UK visa fee hike to hit Indians
The British government is set to increase visa fees across most categories of applications from March 18, in a move that will affect thousands of Indians who were the largest group of skilled workers to be granted visas to live and work in Britain last year
By : migrator
Update: 2016-03-07 16:10 GMT
London
The changes mean a 2 per cent rise for most fees including the short-term visitor visas and most work or study applications and a 25 per cent increase in fees for nationality and settlement visa applications.
The UK Home Office said the increases will reduce UK taxpayer contributions towards the border, immigration and citizenship system and ensure that by 2019-2020, the system is self-funded by those who use it. Indians bagged the majority of the 92,062 visas issued to skilled migrants in 2015.
“Indian nationals accounted for 57 per cent of total skilled work visas granted (52,360 of 92,062), with US nationals the next largest nationality group at 10,130,” a Office of National Statistics report said.
Most of these migrants go on to apply for settlement in the UK and will now pay around 25 per cent more for such applications as the fee for a settlement application or so-called “Indefinite Leave to Remain” (ILR) application within the UK will increase from 1,500 pounds to 1,875 pounds.
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