Letter from Alex Davies

22 January 2015

Hi there,

It looks like yet another hurdle in my quest to start my 2015 Speedway campaign with the Scunthorpe Scorpions in the UK.

My flights, as you may know, were booked for Tuesday 3rd February and with 4 brand new bikes waiting for me I was keen to get there sooner rather than later. My Visa was applied for on 21st December and with the 12 month exclusion from the country prior to applying for a new visa complete (which is the criteria with a Tier 2 Sportsmans Visa) I was excited to get the Visa application away as soon as I received my Sponsorship Certificate from the Scunthorpe Scorpions.

Too easy right?…….As you will read in the upcoming days the UKVI (United Kingdom Visa and Immigration) have shone the spotlight on a number of sporting organisations in the UK, not just speedway, and have insisted that all Speedway Clubs/Promoters attend a series of workshops hosted by the UKVI to ensure that they are up to speed with the criteria required to retain their sponsorship licences.

The result of this is that essentially no Australian or American speedway riders will be granted entry visas into the UK until such time as the workshops are complete and the Sponsorship Licences are reinstated to each of the 10 Speedway Clubs in the Premier League. This affects 17 Australian speedway riders.

The current status of my Visa is that it is presently held in the UKVI processing centre located in Manilla, Philippines and hopefully  they will place it “on hold” until such time as the UKVI give the tick of approval to the speedway clubs (remembering that this is not just my club of Scunthorpe but every speedway club in the UK). This will save additional time and money including a second trip to Sydney for mandatory biometric testing so fingers crossed.

The worst case scenario is that they will refuse the application and return it to me along with my birth certificate and passport and I will be required to reapply once the new Sponsorship Licences have been issued to the clubs. The UKVI is hopeful that they can have all clubs resolved by 15th March and I will be on the first plane possible after I receive my Visa.

I will keep you posted as news comes to hand but I really wanted to keep you in the loop rather than you hear it on the grapevine or read about it on social media.

Yours in Sport
Alex Davies

FOOTNOTE: Please note a similar situation applies to Ryan Douglas.