Increases to in-country visa fees from April 2012

I thought people might be interested in the fee increases that UKBA is proposing to introduce from April 2012. This comes from a UKBA circular:


• To increase Tier 1 General Extensions by 50 per cent from £1,000 to £1,500 in recognition of the continued benefits to applicants now this route is closed, as it offers a route to settlement and also offers continued unrestricted access to the UK labour market.

• To increase the fee for Tier 2 visas by 20 per cent, from £400 to £480, thereby making a step towards our strategic objective of aligning visa fees with in-UK fees. We believe £480 still represents good value compared to the fees charged by other countries. A similar visa costs £510 in the USA and £1387 in Australia. We will also increase the fee for Tier 2 Intra Company Transfers for less than 12 months from £350 to £400.

• To increase the Tier 4 visa fee to £289 and Tier 5 fees to £194, to ensure these routes fully recover the administrative costs of processing the applications. We believe it is right that these routes are priced to recover the full costs of processing these applications as it is no longer viable, in the current financial climate, for foreign students and temporary workers to be subsidised by UK taxpayers and other migrants.

They also indicate that for now they will maintain the fees paid by dependents for applications made within the UK at the current level of 50 per cent of a main applicant's fee but in future will look to charge the same fee in the UK for dependents and main applicants.

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