Job interview in London requires me to wire money to the travel agent. Is this a scam?

On your inital question: You can apply for a visitor visa with validities as long as 10 years (although individual visits are limited to a shorter duration). Note that while a visitor visa would be valid for attending an interview, you would have to convince the visa office that you intended to return home after the interview, then apply freshly for a working visa and work permit. You can read more about types of visa, and the rules for them, on the offical UK government website, gov.uk

However, various elements of your story suggests that there is no real chance of a job for you here, and that you would be denied a visa to the UK due to your confused evidence anyway. You mention that the documents you received contain a "job offer". In the UK, a "job offer" letter would take roughly this format:

Dear Applicant,

Company Name would like to offically offer you the role of job title, with a salary of £XX,XXX per year (plus additional benefits, please see the company handbook). The intended start date of your emplyment would be dd/mm/yyyy. This offer is conditional on receipt of valid references and confirmation of your legal right to work in the UK.

If you have any queries, please contact contact name, email address, or please perform paperwork actions to confirm your acceptance of the offer.

The offer is received after all interviews etc have been performed and you have been selected as the/one of the candidates for the role. You would not receive an offer before an interview and if you were to include an offer letter in a visitor visa application, it would work against you, as it would be evidence that you intended to work and not leave the country, in opposition to the rules of a visitor visa.

On top of this, the situation with the travel agent is very strange. If a company is expecting you to travel across the world for an interview, then return, then travel again to relocate to the country, then one would normally expect them to bear the costs. There are employers who might not do this, but they would normally then not expect you to attend an in person interview. In the event that you were expected to fund the trip yourself, or even fund the trip yourself and later be reimbursed by the employer, then you would be free to make your own arrangements, and not simply approached for money by their travel agent.

The travel agent’s statements and requirements are themselves highly suspect. The requirement for a bank transfer (internationally!) immediatly raises red flags. Bank transfers (along with Western Union, Moneygram, etc) have no procedures for refunds, meaning once the money leaves your account it is gone, even if you can prove it was sent to a fraudster. Any reputable (even small) UK travel agent would be capable of accepting card transactions.

The claim of having your visa (and other documents) delivered to you at the airport seems to be a way of making you not realise the nature of the scam until the last moment. Any real visa will require involvement from you in the process, inclduing a trip to a visa fascilitation centre. You won’t be able to board a plane to the UK without having a valid visa (or visa-exempt passport), so if the airport you were meant to receive this at was in the UK, then that is too late.

One of the other answers suggests that you may also be approached for additional money to "ease" the way through UK beaurocracy and officals. You should know that this is not the way things work in the UK. Officals are sufficently well paid that they do not need a steady stream of small bribes to support themselves, and the penalties for being involved in such behaviour are massive. This is not to say that there is no corruption in the UK, but it is either more subtle and not relevant to this process, or considerably out of the price range of anyone looking for employment.

One thing that stood out immediately to me (and it was mentioned by Gayot) is that emergency travel documents are given to citizens for travel to their country of citizenship and not to a foreign country. There are some exceptions (like refugees and asylum seekers – but these do not apply to you).

I have been flown in to another country for interviews before. You (as the applicant) to do not pay for the travel ticket or the hotel accommodation. It is all arranged in advance by the company inviting you.

Further, the company will send you an official letter of invitation – sometimes, they send this directly to the concerned embassy.

You still have to go through all the processes of obtaining a visa – collection of fingerprint data, filing of the application, arranging for an appointment, appearing in person (if required) and so on.

Despite all this – there is a chance you can be declined the visa. There are no guarantees and anyone offering you these is trying to take advantage of you.

I have been employed my entire professional life as an expat, here is the almost universal process that I have seen (across four countries and two continents) – and this (or a close approximation) is what you should expect to go through if you are being courted by a genuine employer.

If the process does not go like this – or is short circuited, especially if payment is asked upfront – immediately stop as its is someone trying to take advantage of your situation.

1. The first interview is over the phone or Skype. There may be multiple interviews.

2. If an in-person interview is required, and travel is required – the company pays all expenses (as detailed above). There is no guarantee of employment at this point either.

3. After the interview process, if successful, you are given an official employment offer. This is a document that has (at minimum) your job role/title, start date, compensation (basic pay + any benefits). It is normally signed by the company, and there is a place for you to sign – signaling you have accepted the offer. Normally, this document is not the employment contract; which is drafted once the offer is accepted. The reason I mention this is because the contract is what you need as supporting document at the embassy, not the offer letter.

4. Once the offer letter is accepted – the company starts drafting your employment contract. This has further details about your job, it may include additional information about your benefits. This is a legally binding document. At the same time, they will ask for your personal details such as copy of your passport (they will never ask for the real thing) to prepare for your visa process.

5. After some time (the exact time depends on the country, and the type of job you are being offered) – you will receive documents from your employer that they have applied for a visa on your behalf; along with a copy of the application.

6. Next, you take this document, a copy of your employment contract, your passport, and anything else that is required by the embassy (sometimes, these include medical tests!) and apply for a work visa (or whatever visa type is offered to you by the company). If your application is successful, you are granted the visa to travel.

7. Depending on your contract – you may not be required to pay for your trip to the country (some contracts include relocation assistance, which helps with things like paying to move your furniture, arranging for temporary accommodation for you while you find permanent housing, etc. etc.) – normally though, you have to pay for this ticket yourself and arrive in the country.

8. Once you enter the country and start your first day at the job, you will be required by HR to file further paperwork; and depending on the country you may be required to go through additional immigration formalities.

Based upon what you wrote, you are getting ripped off. It means you are the victim of a con.

• A UK emergency travel document is issued to British citizens only. They will never issue an emergency travel document to a foreigner. That’s the job of the foreigner’s country.

• Issuing a UK work permit (or UK visit visa) at the UK border (or airport) flat out does not happen. If you need a visa, you need to get one before you depart. While non-visa nationals do not require a visit visa, you’re asking the question and framing yourself as a visa national.

• Visa fees are collected by the UK government as part of the application process. There’s a screen near the end of the application for the applicant to enter payment details.

• Nobody gets in to the UK on a work permit (or visitor visa) without enrolling their biometrics. Absolutely nobody. To do that the applicant has to print out the form and take it to a VFS or similar enrollment centre. There is no way to avoid a personal appearance and what your agent proposes to do by sending you everything does not account for your personal appearance.

• Nobody gives an interview invitation and job offer at the same time; a company can lose their migrant license for doing that.

• There is no ‘hard copy’ of an entry clearance. It is a gummed
  vignette affixed to a full blank page of the passport.

• The funds transfer arrangement is, quite frankly, bizarre. Nobody asks the applicant to pay for the whole ball of wax up front and wire it to a travel agent. Bizarre.

The Sting

It’s likely that you were enthralled by the prospect of employment in the UK when you were offered a ridiculously attractive package which included a great job, all expenses paid, and a work visa. They need you to pay all of the expenses in advance and will refund this to you upon arrival.

After you send them the money, they will contact you explaining that an additional advance payment needs to be made to cover an administrative expense associated with your MasterCard. Once you send the additional payment they will contact you advising that another additional payment needs to be made because someone in UK immigration needs to receive a small ‘discomfort’ fee. Once you have paid that, they will explain that the CEO of your new company doubts your intentions and you will need to put up a payment to demonstrate your sincerity. After that, they will think up something else that you need to pay.

This cycle of additional payments will repeat itself until you are bled dry. After that they will disappear.

websites that offer jobs in the UK that do not exist. If you apply for
one, they tell you that you have the job and ask you to pay visa and
work permit fees. That is not how our visa system works, and there are
no shortcuts to a job in the UK. A genuine employer would direct you
to this website, where you can make an official application. If the
job offer sounds too good to be true, it could be a scam. We will
never guarantee a job in the UK

Source: Fraud, tricks and scams

Recommendations

1. You need to check if the beneficiary of your proposed wire transfer
   is actually in the UK. Check the IBAN, I rather doubt you’ll
   find the account and beneficiary in the UK.
2. Check if your potential employer is licensed to sponsor
   migrants. If so, use the company’s contact info on their web
   site to assure your beneficiary is not impersonating the company. I
   would expect that the company is not on the list OR you would be
   unable to call them directly (using their contact us) and verify
   your status.
3. If you sent them your passport, you are in jeopardy of identity
   theft and more fraud. Take all the paperwork to the police and
   explain what happened.

Misc Notes

• About getting entry clearance at the border…

  An applicant for an entry clearance must be outside the United Kingdom
  and Islands at the time of the application.

  Paragraph 28, Immigration Rules

• What a scam email looks like…
  Scam email enquiry