IHS increasing by £400 a year

[bookerw100]

So the PM has just announced visa fees and IHS to be raised "significantly".

[vinny]

EDIT: More details on the 12 point plan proposed. And some of them...are wow!!! IHS to be set at £2700 per year. And increasing the Minimum Income Requirement to £26200 (it has been frozen at its current level of £18600 since its introduction in 2012).

Gosh.

[bookerw100]

EDIT: More details on the 12 point plan proposed. And some of them...are wow!!! IHS to be set at £2700 per year. And increasing the Minimum Income Requirement to £26200 (it has been frozen at its current level of £18600 since its introduction in 2012).

Gosh.

yes its going to hit families pretty hard. Hopefully they don't bring in IHS charges for ILR applicants but you never know.. but the visa application fees will likely be increased for ALL visa types..awaiting details yet

[JB007]

So the PM has just announced visa fees and IHS to be raised "significantly".

To raise over one billion, which is money needed to partly fund the salary raise given to the public sector workers.

[secret.simon]

It is probably a case of counting one's blessings. I don't think that immigration fees have increased since 2020, so we have had three years of no increase.

I suspect that we will get substantial increases in fees this summer.

I think that the Health and Social Care visa may be the best visa to get in the foreseeable future, as the IHS surcharge on that visa is refunded while the applicant is working for the NHS.

...
To raise over one billion, which is money needed to partly fund the salary raise given to the public sector workers.

The immigration fees is effectively a contribution/fund to the Home Office budget. IHS is ring-fenced to the NHS anyway. I would expect the IHS to jump up to about £1000 a year.

The Indian press is already reporting on this.

Readers inclined to political action may want to contact their MPs to protest/argue against this increase and question Labour on their stance on the increase and immigration policy in general, given that they are quite likely to form the government in a year and a half.

EDIT: I have modified the subject line of this thread to reflect the update and moved it to the General Immigration forum for higher visibility.

[JB007]

IHS is ring-fenced to the NHS anyway.

But will the increase to the IHS to pay for the public sector wage rises, be ring fenced?

The UK can't borrow the money to pay for their wage rises because that will stoke inflation to an even highter rate again, with all the problems for the country that causes. The UK needs to bring inflation down.

It was decided that part of the money for the public sector wage increses (just over 1 billion) will come from immigration (fees and the IHS). Immigration is a choice; having to pay increased taxes, is not. Most peole can't afford to pay more taxes with the high costs of mortgages and rents.

Readers inclined to political action may want to contact their MPs to protest/argue against this increase and question Labour on their stance on the increase and immigration policy in general, given that they are quite likely to form the government in a year and a half.

Be careful what you wish for, the last time Labour were in government they privatised the NHS with their PFI disaster. A toxic debt that still remains today and a nice little earner for investors.

I'm sure the Tories can't wait to hand all these problems that have been forced on the UK/the world, over to a Labour government (cost of living and roaring inflation in part due to Russia invading Ukraine, public sector strikes for more money because of the former, etc all stoking inflation etc) Many think they won't want to win the next GE, so they can take their turn of sitting on the opposition benches, criticising with hindsight.


A Labour government can't borrow more money/print more money either, for the same reason this government can't.

[joolze]

Hi all,

IHS will (purportedly) be increased to £1,035 a year to pay for public sector workers wage increase.

https://uk.yahoo.com/style/foreigners-p ... 23002.html

[ChugaLuvMe]

They know we have no choice to pay it as the only other alternative is to uproot our entire lives and leave this country.

It does say "foreigners who temporarily move to the UK will have to pay an extra £400 a year towards health services" - guessing this includes spouse visa renewals as they are still considered "temporarily" living in the UK.

Any idea if it applies to ILR applicants?

Absolutely shambolic that such a visa process is now beginning to touch around £15k from start to finish.

[vinny]

Any idea if it applies to ILR applicants?

No.

[AmazonianX]

They know we have no choice to pay it as the only other alternative is to uproot our entire lives and leave this country.

It does say "foreigners who temporarily move to the UK will have to pay an extra £400 a year towards health services" - guessing this includes spouse visa renewals as they are still considered "temporarily" living in the UK.

Any idea if it applies to ILR applicants?

Absolutely shambolic that such a visa process is now beginning to touch around £15k from start to finish.

At the point of ILR not required to pay IHS.

Statement already made by PM and all over the news, how they flesh it out and it works in principle needs to be seen to.

[secret.simon]

Tweet by a researcher at the House of Commons Library.

Link to today's government announcement on visa taxes and fees:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2 ... SectorPay

- Immigration health surcharge to rise 66%, from £624 a year to £1,035
- Work and visit visa fees up 15%
- Other visas, extensions, settlement and citizenship up 20%

No timeframe given.

While there is no timeframe given, I would presume that the new fees will take effect in 28 days/4 weeks, the general amount of time it takes to enact a Statutory Instrument. But fee increases have been known to come into effect without much advance warning as well.

A more detailed look by Freemovement.

Massive increases to immigration fees announced

[bookerw100]

So cost of ILR for one person to go roughly up by 20% to circa £2900 and super priority from within the UK to go up from £800 to £950 to match the cost from outside the UK.

Unless I missed it there was no formal announcement of increasing the time frame to get to ILR was there notwithstanding the rumours we had a few weeks ago that suggested that might be extended to 8 years?

[alterhase58]

Unless I missed it there was no formal announcement of increasing the time frame to get to ILR was there notwithstanding the rumours we had a few weeks ago that suggested that might be extended to 8 years?

That was one of the suggestions from the "New Conservatives" MP pressure group who are pressuring Sunak to "toughen" up on immigration. As I understand the current pronouncements were about raising finance.

[razergd1]

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... accessible

This is for sure against the MAC recommendation as high visa fees leads to exploitation.

While I can see it as fair for new arrivals, as they can make an informed judgement whether they wish to come here or not.
I can't see how this is justified for those who are already here and need to renew their visas.
During my time on temporary visas I saw the IHS introduced at £150 then grows to £400 and then the two bands £470 and £624.
I do remember how annoying it was. I always viewed this as a black market loan. It is also forced me to move from academic to industrial position.
It also appears to me that every time the government is facing budget issues the immigration fees hike.

[lolo2]

I think that the Health and Social Care visa may be the best visa to get in the foreseeable future, as the IHS surcharge on that visa is refunded while the applicant is working for the NHS.

Interestingly in the last few weeks I have seen on Linkedin some "agencies" in specific countries directly offering CoS and other "guaranteed services" to people interested in coming to the UK under this Health & Social Care visa.

I might be speculating - I don't have any official figures - but it's my impression that this visa, or applicants coming to the UK under this visa, are more susceptible to exploitation and/or precarity. Obviously the NHS is not the only sponsor of this visa.

I'm getting this impression from the posts that are sometimes published here and from people I know working in the sector, and now from the ones offering those services. These new announcements could be a booster for those "agencies" or dodgy employers offering this visa just to take money from people, making everything even worse.

[bookerw100]

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... accessible

This is for sure against the MAC recommendation as high visa fees leads to exploitation.

While I can see it as fair for new arrivals, as they can make an informed judgement whether they wish to come here or not.
I can't see how this is justified for those who are already here and need to renew their visas.
During my time on temporary visas I saw the IHS introduced at £150 then grows to £400 and then the two bands £470 and £624.
I do remember how annoying it was. I always viewed this as a black market loan. It is also forced me to move from academic to industrial position.
It also appears to me that every time the government is facing budget issues the immigration fees hike.

This is so true man, every time they want to fill in the budget deficits, immigration seems to take a hit, lets face it majority is not going to protest.. How can you consistently punish people who are already in the country under one set of rules/fees! Sigh
Also saying that fees have not increased since 2020 is not giving the full context, given how frequently and massively these fees have risen leading up to 2020 and the amount of profit they make per application...

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... plications

[secret.simon]

In the UK, even Commonwealth citizens who are not British citizens but who are resident in the UK on a non-visit visa can register to vote.

Those not already registered to vote should register to vote, in order to express their views at the ballot box.

[bookerw100]

Any news on when the new increase in fees announced a couple of months ago is going to be implemented?

[AmazonianX]

Any news on when the new increase in fees announced a couple of months ago is going to be implemented?

No date stated nor in sight for this yet.

[secret.simon]

Any news on when the new increase in fees announced a couple of months ago is going to be implemented?

No statutory instrument increasing the immigration fees seems to have been published yet. Presumably the Home Office has other fires to put out and has its attention elsewhere.

Both Houses of Parliament will be going into a month long Conference Recess at the end of the week. It is probable that the fee increase is pushed back into late October. Keep in mind that that is a probability, not a certainty.

[secret.simon]

Increase in fees announced for October 4th.

Hat-tip to @razergd1 for spotting it.

[bookerw100]

Increase in fees announced for October 4th.

Hat-tip to @razergd1 for spotting it.

Thanks for pointing out. So ILR is going up 20% to £2,885 and Super priority service by 25% to £1,000.

SET(M) isn't eligible for Priority service is it - that stays at £500.

Just my luck that spouse is eligible on the 8th November and fees increase from 4th October

[London_888]

Increase in fees announced for October 4th.

Where exactly does it mention about IHS going up? Is it definitely at the same time, from the 4th of Oct?

[CR001]

Increase in fees announced for October 4th.

Where exactly does it mention about IHS going up? Is it definitely at the same time, from the 4th of Oct?

IHS fees will be increasing later in the autumn, date still to be confirmed.