Home Office fees going up
They say that what goes up must come down, but this does not seem entirely reliable, not with Home Office immigration fees at any rate. On 9th April the fees for visa applications and other categories will be increasing again.
The fee for a six-month visitor visa, expressed in GBP, will increase by about 10 per cent from £115 to £127, and other visitor visa fees will increase similarly. And those non-visa nationals who do not require visitor visas do not escape completely – the fee for an Electronic Transfer Authorisation (ETA), although based on smaller numbers, is increasing sharply from £10 to £16.
Many other visa fees are increasing by at least 5 per cent: Skilled Worker fees for example will be increasing by 7 per cent, but the already rather high fee for settlement applications is only increasing by 5 per cent from £2,885 to £3,029. The fee for British naturalisation is increasing by 7 per cent, from £1,500 to £1,605.
And the fees for what the Home Office rather confusingly calls “route to settlement” applications (for partner/family visas for example) is increasing by 5 per cent from £1,846 to £1,938.
You can have a look for yourself at:
Bearing in mind that inflation is currently running at under 3 per cent, you do not need us to tell you that these increases are quite adventurous.
But we would also like to remind you that with some (but not all) applications it is possible to apply to the Home Office/UKVI for a fee waiver.
If you want advice about any of this we are GSN Immigration will do our best to help you.
Oliver Westmoreland
Senior Immigration Lawyer
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