Explanatory note

This Order is made under section 41 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 and amends the Immigration (Passenger Transit Visa) Order 2003 (“the 2003 Order”). The 2003 Order requires, subject to certain exemptions, citizens and nationals of countries and territories specified within it, along with holders of specified travel documents, to obtain a transit visa when passing through the United Kingdom on their way to another country or territory.

This Order amends the 2003 Order in two ways. Firstly, it exempts certain categories of transit passenger from the requirement to hold a transit visa. A transit passenger will be exempt in this way if he holds, or a person of whom he is a dependant and with whom he arrives in the United Kingdom holds on his behalf, one of the documents or sets of documents set out in paragraphs (1)(a) to (h) of new article 3A.

Secondly, the Order substitutes for Schedule 1 in the 2003 Order that lists the countries and territories whose citizens or nationals need transit visas a new Schedule (article 2(5)). This new Schedule adds Angola, Bangladesh, Cameroon, India, Lebanon and Pakistan to the list of countries and territories whose citizens or nationals need transit visas and deletes Libya, the Republic of Croatia and the Slovak Republic from that list. Because of this substitution the Order also revokes the Immigration (Passenger Transit Visa) (Amendment) Order 2003 (article 3).