I think the reason is to be sure that the visitor can leave the country before they give permission to visit in the first place.
Diolch! This has always seemed strange to me - this assumption that any foreigner on a tourist visa is a potential illegal immigrant, but oh well, we have to deal with it.
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Not just tourists and not just nowâŚ
1, Before that⌠Croeso Serenfach!!! Or should I say Bel Seren?? 
2. Back to the visa questionâŚ
When I was working, we often had visitors doing sabaticals with us. The ones from USSR (as then was) would get anguished messages from home just before they were due back, saying, âYou will come, wonât you? Please! Please! Because if you donât, we wonât be allowed to send anyone else and the Brits may refuse to accept anyone else!â That was the late and unlamented cold war!! Interestingly, the Chinese from the Peoplesâ Republic were always very happy to go home away from our way of life that was so horribly obsessed with luxuries!
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Dioch yn fawr, @henddraig fach:) Wiân hapus iawn nawr, mae fi enw newydd yn hardd.
Ah, yes, it was a subject of so many jokes here. Now, however, the situation has changed, and Iâm a bit surprised anyone would suspect me of looking forward to leaving a good job in order to become an illegal immigrant somewhere in the UK! Very strange! But we in fact have to prove that we have a considerable sum of money, a job with a high salary, some property here and lots of other things in order to be considered eligible for a UK visa. Of course, they might consider your visa application even if you donât match these criteria, but then youâll have to wait for the period of the year when pigs start flying.
That just made my day)
And my, how things have changed!! Now they are buying up London!!!
Thereâs a joke here that optimists learn Russian (substitute for any other native language), pessimists learn English, and realists learn Chinese.
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I think that people are secretly dying to come to the UK because of our wonderfully consistent weather 
and excellent cuisine ⌠
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Iâm convinced itâs the red hair that lures them.
Cuisine much better than it was when I was a child, certainly in Carmarthenshire.
Still amazingly difficult for a Chinese person to get a visa. The relaxation of rules announced last year is only for people in tour groups. My Chinese sister in law still has problems, even though the marriage has been recognised and recorded and my brother has been working in the same job in China for over 10 years.
âCertainly used round hereâ what do you mean? Which part of Wales? Thank you
Owain lives in Swansea.
As Owain said before in this thread - Fi as in fiân gallu is so widely used where I am, as to a slightly lesser extent is wi and dwâi (I suspect because Fi doesnât work all the time) and I did once ask a local teacher friend who said that was her natural way of saying things as well. My lttle one has always spoken like that and I have now adopted the same lingo in return.
As an aside but, Interestingly, my little one is now having to come to grips with writing using more formal structures which includes rydw and all the rest at school, which she is only familiar with in reading books and she recently wrote something like rydw mam yn mynd, which made me want to say something, but I didnât since these things will naturally wash out in a few months, as is the way with kids.