reasons that would normally require some form of entry clearance.”

He explained, "in these circumstances the Olympic or Paralympic Accreditation Card will act as evidence that an entry clearance is not required."

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