New immigration fees proposed

[shawinam]

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/siteco ... b-2012.pdf

[Celtic]

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/siteco ... b-2012.pdf

Tier 1 general fee to icrease from £1,000 to £1,500? Is that a new ploy to discourage people from extending tier 1 visas?

[Somudro]

Taking the advantage of our weakness.

[chrischris]

fair enough, it's their country and most of us are here by choice. we have to contribute to plugging the deficit.

my problem with the fees is that it costs £181 to process an application, we pay £1000 for that, and yet it takes them a minimum of FOUR WEEKS to process an application. I would imagine that a 400% mark-up would entitle us to an expedited service.

i suppose from April, we would be looking at a minimum of six to seven weeks. more delays for the extra cash :?

[chrischris]

lest I forget, for the £1000 we also get a service that provides no feedback on the status of applications. phone lines that are never picked and not even a web page with a tracker on their website.

[ScopeD]

immigrants, they are stealing our jobs, and diluting our influence, they are very bad people. let's increase their fees by an unjustifiable percentage and turn the heat on them.

[nm]

Then more applicant will apply for before April ?

[thebionicredneck2003]

immigrants, they are stealing our jobs, and diluting our influence, they are very bad people. let's increase their fees by an unjustifiable percentage and turn the heat on them.

I love your comment ScopeD

[ScopeD]

I love your comment ScopeD

Thanks thebionicredneck2003. In the current climate of spending and immigrant cuts (while immigrant fees are going up), one has to find ways of cheering themselves up, otherwise the stress becomes too much.

[QuickSam]

£1000 was already a high fee, what I don't understand is, do they really incur an expense of £1000 while processing a single person's application?

I don't think so !!

UKBA salaries and other costs don't come from taxpayers money. It is the money paid by migrants that keeps 'em running.

[thebionicredneck2003]

It actually says on the document that the administrative cost for a Tier 1 application is £181, and yet we have to pay £1500.

It is actually quite sad because people who have many dependants will easily pay over £3000 which is a lot.

Seeing as the media is fond of printing stories with questionable statistics about immigration, it would be nice tfor them to actually print this as well, so people actually know what the immigrants that are a "cancer" to the UK are paying just for work visas

[ScopeD]

£1000 was already a high fee, what I don't understand is, do they really incur an expense of £1000 while processing a single person's application?

I don't think so !!

UKBA salaries and other costs don't come from taxpayers money. It is the money paid by migrants that keeps 'em running.

To put it simply, this is extortion at its worst. The UKBA has slowly turned into a mafia-like enterprise, makes a huge profit through intimidation and bullying of defenceless immigrants.

[poornachander]

Now there is nothing attarctive here to live or work. It simply ripping off the immigrants who are also part of the tax payers. ***K

[Aryan2013]

So how many people will not pay this extortion???

[Jibo]

With the tax system, TV license, council tax, high fuel prices, discrimination at work, very high cost of accommodation just to mention a few i think i cannot agree less with poornachander that ''Now there is nothing attarctive here to live or work. It simply ripping off the immigrants who are also part of the tax payers.''

How many Immigrants on this forum with a family has a decent savings and when i mean decent i mean in excess of £10,000 when there citizens live virtually on benefit and aside that how many brits earn £26,000/annum of their jobs.
But like Chrischris actually posted ''its their country and most people are here by choice'' so they are free to do what ever they like

[ScopeD]

But like Chrischris actually posted ''its their country and most people are here by choice'' so they are free to do what ever they like

Chrischris' statement is a painful truth. They must be saying to themselves, "its our country, let us solve the financial carnage by saddling the burden on the eternal immigrant"

[ajf773]

It's an outrage. Revenue gathering at it's worst. It's a 50% increase in fees and that's an awful lot of money.

By attempting cull the entry of skilled workers into the UK from outside the EU, the economy is going to get worse not better.

About time the UK got out of the bureaucracy that is the European Union, that has allowed migrants within the EU to work indefinitely in the UK and collect benefits, with no minimum maintenance funds or English language requirements.

[ajf773]

So how many people will not pay this extortion???

My girlfriend will miss the deadline, she was hoping to apply in May before her current leave expires and to give enough time to have the requirement of maintenance funds in her bank account - which she won't have by April 5.

[ukswus]

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/siteco ... b-2012.pdf

What is also interesting is that they singled out Tier 1 General migrants for such a huge fee increase. By comparison, the fee for Tier 1 Exceptional talent, investors and enterpreneurs was increased by a mere 20 quid, from 1,000 to 1,020. Similarly, very small increases occured in other categories, e.g. Tier 2 from 550 to 561.

Damian Green says
'It is only fair that those who use and benefit from the immigration system contribute a higher share of the cost of running it - reducing the burden on the UK taxpayer.'

So, I guess it's only Tier 1 General who are creating a burden on the "UK taxpayer", is that right, Mr Green? What about the fact that many ICTs hardly pay any tax at all?


P.S. Oh, and by the way, they said in their written statement that "In future the UK Border Agency will look to charge the same fee in the UK for dependants and main applicants, as currently already happens for visa applications made overseas.". So, be prepared to fork out 4,500 for a family of 3 (or about 6,000, if you want to go through PEO). If you are unfortunate enough to have 3 dependents, you'll pay 6,000 or about 8,000, respectively. That's a nice little profit of about 1,000%.

[tonynz]

....Surprised at the new cost...

[Reddevil12]

exorbitant increase .. they are making every migrants life too difficult with the frequent change in rules and fee .. Its gone to ridiculous state now .. I still remember how low the fees was before 3+ years

[23367]

Is n't there a way to voice our concerns? I am sure they wont listen to our concerns. Accepting the new fee after voicing our concerns will make us feel slighly contented.

Also,
Is there an option to convert Tier1 to Tier2?

Tx

[ScopeD]

Is n't there a way to voice our concerns? I am sure they wont listen to our concerns. Accepting the new fee after voicing our concerns will make us feel slighly contented.

You mean like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Boycott

[anniecc]

The reason is political. The Government know they are unlikely to reach their target on net migration and are under pressure to reduce numbers as much as possible. I'm sure they were miffed that when they closed Tier 1 (General) they couldn't stop people who were already in the country from extending - they will have received legal advice on this. They're hoping that with the higher fee more people on Tier 1 will decide not to renew, and leave the country instead.

I really think it's a terrible argument to say that migrants should pay the cost of running UKBA. I don't mind paying a fee to cover the cost of processing my visa, but surely it's in the UKBA taxpayer's interest to have secure borders. If I'm paying UKBA's salaries perhaps they should start treating me like a valued customer (ha ha).

[tonynz]

It's also silly, most of the people on Tier 1 are high tax payers and have minimum strain on the public service funding.