You said it yourself, even 43EUR is ILLEGAL!!! Ukba is not violating the law but uses the maximum time permitted to process the applications (6 months as per Directive 2004/38). Further, now the processing times have improved two-fold, as per people posting on this website.
I find it convenient for people to have a choice, yes it discriminates against the poor ones, but (provided the resources for free apps remain the same) the poorer ones would not get affected in any way, if anything there would be fewer free applications and I bet you at least 30% of those filling out the survey would be happy to pay to get the decision quicker, rather than be on bail for 6 months without documentation and imprisoned!!!!!
Same as with VIP lounges, first-class seats in planes, so on and so forth, it's a sad fact of life that money talks and bullS*** walks.
BTW, any update on the survey results and if they're going to implement it at all? There's money to be made right there, tellin ya'.
fysicus wrote:Well, I don't see how category 1 would be happy by paying £300 for something that is actually free of charge!
In the Netherlands, for example, there is a standard fee of 43 euros for all applications under European law, and more than 90% of the applications are decided within two or three weeks.
In the UK there is no application fee, but the processing times are so long that for a large percentage the legal limit of six months is violated. For this there are no other reasons than incompetence at UKBA!
Let them first get the processing times down to an acceptable level, and then see who might want to pay for a same-day service.
