Indicative Visa fees for 2015/16

bobsmuss wrote:

ILR increase from 1093 to 1500?

Did Ukba get disconnected from reality???!!!

The reality is that if it wasn't for EU legislation, the United Kingdom wouldn't even have to offer anything like permanent residence to anybody. Indeed the vast majority of countries of the world have nothing like it. The UK (along with the rest of the EU) is an exception in this regards. And the EU legislation deals only with accession of this status to other EU nationals. It says nothing about non-EU nationals, how/whether member countries have to recognize each other's PR, how a member country itself implements it, and what rights a country even gives a resident with such status. If the UK wanted to effectively make it impossible to achieve except to other EU citizen's, that's their sovereign right.

bobsmuss wrote:

ILR will affect hundreds of thousands so we have to create and sign up e-petition so that it can be discussed and contested in parliament.

There is no requirement that UK open its arms up to the people of the world, or even to those hundreds of thousands.

bobsmuss wrote:

It is simply insane!!!

It is simply this country exercising its sovereign right to control immigration by whatever means it sees fit. These things swing around. Eventually, at some point in the future, the UK will again see the need for more migration, and then there will be new schemes and lower prices and other routes, etc....

The visa process cost neutral, the huge increase in fees is due to the abuse of the system and the now-necessary policing of it. I remember when it was all free and there was no Border Police Force.

Can we bring HomeOffice to court if they proceed with this fees amendments?

What can be ground for it is the following document that they published in November 2013 justifying increase for other visa categories.

Document is here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _visas.pdf

Look at the clause at the beginning of page 12.


In addition, we have certain statutory obligations to offer reduced fees or exemptions; for example,
fees must not present a barrier to migrants exercising their Human Rights. In order to maintain
the required level of funding for our immigration system, any reduction in income as a result of
lowering the fee for one route, must be offset by increases elsewhere.
This has led to a situation where the fee paid for some routes may not clearly reflect the benefits of
a successful application. For example, the fee for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) is the same as,
or lower than, the fee for some Tier 1 applications, even though ILR allows the successful applicant
to settle permanently in the UK, with access to a wider range of public funds and service


So what HomeOffice should be asked is whether sudden increase of ILR fees for 37% from 1093 to 1500 GBP wouldn't
represent a barrier for migrants to exercise their Human Rights?

bobsmuss wrote:Can we bring HomeOffice to court if they proceed with this fees amendments?

What can be ground for it is the following document that they published in November 2013 justifying increase for other visa categories.

Document is here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _visas.pdf

Look at the clause at the beginning of page 12.


In addition, we have certain statutory obligations to offer reduced fees or exemptions; for example,
fees must not present a barrier to migrants exercising their Human Rights. In order to maintain
the required level of funding for our immigration system, any reduction in income as a result of
lowering the fee for one route, must be offset by increases elsewhere.
This has led to a situation where the fee paid for some routes may not clearly reflect the benefits of
a successful application. For example, the fee for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) is the same as,
or lower than, the fee for some Tier 1 applications, even though ILR allows the successful applicant
to settle permanently in the UK, with access to a wider range of public funds and service


So what HomeOffice should be asked is whether sudden increase of ILR fees for 37% from 1093 to 1500 GBP wouldn't
represent a barrier for migrants to exercise their Human Rights?

Out of curiousity which "human rights" do you think will be affected/violated by the increase in fees?

bobsmuss wrote:

ILR increase from 1093 to 1500?

Did Ukba get disconnected from reality???!!!

Can forum moderator make this thread as a "HOT TOPIC" and be visible to anyone visiting immigrationboards???!!!

ILR will affect hundreds of thousands so we have to create and sign up e-petition so that it can be discussed and contested in parliament.

It is simply insane!!!

Where did it mentioned that ILR fee changing from 1093 to 1500 ?


Regards,
suresh

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... o-2016.pdf

page 4.

It is craftily hidden.
No news on GOV.UK-HomeOffice website at all.

bobsmuss wrote:Can we bring HomeOffice to court if they proceed with this fees amendments?
So what HomeOffice should be asked is whether sudden increase of ILR fees for 37% from 1093 to 1500 GBP wouldn't
represent a barrier for migrants to exercise their Human Rights?

There is no human 'right' to permanent residence. Further, if anything, your quote supports the idea that ILR has been relatively underpriced anyway! Also, the spirit of mentioning Human Rights is really with respect to such things as right to family life, marriage, and being able to live without constant threat of being killed/persecuted.

The fact is the UK would like to avoid splitting up families of settled residents/citizens, but must balance that with being able to provide its citizens and residents with a basic human standard of living (or an assurance that such a safety net exists if needed). One effective way of doing this by raising revenues, in this case, from its visa system. The UK not only has a right to do this, it has fundamental responsibility to do this. And the UK must also try to put itself in a position to respond to changes in the environment from within and surrounding it, so it can revise the policies accordingly for its own best interest.

I don't know what human rights case you think can be together to alter this basic and obvious strategy, but I think you will struggle to put together a winning argument no matter argument you try.

bobsmuss wrote:Can we bring HomeOffice to court if they proceed with this fees amendments?

Document is here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... visas.pdf
Look at the clause at the beginning of page 12.


In addition, we have certain statutory obligations to offer reduced fees or exemptions; for example,
fees must not present a barrier to migrants exercising their Human Rights. In order to maintain
the required level of funding for our immigration system, any reduction in income as a result of
lowering the fee for one route, must be offset by increases elsewhere.
This has led to a situation where the fee paid for some routes may not clearly reflect the benefits of
a successful application. For example, the fee for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) is the same as,
or lower than, the fee for some Tier 1 applications, even though ILR allows the successful applicant
to settle permanently in the UK, with access to a wider range of public funds and service

I have highlighted another part of the text that bobsmuss has so kindly provided. It explains precisely why the fees are going up at the rate that they are.

With regards to human rights, I faintly recall reading in various threads in these forums that people who are destitute or affected by domestic violence can claim an exemption from the fees when applying. Thus, people whose human rights are genuinely affected are exempt from or pay a significantly reduced amount of fees.

This exemption is unlikely to apply to people here on Tier 1 & 2 visas, one of whose conditions is a certain quantum of earning.

Naturalisation fee is also going up £99. Which would probably mean anyone paying £1500 for ILR after April 2015 will be paying around £1025 (+£80 for the ceremony) for naturalisation after April 2016 (assuming they keep up the prices like this).

Stopping immigration by just making it too expensive.

It wouldn't surprise me if they pit prices up in a few years bit included with that high cost is including the red UK passport right a

hamziyan88 wrote:It wouldn't surprise me if they pit prices up in a few years bit included with that high cost is including the red UK passport right a

The price seems to be going up very consistently every year no matter what. It seems unlikely that pattern will change in the near future.

One doesn't ever actually need to get a passport after citizenship. For those people who don't plan on ever getting one, they might resent paying for it anyway. Also, that might create some extra bureaucracy as people who have never gone through the naturalization process would have to pay at the time of obtaining the passport. All the rest of us would maybe be issued a voucher or something, or maybe it would just all 'be on the system'? It's not a bad idea. The UK wouldn't mind the extra revenue they'd especially from those who would never go on to get a passport.

It seems as if the visa fee will increase above 2000 see the following link pt. no.

2.8 Indefinite leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom. £2,141

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2015/9780111128459

Well spotted fms05.

That will really set the cat among the pigeons if the ILR fees were to jump above £2000. Then again, given the recent tightening of good character requirements for citizenship, quite a lot of people will languish at ILR and the government has found its sweet spot for earning there.

I believe there might still be some hope because in the indicative fee table on this site:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... o-2016.pdf

There are three diff. categories of ILR with max at 2141 for armed forces....

Maybe the legislation is taking a blanket approval to take the max. amount which they can charge so within that one approval all three categories get considered, and then they would intend to keep the tier 1 -> ILR capped at 1500 for this year.

Lets hope , keep our fingers crossed, and please do two things:

a) write to your local mp and
b) ministerforimmigration@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk <- this is the email for the Immigration minister, kindly write just putting across the fact that a 40% increase in fee is unfair as we are not getting any additional benefit from the previous recipients of ILR, and also an increase hovering around th current inflation is still justified.