It seems to have become a trend that every year the Home Office fees for visa applications have been increasing. Normally these changes are announced towards the end of March, and the government has recently published this year’s changes on the GOV website.
Main changes – breaking the tradition
Luckily, this year the trend to increase the fees has been broken, as the new fees from the 29th of March 2019 remain mostly the same. So, at the moment Spouse Visa, Student and Work visa, ILR and British naturalisation fees remain unchanged.
The highest increase has been for the Super Priority optional Service, which will now cost £800, £190 more than previously. There were also some more minor changes in visa fees, for example, the Priority service, which will now cost £23 more.
Brexit and IHS
Although you might be breathing a sigh of relief that the fees have not gone up too much, one should nonetheless note that in January 2019( see the Previous Article on IHS Increase ) , the government doubled the Immigration Health Surcharge from £200 to £400 per year, increasing most UK Visa Application fees to nearly unaffordable levels.
Therefore, this could be the reason that the government has decided to not increase the fees any further this year, or alternatively, it may be a result of the current political situation with the ongoing Brexit negotiations, which have kept the government’s hands pretty busy…
Whatever the reason was for not increasing the fees this year, we are very happy and hope this freeze on visa fee increases will continue.
IF YOU HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY ANY UK IMMIGRATION MATTER, PLEASE CONTACT SOLICITOR TITO MBARITI, A UK IMMIGRATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS SOLICITOR, FOR A FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION ABOUT YOUR LEGAL OPTIONS. CALL 07544 669131/01163800744 OR ON SKYPE: TITO.MBARITI.