Migrants to pay extra for visas

Today's BBC news includes this news story.

I hope I am wrong but it looks like this £50 is additional to the normal visa fee. However that is not clear, and I am unable to find anything on the UKBA website about this £50.

Hopefully matter will become clear soon.

Thanks for that link, JohnL.  I found this part of the article particularly interesting:

Former Labour minister Frank Field, who is co-chairman of the Cross-Party Group on Balanced Migration, said most people wanted to see fewer migrants coming to Britain in the first place.

"The vast majority of voters, including new citizens, actually want restrictions," he said.

"Why doesn't the government address that issue instead of fiddling around believing that it can impose a tax which, even if it's successful, only raises a fraction of the cost of what integrating new arrivals means?"

The £50 comes from in-country applications.

At the moment, if you apply for ILR or FLR, you can add dependents for free.

Now, each dependent will cost £50.


Vicky

Ah right Vicky, so is this right. Take the in-person ILR fee, currently £950 and going up to £1020, that increase of £70 already includes the £50 being mentioned today?

I *think* so.


Vicky

Whatever you do, don't read the Have Your Say board attached to this story at the BBC website. It's worse than the Daily Mail. Loads of people seem to think that this £50 is the only fee migrants have to pay! Stupid w@nkers 

I've begun to truly hate these sorts of articles which make it seem like all immigrants and migrants (from w/in the EU) are the same.  The public has no clue (why should they?) about how the whole system works.  As someone who is an economic migrant, I'm a bit peeved that I'm going to have to pay something to cover the government's butts and make the public feel a bit better.  Especially as most economic migrants (me too) do not use the services as much as other migrants...plus we tend to pay higher taxes than the average person (cause many economic migrants have higher level jobs - have to in order to get the visa).  Ugh.

When I go in June to get my Ancestry visa extended, (FLR) I guess I will find out if this sort of visa is family or economic. 50 says it is.

My understanding is that the fee will be included in the application fees from April 1st, in these categories: Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 4, settlement and indefinite leave to remain, further leave to remain and Nationality.

I am sure everyone agrees that it is migrants in these particular groups which are causing the most drain on local services. All those students stealing traffic cones, etc, money has to come from somewhere to buy new ones.

"In order to pay for the services the migrants use" - except the largest nymber of migrants are from within the EU and aren't affected by this, neither are asylum seekers!

If the government allowed asylum seekers to work while they were waiting for the outcome of their applications then most, if not all, of these problems would be solved.

Problems would also be solved by, for example:

- Not sitting on exceptional cases for three years or more
- Not sitting on EEA applications for 10 months or more
- Not leaving people waiting 10 months or more for their appeal hearings (often living single       mothers reliant on benefits when their husbands could be here working supporting their families)


Vicky

I am sure everyone agrees that it is migrants in these particular groups which are causing the most drain on local services. All those students stealing traffic cones, etc, money has to come from somewhere to buy new ones.

If I promise not to steal any traffic cones, do you think they'll waive this new fee increase 

When I go in June to get my Ancestry visa extended, (FLR) I guess I will find out if this sort of visa is family or economic. 50 says it is.

Abercroft, you don't need to wait until June to extend your Ancestry visa. You may do so at any time. There's no waiting until "28 days before expiry" for FLR; that's only for ILR.

Just sayin', in case you wanna save yourself a few bob.

But make sure they extend it for 5 years, just in case there is a rule change again.

Vicky

I've begun to truly hate these sorts of articles which make it seem like all immigrants and migrants (from w/in the EU) are the same.  The public has no clue (why should they?) about how the whole system works.  As someone who is an economic migrant, I'm a bit peeved that I'm going to have to pay something to cover the government's butts and make the public feel a bit better.  Especially as most economic migrants (me too) do not use the services as much as other migrants...plus we tend to pay higher taxes than the average person (cause many economic migrants have higher level jobs - have to in order to get the visa).  Ugh.

My thoughts exactly.  I have been so annoyed by this all day.  If the govt want to increase the fees for no good reason, then say so. Don't hide behind all this "help pay for the services you use" crap.  Until getting pregnant, I had used the NHS a total of 5-6 times over 4 years for random drs appt.  I never needed a translator and I certainly have never asked the police for anything.  I did say hello to a community police officer once, so I am sure that cost loads of money.   Grrrr.