Email to MP regarding recent tier 1 (Gen) dep visa fees hike

[ilr_trauma]

Sent below email to my MP of Croydon gavin.barwell.mp@parliament.uk

In addition you can talk about ILR and citizenship costs in future. Also compare tier 1 fees compare it with unit costs given below which are just quarter of the fees.

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publicatio ... iew=Binary

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Dear Sir,

I am resident of Croydon and I would like to bring to your attention recent proposed increase of fees for tier 1 (General) visa holders :

The proposals tabled in Parliament in Feb 2013, subject to Parliamentary approval, will take effect from 6 April 2013.

Immigration Minister, Mark Harper in his ministerial statement has said:

'These increases are mostly in line with inflation and will ensure that the UK continues to welcome the brightest and the best. It is only right that those who use and benefit from the immigration system should contribute more than the UK taxpayer.'

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publicatio ... rging-wms/

However the increase in the fees for the dependants of tier 1 (General) is from £750 per dependent to £1159.

In my case I have 3 dependants and if I opt to go in person at the UKBA it costs me £6522 (£1545 + £1159 *3 + in person premium of £375 for each) for a 2 year extension. Plus I have to show a bank balance of £2700 for three months before application. Applying in person becomes compulsory in many cases as visa takes 3-4 months and being immigrant it becomes handicap not having a passport for such a long duration in cases of personal emergency back home. On top of that it is hard to get the in-person appointments and we have to pay hefty fees to solicitors who arranges for the appointment.

Just last year the fees were increased from £1000 to £1500 for main applicant and from £500 to £750 for each dependent.

In Nov 2008 when I got tier 1 visa for the first time, the fees were just £750 for the main applicant (by post) and dependent visa was free. In 5 years the visa fees have gone up by more than 600%.

These fee increases are overly unjustified given that most of us are hard-working individuals paying 40% taxes and have no recourse to public funds. This is affecting our day to day life and money available for our children's basic needs.

I request you to please take up our case and fight for this unjustified increase in dependent visa fee when this is presented in parliament on 14th March 2013, we are happy with a 3% increase. (the main applicant fee was 1500 and its now raised to 1545 which is 3% and makes sense to be in-line with inflation)

regards,
XYZ
Address
Phone No

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Got below auto reply
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Gavin Barwell MP

Member of Parliament for Croydon Central

Thank you for your email. This acknowledgement has been triggered automatically.

I receive a large amount of correspondence each day, but I will aim to respond as soon as I can.

If you are a constituent, please ensure that you have included your full name and postal address in your email. If you have not, please resend with this information as there is a strict Parliamentary rule that MPs can only act on behalf of their own constituents.

If you're not sure who your MP is, you can find out through the House of Commons website: http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/

I aim to respond to all correspondence within 14 days. If you have not received a reply by then, please do not hesitate to contact my office with a reminder.

Thank you for taking time to contact me.

Regards

Gavin

Gavin Barwell
Member of Parliament for Croydon Central | Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Education Secretary
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 02072192119 (Diary) | 02086638741 (Casework)
www.gavinbarwell.com<http://www.gavinbarwell.com/> |@gavinbarwellmp<http://www.twitter.com/gavinbarwellmp>

I send out occasional bulletins updating constituents on what I am doing as an MP and will add your name to this list unless you ask not to receive them.

[parvaiz_iqbal]

Everyone have to send e mails otherwise if anyone have a newborn baby get ready to pay £1545 for her/his visa application if you like to travel otherwise sit here and wait for ILR everyone have to act now

[ilr_trauma]

since most people would have got tier 1 before Apr 2011 and would have already got an ext of 3 years now..then who are the people affected by this? if there are very minority of people affected like me who had a break then why govt is increasing fees for such may 1000 people? how much they are going to earn from 1000 people in £2bn budget of ukba?

[mulderpf]

Uhm, everyone who applies for ILR after April are affected by the increase, not only the ones you say.

[ilr_trauma]

Hello Sir,
I am a resident of xxxxx and I have grave concerns about the recent fee revisions proposed by Mark Harper , our Immigration Minster. I have written an email to my local MP about this. I further request you , you being the leader of Opposition, to take our case with Immigration Minister or when the regulation is presented in Parliament on 14th March 2013.
On top of the the points mentioned in below email I have few things to say -
1) What is the basis for the figures mentioned in recent fees hikes
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... s-2013.pdf
and fee hikes in April 2012.
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... b-2012.pdf

2) In the ministerial statement
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publicatio ... rging-wms/

Mr Harper says that "There are further targeted increases for applications made within the UK, where the value of the entitlements provided to successful applicants is greater"
Greater than what? When a skilled worker comes to UK for work it is win-win situation for both the worker and the employer. But here I can see that Immigration minister is making an assumption that it is only profitable to the worker. If we are not wanted here then why in first place government put a program to attract the skilled workers?

3) Where can a person like me who earns 46000 per annum and lives in London can save £5022 for visa fees (by post) plus £2700 bank balance I have to show. In case I have to go for premium service because I can't wait for 4 months to get back my passport because of personal issues, then I have to pay further £1500 for premium service and have to pay a solicitor £1000 to get one of their reserved appointment slot. There could be some special circumstances at worker's home like a disabled child. If govt charges such fees it is likely to affect his personal life a lot.

4) Immigration minister further says
"Given the ongoing need to reduce public spending, we believe it is right that we continue to reduce the contribution made by UK taxpayers towards delivering the immigration system by asking those who use and benefit directly from the system to make a greater contribution.

For certain application categories, we will continue to set fees higher than the administrative cost to reflect their value to successful applicants. This helps to provide resources to run the UK immigration system and enables the Agency to set lower fees elsewhere in support of wider government objectives to attract those businesses, workers, students and visitors who most benefit the UK."

If UKBA is responsible for overall security of UK then it is the responsibility of every UK taxpayer to pay for these services. If Visas for business and students are more worth to UK then it taxpayers should pay for these. why there is insistence of some small number of people pay 20 times of the cost of the application?

5) It is wrong to link employment opportunity to Visa fees by reducing that benefit in money terms. We work in free employment market and work as much as British workers. If we have been charged more then there is a possibility that worker is likely to be discouraged to give his/her best as he/she fees he is indirectly paid less. Also it is wrong to assume that every worker is likely to settle here as the visa is temporary in nature. We are already double taxed by denying the public funds (benefits) as this visa is temporary in nature. If govt is linking it to benefits (entitlements in minster's statement) then these benefits should be available to us.

6) If you compare the costs of the service of 2012 and 2013
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... s-2013.pdf
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... b-2012.pdf
then you may notice that there is more than 100% increase in the costs for many visas. What makes it increase by more than 100%. Also what is basis of these costs? How can the cost unit of dependent's application (applied at same time as main applicant) be same as main applicant.

7) Tier 1 visa (General) scheme was ended in April 2011 and last person applying for such visa would have already got an ext of 3 years before April 2013 and would not need another visa before applying for ILR before april 2016. It is only in cases where the worker was out of UK for more than 3 months , he won't be eligible to ILR. Such people are not likely to apply for benefits until they complete 5 continuous years in UK. Then why govt is charging such a negligible percentage of people?

There is a myriad excuses given by Immigration Minster linked hikes to a) entitlements to worker b) greater benefits to worker c) reducing the cost to taxpayer d) providing money for other immigration services like students. There is no single approach.


regards,
xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx
xxxx