A guide as to why UK immigration fees keep rising in 2018

Whenever anybody asks why UK visa and immigration application fees are increasing and so expensive, the Home Office traditionally responds that the immigration system should be “funded by those who benefit from it”, that is in order to reduce taxpayer expense.

This is seen by many critics to be a suitably convenient political argument to justify income generation for the Home Office.

This is how the Home Office has justified major increases in application and other fees associated with the UK immigration system in recent years.

This guide on UK visa and immigration fees and why it is rising so quickly in 2018 will explore this topic.

A very high price to pay for UK visa and immigration applications

The whole aim of the Government is to offset the impact of spending cuts on departments by raising internal revenue for services that the public should already be receiving as a right.

An ever increasing fee increase is designed to achieve “a fully self-funded borders and immigration system”.

This has led to massive increases in Immigration fees for anyone involved in the immigration system, and for individual migrants in particular, many of whom are unable to work to pay for their applications.

The Cost of Being A British Citizen

It is an eye opener to know that a British citizen, in order to bring his or her spouse to live in the UK, the cost from the point of entry clearance application abroad to naturalisation following the appropriate residence period is currently over £7,000, requiring at least four applications (including citizenship) over several years.

It is important to note that this cost does not even include the cost of a Home Office priority or premium service, any additional fees for dependants, or of course legal fees.

It simply assumes that an applicant is successful at the first attempt at each specific stage. This is the absolute minimum a person will pay.

It is a sad indictment of the Home Office Immigration Application Framework to see clients struggling to dole out the high levels of fees at various stages of their immigration journey. Immigrants will also need to pass their Life in the UK test and B1 English test to apply for UK citizenship and naturalisation.

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We are a firm of UK immigration solicitors regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and well known for the excellence of our service. (SRA 649650) Our clients come from across the whole of the UK and indeed internationally. We support our clients with every type of UK visa application and employment for migrants in the UK. Registered with Companies House under Registration Number: 11280669.

Authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under SRA Number: 649650