UK Visa Fees increase

[theoldgit]

The new fees are effective from today 31 Jan 2024

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visa-regulations-revised-table

[Stocky]

15% strewth

[hotandsticky]

They are going to need to get their act together if they are uplifting fees by such inflation busting amounts. 

 

There is evidence of poor/illegal decisions coming out of this sector. It is even worse for is in Thailand because we are not offered the option to transact in Sterling, or Baht,  - so we will be screwed on the US Dollar conversion rate.

[theoldgit]

Off topic posts removed 

[sandyf]

On 1/31/2024 at 7:17 PM, hotandsticky said:

It is even worse for is in Thailand because we are not offered the option to transact in Sterling, or Baht,  - so we will be screwed on the US Dollar conversion rate.

That's not true, last Feb I paid 4208 THB from Wise for the visitor visa, merchant shown as BB-UKVI which I assume is Bangkok Bank.

Going by the amount, looks like converted from GBP on the day,  my previous payment was 4325 THB.

[sandyf]

On 1/31/2024 at 7:12 PM, Stocky said:

15% strewth

Writing was on the wall when they announced the spouse visa income threshold. The government has been emboldened by public opinion and now out to penalise legal migration.

[Purdey]

I suppose they don't rely only on tourism. 

[soi3eddie]

Jeez that's a hit. We were going to apply for the 2 year Visit Visa this time to save applying each year. Forget that at £400! I believe fees are supposed only to reflect costs of processing. How can a 2 year Visit Visa require much more work than a 6 month term?

 

 

[hotandsticky]

53 minutes ago, sandyf said:

That's not true, last Feb I paid 4208 THB from Wise for the visitor visa, merchant shown as BB-UKVI which I assume is Bangkok Bank.

Going by the amount, looks like converted from GBP on the day,  my previous payment was 4325 THB.

 

 

Interesting. How did you make that payment Sandy?

 

Last month I paid 5,313 Baht via Nationwide credit card (the only currency they offer - apologies I was wrong about USD being quoted - confusing that uk.gov quote Dollars:-)

 

Standard Visitor visa - for UK, Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey

Visa types	Visa application fee (USD)	Visa application guide
Short-term (up to 6 months, single or multiple entry)	152	Visa application guide
Longer-term (valid for up to 2 years)	528	Visa application guide
Longer-term (valid for up to 5 years)	1018	Visa application guide
Longer-term (valid for up to 10 years)	1272	Visa application guide

[sandyf]

5 hours ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

Interesting. How did you make that payment Sandy?

 

Last month I paid 5,313 Baht via Nationwide credit card (the only currency they offer - apologies I was wrong about USD being quoted - confusing that uk.gov quote Dollars:-)

 

As I said in the post, paid by Wise, from THB balance. Fairly sure the payment is now local and if I had used my HSBC credit card would have been a good bit more. Will be paying again in a few weeks time.

UK.GOV are a bit inconsistent, GBP on this page

https://www.gov.uk/standard-visitor/apply-standard-visitor-visa

[theoldgit]

7 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

Jeez that's a hit. We were going to apply for the 2 year Visit Visa this time to save applying each year. Forget that at £400! I believe fees are supposed only to reflect costs of processing. How can a 2 year Visit Visa require much more work than a 6 month term?

 

In theory, yes you would have thought that the visa fees charged were supposed to cover the cost of processing the application, for a six month Standard Visit Visa the fee is not much more than the unit cost of processing, for longer term visas there's quite a substantial premium, I've attached the transparency detail where the UKVI disclose the actual cost of processing the application, the premium may shock some, the cost of processing a ten year visa is ten times the actual cost.

 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65983ae4614fa2000df3a97e/table_of_Fees_and_Unit_costs_31.01.2024.ods

 

Up until maybe fifteen years ago the visit visa application fees were the same for an appliction for a visa for six months, two, five or ten years, the UKBA figured out that they could make a lot of money by increaing the fees for longer term visas, I seem to recall at the time that they claimed it was of benefit to "customers".

[hotandsticky]

2 hours ago, sandyf said:

As I said in the post, paid by Wise, from THB balance. Fairly sure the payment is now local and if I had used my HSBC credit card would have been a good bit more. Will be paying again in a few weeks time.

UK.GOV are a bit inconsistent, GBP on this page

https://www.gov.uk/standard-visitor/apply-standard-visitor-visa

 

 

Thanks Sandy. I only asked because such a WISE transfer would require bank details for UKVI (or VfS) and I don't recall seeing that option on the payments page.

 

I don't hold Thai Baht balances with WISE, but I very easily could do.

[sandyf]

14 hours ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

Thanks Sandy. I only asked because such a WISE transfer would require bank details for UKVI (or VfS) and I don't recall seeing that option on the payments page.

 

I don't hold Thai Baht balances with WISE, but I very easily could do.

Not a Wise transfer, I just used the Wise card. I happened to have some THB as I sometimes use it on Lazada, if I hadn't they would have just taken it from the main currency.

You don't really need to hold foreign balances but if you do transactions in other currencies you can make the conversion when rates are favourable.