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See other news storiesNew visa fees announced
7 March 2007
The new immigration fees will help ensure the system is both fair and effective.
The visa fees, which were last raised in 2005, are part of a new flexible fees model, which is designed to balance the services offered to immigrants with the price charged.
The money raised from the new fees will be used to support an improved immigration service, which will use the latest technology to ensure that only legal visitors and residents are allowed into the UK.
A sampling of the new fees
The fee changes, which will start in April, include the following:
- settlement visas: increase from £260 to £500
- work permit visas: increase from £85 to £200
- visitor visas: increase from £50 to £63
- student visas: increase from £85 to £99
- indefinite leave to remain: increases from £335 to £750
- naturalisation fees: increase from £200 to £575
- highly skilled migrant approval: increase from £315 to £400
Improving and enhancing the immigration system
While some of these increases are substantial, we will spend the money to ensure the immigration system advances with the times, and is able to provide the best protection possible to UK residents.
We will spend the funds raised by the fees on:
- providing additional enforcement to ferret out illegal workers and the employers who exploit them
- building new detention centres to securely hold those who are awaiting decisions on their asylum claims or who are waiting deportation following a failed application
- helping employers check their employees' nationality status
- running campaigns abroad to explain the UK's immigration rules
- increasing the rate and number of illegal immigrants who are sent back to their home countries
The new fees will mainly affect immigrants who make significant economic gains from living and working in the UK, while students, visitors and tourists won't pay as much.
Targeted charges ensure the system is fair
Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said the system was fair, as it targeted charges on those who could afford them most. 'We believe it is fair that those who benefit the most from using our immigration system - those who come here to live and work - should pay more to fund it.'
'We are committed to making the system easier for those we want to come, but tougher on those abusing it,' he said.
Lord David Triesman, minister at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, added, 'We have been careful to ensure that the fees are not set at a level that would hamper the UK's global competitive position.'
To learn more about the fee increases, and to see the responses the government received to its consultation on immigration fees, visit the Home Office Immigration and Nationality website (new window).
