United Kingdom and United States of America have increased fees for Visa application by immigrants.
US And UK Increase Visa Fees
United Kingdom and United States of America have increased fees for Visa application by immigrants.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced a plan to increase the visa application fee paid by immigrants.
While delivering a speech regarding an increase in public sector wages, Sunak disclosed that part of the funding for the wage increase will be raised from the foreign migrants who come to the United Kingdom to live and work.
Fees for the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) will also be significantly increased for migrants. Sunak said;
“If we’re going to prioritise paying public sector workers more, that money has to come from somewhere else because I’m not prepared to put up people’s taxes and I don’t think it would be responsible or right to borrow more because that would just make inflation worse.
“So, what we have done are two things to find this money. The first is, we are going to increase the charges that we have for migrants who are coming to this country when they apply for visas and indeed something called the immigration health surcharge (IHS), which is the levy that they pay to access the NHS.
“All of those fees are going to go up and that will raise over £1 billion. So, across the board visa application fees are going to go up significantly and similarly for the IHS.”
The Prime Minister revealed that the new plan won’t lead to inflation because there would be no new borrowing or spending to fund the salary increment.
He added;
“I just announced a fair way to end the strikes – and already all teaching unions are backing it. It’s a fair deal for workers. And a fair deal for the British taxpayer. This is a major breakthrough for parents and families across the country.”
US government increases work and student visa fees by 15%
The United States government has announced a hike in fees for certain non-immigrant visa applications (NIV).
The 15 percent increment affects the student visa, exchange visitor visa, petition-based non-immigrant visas for temporary workers and treaty applicants.
The statement released on the bureau of consular affairs website, travel.state.gov, and on the websites of US embassies and consulates, reads;
“These increases were published in the federal register on March 28, 2023, and will be effective on May 30, 2023. The fee for visitor visas for business or tourism (B1/B2s and BCCs), and other non-petition based NIVs such as student and exchange visitor visas, will increase from $160 to $185.
“The fee for certain petition-based nonimmigrant visas for temporary workers (H, L, O, P, Q, and R categories) will increase from $190 to $205. The fee for a treaty trader, treaty investor, and treaty applicants in a specialty occupation (E category) will increase from $205 to $315.
“NIV fees are set based on the actual cost of providing NIV services and are determined after conducting a study of the cost of these services. The department uses an activity-based costing (ABC) methodology to calculate, annually, the cost of providing consular services, including visa services.
“The fees for most non-petition based NIVs were last updated in 2012, and certain other NIV fees were last updated in 2014.
“Other consular fees are not affected by this rule, including the waiver of the two-year residency required fee for certain exchange visitors.”
