ilr

[Arthur Little]

That extra £300 seems to be excessive

may be SO ... ... but the BASIC bloody fee is the BIGGEST rip-off in the first place!

for what these folk do on a day to day basis anyway. I can understand a surcharge but £300 is taking the peace. I don't know if we in the IOM will end up with a similar surcharge but thankfully, currently, there is no such thing here.

Let's not forget that the surcharge is there primarily to act as a disincentive ... in other words, it ISN'T so much a case of taking the piss - rather it's to DISCOURAGE too many people availing themselves of the Premium Service. Sure ... staff are accustomed to dealing with INDIVIDUAL applicants face to face day in and day out - by prior arrangement. But there are bound to be [literally] hundreds of thousands of immigrants seeking Permanent Residence throughout the UK at any given time. That's why an APPOINTMENTS System exists. And presumably WHY (as I've already pointed out above) the surcharge is set at such a high rate. Imagine the chaos there'd be if every one of those applicants turned up unannounced - expecting priority treatment - it would be a humanly impossible undertaking for the limited number of UKBA officials to cope with the sheer demand and carry out their necessary checks effectively.