I retired from the civil service in November 2008. Prior to that I was the most experienced and senior Entry Clearance Manager (ECM) in India and probably one of the UKBA's most experienced ECMs worldwide.

I joined the Immigration Service in January 1976 and worked as an Immigration Officer and Chief Immigration Officer at most of the Heathrow Terminals.

I worked for about 4 years in total at Immigration Service Headquarters in Croydon engaged initially in Enforcement Casework and Ministerial Correspondence and latterly in Policy making, financial and human resource management and ultimately as the designer, coordinator and presenter of all Immigration Law Enforcement training for the Immigration Service throughout the UK.

I am a trained trainer and presenter. I am trained and experienced in the design and implementation of output measures and performance indicators and also resource management. I speak several languages including Farsi and Punjabi. I have been HMG's sole representative at International conventions. I am also trained and experienced in Media Handling.

My experience of visa work began in 1984 when I worked as an Entry Clearance Officer (ECO) in Islamabad for almost 4 years. In 1989 I was sent to Ankara to establish a Visa Department at the Embassy in readiness for the imposition of the visa requirement for Turkish nationals in June of that year. Since then I have served as an ECM in Lagos, Abuja, Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Nairobi, Kampala, Accra, New Delhi, Chennai, Colombo, Kuwait and Bombay in addition to a period of secondment to UKBA headquarters in 2002.

From 2002 until the end of my overseas career due to my background and experience I was selected as one of the UKBA's Trouble Shooters, being dispatched to resolve the problems of failing Visa Departments in Nairobi, Kampala, Kuwait and Colombo. In all cases I resolved their problems and within a week of my arrival at each location their productivity improved by over 50%.

In 2003 the Home Office created a new and unique post of Overseas Resettlement Officer, responsible for the whole of West and East Africa. I was selected to fill this position. My objective was to establish an overseas resettlement hub at the British High Commission in Accra and in conjunction with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), to identify genuine refugees within the region and offer them a new start in the UK. With major civil conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Uganda this was a challenging task and listening to the accounts of those who had suffered horrific treatment at the hands of rebel forces was, at times, a significant emotional challenge. I surpassed the objectives I had been set.

During my three years in Bombay (October 2005 till November 2008) I was the ECM with the responsibility for promoting education in the UK throughout the whole of Western India. I regularly gave presentations throughout the region attending most of the British Council sponsored educational fairs and met frequently with the representatives of UK education providers giving help and guidance on how to minimise the problems they were experiencing with their prospective students' visa applications.

When I have time to relax I enjoy cooking, listening to a wide variety of music, horse riding, playing my guitar and writing songs. I delight in good food and wine.