gov's response to visa rise epetition

[joebloggs]

14 June 2007

We received a petition asking:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Review Visa Costs for Foreign Nationals and Relate them to Costs not Massive PROFIT."

Details of petition:

"On April 1st 2007 Visa costs for foreign nationals increase massively and out of all proportion to costs. As an example anyone wishing to marry a foreign national and settle in the UK together would have charges increased from £595 on 31/3/07 to £1250 on 1/4/07 and the costs of naturalisation from £200 to £575. Far higher than inflation and any justification apart from another "stealth" tax."

gov's response ..

The Government understands your concern about the impact of changes to the fees for immigration and nationality. Clearly, it is not in the interests of the country to make changes that will undo the many positive benefits that migration brings to the UK. But we are building confidence in our immigration system, and a key part of delivering this - as set out in the recently published enforcement strategy - is new resources to fund improvements in both the controls and the services we offer.

We have set the new fee levels using a flexible charging model. This means that we are using a number of factors to determine the fees, whilst we continue to work within strict financial limits agreed with HM Treasury we take into account the value of a successful application in terms of entitlements and benefits to the migrant or, in the case of work permits, the employer. We then look at other factors, such as the need to maintain the United Kingdom as an attractive destination for work, study and to visit; and support of wider policy objectives, such as the Prime Minister's Initiative to increase student exports. This policy is supported by the public consultation last year in which 87% of the responses agreed we should set fees flexibly to take into account wider policy objectives, and 79% of responses agreed fees should reflect a range of factors, not only those of value to the migrant.

The Government believes the fees are set at a fair price, and reflect the true operational costs of the immigration system. Those costs include compliance and related controls, which we do not believe should be borne by the general taxpayer. The new fees will enable the Border and Immigration Agency to continue improving service as well as paying for robust immigration control.

We have already committed to keep the fees we charge under regular review and continue to appraise performance in all areas of the business in detail. We will be carrying out a full impact assessment of the new fees and if significant adverse impacts become apparent, we will take appropriate action.

my response

how can the gov say 'fair price, and reflect the true operational costs of the immigration system' - true operational costs. what it costs £750 to look at the papers i sent, cannot have taken them more than 2 hours to read it all, and oh do a police check on my wife, oh whats that take 1 min , and err contact my employer ? 6 visa's ive applied for and my employer has never been contacted, and niether has my mom who owns the house we live in, and oh i dont think my bank would tell them anything. so how do they work it out that £750 is the true cost of applying for ILR, what would it be if they did do all the checks and they say why should the taxpayer pay, hang on my wife is a tax payer for more than a year ! . and if the gov is so concerned about the tax payer, why are they forcing the tax payer to pay for the education, health and housing of EU immigrants who come here with a bit of id paper and dont have to pay anything, or about the billions the tax payer is forced to pay for a war they can never win.

cost of applying for a passport has risen again, the gov said, the increase will be used to pay for brits aboard who need help, well how about charging the brits who need help aboard the increase ? why should everyone who applies for a passport pay ? and why dont they push the price up even more next year, to help those who are struggling to pay the increase in visa fees

[andypaul]

You mean brown has run out of Gold reserves to sell, pensions to rob and radio frequency bands to sell off.
So has told departments raise your own money how you can im broke.

[Gavanddal]

It strikes me that the government reply is just full of jargon trying to confuse us. At the end of the day there is little justification for the increase in fees.

I think I've paid £1610 in fees already and will pay more if my wife goes for citizenship next year. Surely if a genuine fiancee or spouse applicant wants to immigrate into the UK and permanently live with their British spouse then it shouldn't be necessary to go through four stages of visa and four huge payments to achieve one end. It's pretty much assuming that all women coming to the UK are after a marriage of convenience. Guilty until proved innocent four times eh? Such a premise would never stand up in a court of law.
I'm sure we all despise immigration fraudsters, scammers and freeloaders but surely spouses should be treated as life partners who obviously want to live with their spouses and accordingly pay for one application to live in the UK. If it's proved subsequently that they don't intend to live as a genuine spouse then deal with them on an individual basis rather than tarring all foreign spouses with the same brush.