Legislation was laid in Parliament today which sets out a number of updates to immigration, visa and nationality fees.
The changes which come into effect on 6 April 2017 will help to reduce the contribution from taxpayers, whilst continuing to provide a competitive service that remains attractive to our customers.
The key changes are:
- Fees for visitors, full-time students and workers will be restricted to a 2% increase in line with the government’s inflation target;
- Application fees for British Citizens applying for registration and naturalisation will increase by 4%;
- Settlement and indefinite leave to remain will increase by up to 22.5%. This reflects the significant benefits and entitlements that a successful applicant receives and includes: access to education, general public services and the UK labour market;
- All premium services (excluding sponsorship premium services) will also increase by up to 23%;
- Fees for entry clearance to enter the Channel Islands will rise in line with 2017/2018 fee changes seen in the rest of the UK;
- On 1 June 2017, a new optional email enquiry service will be introduced overseas which will complement the existing telephone helpline service. The fee for the telephone helpline service will remain unchanged; and
- For the third year running, there will be no changes to the fees for applications or services under the sponsorship system.
Compared to recruitment fees these submission fees still represent a cost effective solution to recruitment and resourcing issues.
A full list of the new fees can be found on www.gov.uk
If you have any questions about the above changes or require assistance with an application, please call us on 01793 836010.
