UK immigration fees set to increase in October
by Harleen Kaur - September 19, 2010
United Kingdom, 19th September: The UK immigration fees is likely to be hiked from October 2010 onwards, the UK Border Agency has stated.
The revised fees for UK visas will be increased for UK student visas, UK work visas and UK visitor visas from 1st October.
This is being done to meet the increasing budgetary strains and proposals for increasing in-year UK immigration fees, the UKBA (UK Border Agency) statement maintained.
Some increases in the fees for UK visas will be done in October this year so as to make the fees cover costs. The fee increase is subject to approval by the Parliament. However, all such visa fee hikes are a bit controversial since the UK immigration department had already introduced a hike in UK visa fees in April this year.
Moreover, it is not wholly justifiable to raise the UK visa fees just to raise more funds by the UK government for covering processing costs for UK immigration applications. The fact that the hike in the UK immigration fees is higher than the actual processing costs for UK immigration applications is proved by the UK government’s saying that all such increases in visa fees help to cover other costs which are said to be the result of UK immigration.
Meanwhile, the UKBA has justified its plans of increasing the UK visa fees for different UK visas since it will not only help in better border security but also help the UK attract the best and the brightest immigrants to the UK to make valuable contributions towards the UK economy.
The new proposed UK visa fees for different categories of UK visas are as follows---
• UK Tier 1 visa fees( at Consular Post not within the UK)-- £690 to £750
• UK Tier 2 visa fees-- £270 to £350
• UK Tier 1 visa fees(from within the UK)- £840 to £850
• UK Tier 2 visa fees(in-country)- £475 to £500
• UK Tier 4 visa fees - £199 to £220
• UK Tier 4 visa fees(within the UK)- £357
• UK Tier 5 visa fees- £128 to £130
• UK visitor visa fees-2 years-from £230 to £245
• UK visitor visa fees-5 year from £420 to £450
• UK visitor visa fees-10 year from £610 to £650
• UK settlement visas(permanent residence) - £644 to £750
The UK dependent visa fees is also set to go higher by 20-30%.
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