Jason Ivory is the Head of Visa Operations at the British High Commission in Abuja. He took up this position in May 2007 having previously worked as an Entry Clearance Manager at the British Deputy High Commission in Lagos. Jason joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in February 1989 and has been posted to Madrid, Mumbai and New Delhi as well as Nigeria. He is married to Sue and has two children (Nick and Beth) who are currently at boarding school in the UK.

As well as managing the visa operation in Abuja, Jason works very closely with the British Council to help promote the UK as a centre of excellence for those Nigerians wishing to continue their education in the UK. Jason has been instrumental in developing the joint BC/UKBA student marketing campaign which has concentrated on advising prospective students how to produce a good quality visa application and stressing the potentially serious consequences of using forged or fraudulently obtained documents. The results of the campaign are starting to manifest themselves in as much as the quality of applications has improved, fewer applications are supported using forged or fraudulently obtained documents, resulting in more student visas being issued in Nigeria than ever before.

Jason contributed to session 2a - Forecasting international student demand