Dear Mr Davis

First of all, may I say that your dealing with the EU ECAA (European Community Association Agreement) applications and the "light-hand on the tiller" Sheffield instructions was most welcome.

However, you should be aware that you have only uncovered the tip of the iceberg!

What you said and the Gov acknowledged on allowing the 10 countries national (sic) in without further checks, is also being applied to those countries on the next accession list including Bulgaria and Romania.

Both countries were until 1 March overwhelmed with baddly (sic) prepared and bogus ECAA application.

Some lawyers are charging �1,000 - �3,000 to process their applications.

'False documents'

When entry clearance officers (ECOs) write to Sheffield and state clearly that the application is being supported with forged and counterfeit documents, the letters are ignored and the ECAA applications are still being issued.

My reference to 1 March is relevant as from that date, applicant (sic) and their lawyers may sent (sic) applications direct to Sheffield without going through the local embassy.

As Sheffield staff cannot read Bulgarian or Romanian documentation, nor are they in a position to recognise false documents, the only reason to take ECOs out of the loop must be to just get them approved and keep the statistic numbers down.

Many of these ECAA applications are long term unemployed with many visit/student visa applications being refused previously.

No right minded ECO would consider issuing a visa to these applicants!

But the lawyers give an absolute assurance that the ECAA application will be successful.

'Suitcases'

Unfortunately this tends to be true.

Sofia have 4-5 times more ECAA applications than Bucharest.

The latter had lawyers bring hundreds of applications over a few days in suitcases.

NCIS (National Criminal Intelligence Service) are dealing with a lawyer who has facilitated more than 500 ECAA applications with a cost to each client �1,000 - �3,000 each.

Organised Crime and UK Immigration Police at its worst!

A concerned citizen.