Proposals to increase fees in the UK from 1 April 2007
The Home Office has published proposed new fees for immigration services where applications are made by people who are already in the UK. It is intended that the new fees will apply from 1 April 2007. The fees are set out below.
The fees published by the Home Office relate to applications made within the UK and are described as ‘proposals’. For those applying for entry clearance (a visa) at UK posts abroad, UKvisas, a department run jointly by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Home Office, has published details of new fees, which does not describe these as proposals, but as the new fees to be imposed at British consular posts abroad from 1 April 2007. These are discussed in a previous article. Some of the fee increases are substantial. For instance, the cost of an application for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR or ‘settlement’) will double from £335 to £750.
People who are in a position to do so may wish to consider making their applications before 1 April before the fees go up. In the case of Indefinite Leave to Remain, an added incentive for making a prompt application is that the government intends to require people applying for Indefinite Leave to Remain to demonstrate a knowledge of language and life in the UK. The earliest possible date the government has given for introducing the new test is 2 April 2007.
Proposed new Home Office fees for immigration services
References to the Home Office’s ‘Premium Service’ are references to a high-speed same-day service. The different categories of leave described below are discussed in more detail in the section of this website on ‘Your Immigration Choices’ or can be located using the ‘Quick Access’ menu above.
New fees for work
Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) - £400
Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) Leave to Remain - £350
Work Permits - £190
Work Permit Leave to Remain - £350
Work Permit Leave to Remain Premium Service- £550
Business Case Unit - £750
Worker Registration Scheme (for European Economic Area nationals from Accession States required to register their employment) - £90
Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme - £12
New fees for students
Student Leave to Remain - £295
Student Leave to Remain Premium £500
New fees for other leave to remain
Leave to Remain (non-student) - £395
Leave to Remain (non-student) Premium Service - £595
Certificate of Approval (given the Secretary of State’s approval for a marriage or civil partnership) - £295
Transfer of Conditions (this concerns transfer of a visa or other document into a new passport) - £160
Transfer of Conditions Premium Service- £500
Adult Travel Documents (Certificates of Identify – issued to people other than refugees who have been given some form of protection in the UK other than as a refugee and who have been refused a passport by their own State) - £210
Child Travel Documents (Certificates of Identity) - £130
Adult Travel Documents (Convention Travel Documents issued to people who qualify for recognition as refugees under the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees) - £66
Child Travel Documents (Convention Travel Documents issued to children who qualify for recognition as refugees, including as the family members of refugees, under the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees CTD) - £45
New fees for Settlement
Indefinite Leave to Remain - £750
Indefinite Leave to Remain Premium Service- £950
New fees for nationality
Nationality – Right Of Abode (affects those in special categories only) - £135
Nationality – Naturalisation – (the usual application for people wishing to become British on the basis of length of residence in the UK/marriage or civil partnership etc.) £575
Nationality –Registration of an adult (affects people in special categories only)- £400 Nationality – Applications for minors (single and multiple) - £400
Nationality – renunciation of British nationality - £385
There are some differences between the fees announced for applications made at posts abroad and those proposed for applications made within the UK. Where the application made at a post abroad costs a small amount more than an application made in the UK, this is probably to reflect the cost of making an application through one of UKvisas ‘commercial partners’; private companies who receive the applications then pass them to the Home Office for decision. Other differences are more difficult to explain.
