New costs
for UK visa
applications
12 January 2016
Proposed fee changes for UK visa, immigration and nationality applications have been announced for the new financial year.
Specific charges will be revealed in April this year but for now we have been told to expect:
- A small increase (2%) for visit, study and work visas;
- A huge 25% increase for settlement, residence and nationality applications; and
- A targeted increase for premium services, such as the priority visa service.
The 25% increase in cost for those migrants seeking to reside permanently in the UK is significant and could easily be construed as an attempt by the government to deter overseas nationals from making the UK their home.
Those overseas nationals already eligible to apply for UK residency or citizenship may be best advised to file their applications ahead of this substantial fee change.
Whilst the cost for other individual visa applications will rise only minimally, these small increases will further heighten the expense of employing skilled foreign workers from outside the EEA for UK employers. For SMEs, this is particularly bad news.
The rise in costs may also affect the flow of skilled workers coming to the UK and risk the loss of overseas talent to other competitor economies.
Tightening immigration controls and rising costs may cause many skilled non-EEA nationals looking for the next career move to consider other countries with more favourable immigration terms above the UK on their priority list.
There is some good news, however, as sponsorship categories will not experience any fee changes and will stay at the current rates.
These new charges will apply from April 2016 until March 2017 and are intended to go some way to reducing taxpayer costs towards the UK immigration system, making it self-funding by 2020.
Click here for more specific detail on the fee changes for April 2016.
Share story
