Home Office makes thousands in profit on some visa applications

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Home Office makes thousands in profit on some visa applications

 

The Home Office is making profits of up to 800% on immigration applications from families, many of whom are eligible to live in the UK but are turned down on technicalities and forced to reapply – and pay again.

 

Guardian analysis of Home Office figures on the fees for applications shows a vast discrepancy between how much it costs the government to process each immigration application and the fee it charges applicants.

 

For example, since April the fee to apply for indefinite leave to enter for a vulnerable adult dependent relative has been set at £3,250. Its costs the Home Office £423 to process the application.

 

The immigration minister Damian Green announced in 2011 that the government would charge fees significantly above cost as part of a deliberate attempt to subsidise cuts to the funding of the immigration system.

 

The Home Office claims the approach is “only right” and says that charging fees above costs is a necessary step to reduce the burden on the taxpayer from the border, immigration and citizenship system from areas not funded by fees.

 

Read more...https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/01/home-office-makes-800-profit-on-some-visa-applications?

[Ricardo]

UK-government tries to deter future-taxpayers from coming into the country ? 

 

Just a taste of what's ahead-of them !

 

Rip-Off Britain Strikes Again !

[yardrunner]

2 hours ago, Ricardo said:

UK-government tries to deter future-taxpayers from coming into the country ? 

 

Just a taste of what's ahead-of them !

 

Rip-Off Britain Strikes Again !

definitely, the same way they rip off pensioners over annual increases

[jinners]

3 hours ago, Ricardo said:

UK-government tries to deter future-taxpayers from coming into the country ? 

 

Just a taste of what's ahead-of them !

 

Rip-Off Britain Strikes Again !

Presumably you're not talking about the example used of vulnerable adult entrants? In many cities in the North particularly, its quite common to see aged grand parents, who have contributed nothing to the UK system, wrapped in sari's and pajamas wandering around to the health care provider or travelling free on public transport. If this is who the government are aiming at I support it wholeheartedly. Unfortunately I doubt it very much. In general the visa system, as I have discovered, is a broken expensive extension of the Inland Revenue. 

[blue leader]

It is well known that the Home Office is a ghastly department, much staffed by recent immigrants from the Indian sub-continent, but in this case I agree with their policy. Asian immigrant families in UK have trounced the system by getting all their relatives into the country on the grounds of vulnerability . That is a scam. How do you prove "vulnerability"? And what does the UK government do for its own "vulnerable" elderly veterans? Taxes their pensions!

 

There are thousands of elderly Asian men and women in UK legally making use of the generous facilities that they have paid nothing for while their younger folk are often on benefits. The UK is seen as a soft touch by Pakistanis and Indians so I am glad that the fees for applicants reflect the overall costs involved in allowing these spongers into the country.

[Eff1n2ret]

10 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

The Home Office claims the approach is “only right” and says that charging fees above costs is a necessary step to reduce the burden on the taxpayer from the border, immigration and citizenship system from areas not funded by fees.

- which is the polite way of saying that legal and honest applicants have to pay for the Great Asylum and Human Rights Scam.

It's hardly news, it's been like that for years. And it's probably the same system in other departments, certainly in the FCO, where expats who live peaceably in Thailand and never otherwise call on the services of the British Embassy are charged a whopping £50 for a simple income verification letter. This and other service charges doubtless make a significant contribution towards the cost of dealing with the criminal, the feckless and the unlucky who call for consular assistance and, as far as I'm aware, don't get a bill.

[OJAS]

On 9/4/2017 at 11:13 AM, yardrunner said:

definitely, the same way they rip off pensioners over annual increases

That's DWP rather than the Home Office - although I agree with you.

 

But what the Home Office are definitely responsible for through their HMPO "lackeys" is the dreaded "With-It Tower Passport Renewal Experience" - under which those of us living out in the sticks are now forced to make a couple of awkward journeys to an office building with an exceedingly silly name somewhere in deepest darkest Bangkok at passport renewal time. This is in stark contrast to the last time I renewed my passport in 2013, when the furthest I had to travel was to my local post office in order to post my renewal application to Hong Kong. The "With-It Tower Passport Renewal Experience" was abruptly imposed on us virtually overnight in 2014 with absolutely no explanation or justification provided for this ridiculous change.

Edited September 5, 2017 by OJAS

[Ricardo]

11 hours ago, OJAS said:

The "With-It Tower Passport Renewal Experience" was abruptly imposed on us virtually overnight in 2014 with absolutely no explanation or justification provided for this ridiculous change.

 

IIRC the reason given at-the-time was something like  ...  "for your greater convenience & efficiency" ?

 

I have always been a firm-believer in doing things myself, wherever I reasonably can, but in the case of UK-passport renewals I use an agent down in Pattaya.  Well worth his B5k add-on fee, for checking my paperwork, and submitting/collecting it from Without-It Towers ! 

 

The DHL to-and-from Hong Kong worked just fine, yet when 'they' decided (for whatever reason) to end that convenient-arrangement, they didn't simply replace it with DHL-to-and-from UKPO-Liverpool.  Why ever not ?

 

And if I'm paying UK-tax, and paying for the courier-service to/from the government-office wherever, why-on-Earth am I expected to pay a higher-price than if I'm using my local post-office in the UK ? !

 

It can only be an excuse to make extra money, or perhaps (I hope not) to punish me/mine for the sin of working/living overseas, and exercising my freedom-of-choice.

[OJAS]

4 hours ago, Ricardo said:

 

IIRC the reason given at-the-time was something like  ...  "for your greater convenience & efficiency" ?

 

I have always been a firm-believer in doing things myself, wherever I reasonably can, but in the case of UK-passport renewals I use an agent down in Pattaya.  Well worth his B5k add-on fee, for checking my paperwork, and submitting/collecting it from Without-It Towers ! 

 

The DHL to-and-from Hong Kong worked just fine, yet when 'they' decided (for whatever reason) to end that convenient-arrangement, they didn't simply replace it with DHL-to-and-from UKPO-Liverpool.  Why ever not ?

 

And if I'm paying UK-tax, and paying for the courier-service to/from the government-office wherever, why-on-Earth am I expected to pay a higher-price than if I'm using my local post-office in the UK ? !

 

It can only be an excuse to make extra money, or perhaps (I hope not) to punish me/mine for the sin of working/living overseas, and exercising my freedom-of-choice.

This is the announcement made by the then ambassador in 2014, which alerted us all to the latest change:

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/changes-to-british-passport-services-in-thailand-2

 

As you will see, we were curtly informed that we would, in future, have to go to With-It Tower in person, with zero explanation given for this seismic procedural change. I personally think that it has all to do with the transfer of passport-issuing responsibilities in our case from the FCO/Embassy to the Home Office/HMPO which took place around that time. Whereas the Embassy IMHO had their ear to the ground as regards the practical implications of any changes for expats living here (e.g. they went out of their way to make special arrangements with DHL for the submission of renewal applications to Hong Kong when that particular change was made - which, unfortunately, I was unable to make use of personally since the nearest DHL depot to me is located a 90-minute drive away in Pattaya), the HMPO mandarins, on the other hand, clearly cannot give a toss about the resultant inconvenience of the dreaded "With-It Tower Passport Renewal Experience" for those of us who live some way away from Bangkok in particular, as they sit with their heads in the clouds in their Whitehall ivory tower completely divorced from reality.

Edited September 6, 2017 by OJAS

[jinners]

On 9/4/2017 at 5:43 PM, Eff1n2ret said:

- which is the polite way of saying that legal and honest applicants have to pay for the Great Asylum and Human Rights Scam.

It's hardly news, it's been like that for years. And it's probably the same system in other departments, certainly in the FCO, where expats who live peaceably in Thailand and never otherwise call on the services of the British Embassy are charged a whopping £50 for a simple income verification letter. This and other service charges doubtless make a significant contribution towards the cost of dealing with the criminal, the feckless and the unlucky who call for consular assistance and, as far as I'm aware, don't get a bill.

totally agree. But the visa side of the house are really able to do just whatever they want, and charge for it. I had my initial application for a spouse visa refused for spurious reasons. Appealed and, with the help of my MP, had the same visa application approved. No explanation, no refund of appeals fees. I read today of a guy with his Chinese wife. He earning big bucks and a new baby, just had her right to stay refused. No reason given, thousand of pounds spent. Disgrace doesn't get close.