UK visa fees and VFS fees up from today

[Tony M]

Some large increases in visa fees from today. Almost 20% for settlement visas.

 

Fees also up for applications made in UK

 

VFS fees also up (some by almost 20%), and a new charge (from June) for contacting the (currently free) email Contact Centre enquiry service.  

 

Fee increases 6 April 2017.docx

[Tapster]

Nope, still doesn't work for me.

 

We need a UK visa for my wife later this year. I'll find out nearer the time.

 

[CeeGee]

The page you are trying to access is not available for your account.

Error code: 2C171/1

 

same issue for me

Edited April 6, 2017 by CeeGee

[Hotrats]

Nor me. I'm also signed in, but told that, "The page you are trying to access is not available for your account".

[Medicine Man]

Ditto for me, thankfully I have just obtained a visitor visa for my wife 6 days ago !

[Tony M]

Here's a pdf, maybe this will work

Visa_Fees_table_Apr2017.pdf

[theoldgit]

Visas / applications made outside the UK                                              Current            From 6/4/17          Increase          % increase
Visit visa < 6 months	£87	£89	£2	2.2
Visit visa < 2 years [note 1]	£330	£337	£7	2.1
Visit visa < 5 years	£600	£612	£12	2
Visit visa <10 years	£752	£767	£15	2
Visiting academic – more than 6 months but no more than 12 months	£170	£179	£9	5
Private medical treatment visa – more than 6 months but not more than 11 months	£170	£179	£9	5
Short term student visa (up to 6 months)	£89	£93	£4	4.3
Short term student studying English language for more than 6 months but not more than 11 months	£170	£179	£9	5
Settlement	£1,195	£1,464	£269	18.4
Settlement – other dependant relative	£2,676	£3,250	£574	17.7
Settlement – refugee dependant relative	£472	£423	(£49)	-11.6
Indefinite leave to enter the UK as the dependant of a member of the armed forces under Appendix Armed Forces to the Immigration Rules.	£1,875	£2,297	£422	18.4
Certificate of entitlement – (right of abode)	£472	£423	(£49)	-11.6
Other visa	£405	£496	£91	18.3
Transit visa – (direct airside transit)	£32	£34	£2	5.9
Transit visit visa (landside transit)	£59	£62	£3	4.8
Visa for the purpose of joining a ship or aircraft as a member of the crew of that ship or aircraft	£59	£62	£3	4.8
Transfer of Conditions (Vignette transfer)	£189	£169	(£20)	-11.8
Representative of an overseas business	£546	£587	£41	7
Call out/ out of hours fee (per hour/part hour)	£130	£137	£7	5.1
Single-entry visa to replace a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP)	£189	£169	(£20)	-11.8
Receiving, preparing and forwarding documents	£115	£136	£21	15.4
Electronic Visa Waiver	£15	£15	£0	0
Points based system – applications made outside the UK
Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) [note 2]	£963	£982	£19	1.9
Tier 1 (Investor)	£1,530	£1,561	£31	2
Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) – initial application [note 2]	£287	£293	£6	2
Approval letter from a competent body in respect of an initial application for Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent)	£287	£292	£5	1.7
Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) – subsequent application [note 2]	£574	£585	£11	1.9
Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) – dependant	£574	£585	£11	1.9
Tier 1 (General) – dependant	£963	£982	£19	1.9
Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) [note 2]	£342	£349	£7	2
Tier 1 (Post-study Work) – dependant	£570	£581	£11	1.9
Dependant of a student granted leave under the rules in place prior to the implementation of the Points-Based System	£328	£335	£7	2.1
Tier 2 (General), (Intra-Company Transfer) – Long Term Staff, (Sportsperson) & (Minister of Religion), where a certificate of sponsorship has been issued for a period of three years or less [note 2]	£575	£587	£12	2
Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) – Short Term Staff, Graduate Trainee, and Skills Transfer (dependants only) [note 2]	£454	£463	£9	1.9
Tier 2 (General), (Intra-Company Transfer) – Long Term Staff, where a certificate of sponsorship has been issued for a period of more than three years [note 2]	£1,151	£1,174	£23	2
Tier 2 (General) shortage occupation where a certificate of sponsorship has been issued for a period of three years or less [note 2]	£437	£446	£9	2
Tier 2 (General) shortage occupation where a certificate of sponsorship has been issued for a period of more than three years [note 2]	£873	£892	£19	2.1
Tier 4	£328	£335	£7	2.1
Tier 5 [note 2]	£230	£235	£5	2.1
Optional Premium Services outside the UK
Priority visa service – settlement	£450	£551	£101	18.3
Priority visa service – non-settlement	£150	£184	£34	18.5
Super priority visa service	£750	£919	£169	18.4
User-pay visa application centre	£55	£55	£0	0
Passport pass-back	£42	£51	£9	17.6
Visa application centre appointment – outside office hours	£63	£75	£12	16
International Contact Centre – Email Service (commences 1 June 2017)	NEW	£5.48	n/a
International Contact Centre – Telephone Helpline (per minute)	1.37 per minute	1.37 per minute	£0	0

 

[theoldgit]

There seems to be an issue with Tony M's links and my copy and paste, I'll take it up with the tech people in the morning.

In the meantime the published transparency document contains the new rates

 

Unit_cost_table_2017.pdf

[7by7]

You can also access the new fees in either pdf or ods format from GOV.UK here.

 

 

[Donutz]

A charge for contacting the contact centre with a question?! 555 Oh my. That service was rather useless anyway, either copy/pasting paragraphs straight from .gov pages even though you made explicit that those page lack the information you seek. Or even copy/pasting an answer to a question you did not ask... a charge for such an awful service simple is a total joke. 

[7by7]

I see that the government is continuing the policy, started by Blair's government, of screwing as much as they can out of visa and LTR applicants.

 

Looking at the document provided by theoldgit above one can see that, with the exception of  a 6 months standard visitors visa and student visitors visas, the fees are set way above cost!

 

Those of most interest to members here:-

 

Settlement visa: unit cost £423; fee £1464 (plus another 5ish% due to the government charging in USD at an exchange rate favourable to them).

FLR: unit cost £147; fee £993.

ILR: unit cost £252; fee £2297.

 

If you want to take up British citizenship once qualified:-

 

Adult naturalisation: unit cost £386; fee £1202.

Register a child: unit cost £386; fee £973.

 

I am all for applicants covering the costs of their applications; but such huge profits are scandalous.

 

 

 

 

 

[7by7]

4 hours ago, sandyf said:

I actually paid on 31st March before the 2016 increase and at that time the published rate was £85. I paid via HSBC and the payment was converted at 1.4324 giving the government the sum of £87.96 ........

Yesterday I ran the UK gov enquiry screen an it gave a current cost of 116 USD but on reflection I think there is an error in that. Unfortunately it is not quite time to make an application and pick up the saving, no doubt it will be corrected shortly..........

Looked back at the previous year which was done on the 18th March 2015, not sure what the published rate was then £83?

Visa fee was 129 USD, HSBC converted at 1.4632 giving the government £88.16 plus £2.64 for HSBC, making the cost of the visa £90.80.

 Using this currency converter, 116USD is £93.633 at today's rate of exchange, 1 GBP = 1.23907 USD.

 

So, March 2015; fee set by Parliament £83 (I think, can't remember either); you paid £88.16.

March 2016: fee set by parliament £85; you paid £87.96.

Now; fee set by Parliament; applicants today will pay £93.30. What you will actually pay next time depends on the exchange rate; the real one, not the one used by UKVI.

 

Plus, as you rightly say, conversion fees set by the applicant or sponsor's bank bank.

 

When I queried the need to charge in USD with the then Immigration Minister he passed it on to UKVI. Part of the reply I eventually received from them was that UKVI's service provider, World Pay, insisted upon it.

 

I queried this with World Pay, who confirmed that they will process payments in nearly any currency the customer, in this case UKVI, wish and certainly in Sterling. There is no reason why UKVI need to charge in USD rather than Sterling. It is a choice they have made, and made for one reason only; to make more money.

 

The extra money raised for UKVI may seem trifling to some when it comes to the few pounds added to 6 months visit visa applications; but when added to the fee adds around £73 to an already exorbitant, and highly profitable for UKVI, fee.

 

[Tony M]

58 minutes ago, 7by7 said:

 Using this currency converter, 116USD is £93.633 at today's rate of exchange, 1 GBP = 1.23907 USD.

 

So, March 2015; fee set by Parliament £83 (I think, can't remember either); you paid £88.16.

March 2016: fee set by parliament £85; you paid £87.96.

Now; fee set by Parliament; applicants today will pay £93.30. What you will actually pay next time depends on the exchange rate; the real one, not the one used by UKVI.

 

Plus, as you rightly say, conversion fees set by the applicant or sponsor's bank bank.

 

When I queried the need to charge in USD with the then Immigration Minister he passed it on to UKVI. Part of the reply I eventually received from them was that UKVI's service provider, World Pay, insisted upon it.

 

I queried this with World Pay, who confirmed that they will process payments in nearly any currency the customer, in this case UKVI, wish and certainly in Sterling. There is no reason why UKVI need to charge in USD rather than Sterling. It is a choice they have made, and made for one reason only; to make more money.

 

The extra money raised for UKVI may seem trifling to some when it comes to the few pounds added to 6 months visit visa applications; but when added to the fee adds around £73 to an already exorbitant, and highly profitable for UKVI, fee.

 

 

Indeed.   UKVI Thailand say they process around 100,000 UK visa applications a year.  If the Exchange rate makes them just 1 GBP per application, then that is a profit of 100,000 GBP.  It does appear that the profit is likely more than 1 GBP an application, so the UK government could be making at least a quarter of a million in profit, just from this "arrangement".  It really is time that it stopped.

[sandyf]

55 minutes ago, 7by7 said:

 Using this currency converter, 116USD is £93.633 at today's rate of exchange, 1 GBP = 1.23907 USD.

 

So, March 2015; fee set by Parliament £83 (I think, can't remember either); you paid £88.16.

March 2016: fee set by parliament £85; you paid £87.96.

Now; fee set by Parliament; applicants today will pay £93.30. What you will actually pay next time depends on the exchange rate; the real one, not the one used by UKVI.

 

Plus, as you rightly say, conversion fees set by the applicant or sponsor's bank bank.

 

When I queried the need to charge in USD with the then Immigration Minister he passed it on to UKVI. Part of the reply I eventually received from them was that UKVI's service provider, World Pay, insisted upon it.

 

I queried this with World Pay, who confirmed that they will process payments in nearly any currency the customer, in this case UKVI, wish and certainly in Sterling. There is no reason why UKVI need to charge in USD rather than Sterling. It is a choice they have made, and made for one reason only; to make more money.

 

The extra money raised for UKVI may seem trifling to some when it comes to the few pounds added to 6 months visit visa applications; but when added to the fee adds around £73 to an already exorbitant, and highly profitable for UKVI, fee.

 

This was an invalid comment "a current cost of 116 USD but on reflection I think there is an error in that.", at my age I should avoid mental calculations, the enquiry screen is more than likely right.

 

Visa fees are for foreign nationals so the fact that using a foreign currency in the payment process increases the cost is of little significance to the UK government.

[sandyf]

18 minutes ago, Tony M said:

 

Indeed.   UKVI Thailand say they process around 100,000 UK visa applications a year.  If the Exchange rate makes them just 1 GBP per application, then that is a profit of 100,000 GBP.  It does appear that the profit is likely more than 1 GBP an application, so the UK government could be making at least a quarter of a million in profit, just from this "arrangement".  It really is time that it stopped.

It is not quite as straightforward as that. There is no doubt that it is a scandalous arrangement in the fact that a charge set in GBP must be paid in USD so people making the payment from a UK source end up losing out to the banks to make the conversion. As stated, last year I paid £87.96 + £2.63 but in fact the government did not get the £87.96, the bank charged me that to give the government 126 USD and then charged £2.63 for making that payment in USD.

If at the same time someone from the US had paid for a visa to the UK, they would have paid 126 USD, no exchange rates or conversion fees.

Many of the Thais making applications would probably have to turn to some of the other methods offered by Worldpay which are likely to be somewhat more expensive. I had a look at Paypal, if you were to pay the current visa price of 116 USD via Paypal today, the visa would cost £96.87 if funding came back to a UK source, never thought to check THB but unlikely to be any better.

The whole setup stinks and it doesn't say a great deal for the governments confidence in the £ when they prefer payment in USD.

[TCA]

So exactly a 22.5% increase for FLR and ILR applications. Same for initial entry clearance with the additional joy of the dollar payment rip-off. We'll have 2 ILR applications to make next year (mother and child = £4,594), so that's an extra £844 to pay.  Actually it'll be at least £844 because even taking away the 28 days from the 5 years in UK date, the earliest we'll be able to apply is mid May, so it'll be worse again. Absolutely brutal.     

[TCA]

On 07/04/2017 at 10:57 AM, 7by7 said:

ILR: unit cost £252; fee £2297.

The increase of £422 on its own is 167% of the unit cost. Really bad.

[Trevor1809]

Not sure if I picked the right cost of an ILR visa but if thos rates continue then an ILR visa in 10 years time will be over £9000. Imagine getting the bank loan to pay for that then getting the application rejected?

 

I suppose the next thing will be we see that you earn £18600 per year and meet the earnings requirement however we reject yout appliaction on the basis that you can't afford the visa fee.

[ajb1985]

Disgusting price rises!


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[sandyf]

On 4/10/2017 at 10:34 PM, ajb1985 said:

Disgusting price rises!


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

The whole setup is a ripoff, even before the increases.

In March 2015 I did a visitor visa for my wife to Canada and the charge to my account was £53.17 plus £1.59, total of £54.76.

In the same month I did a visitor visa for my wife to the UK and the charge to my account was £88.16 plus £2.64, total of £90.80.

UK immigration issued a multi entry visa for 6 months and the Canadian immigration issued a multi entry visa for the remainder of her passport, about 3.5 years.

Since then I have paid a further £90 to the UK and will pay again shortly. So for the same period I will have paid the UK about £275 and for Canada about £55.

May try and get back to Canada before it runs out next year.

[7by7]

3 hours ago, 7by7 said:

*Edit; For some reason my file containing this response wont attach! If anyone wants to read it in full, PM me and I'll send you a copy.

Having queried this in support, it seems there's problems with uploading files at the moment.

 

So, for those who may be interested, here is a their reply in full:

 

		MP Account Managers Team Midlands, East of England & International Responder Hub c/o Lunar House 40 Wellesley Road Croydon CR9  2BY
	Mr xxxxxxxxx   Email: xxxxxxx	HO Reference: VCT/168765 TO Reference: 201749
	7 March 2014

Dear xxxxxxx

 

Thank you for your email correspondence of 244 January to the Immigration Minister, about our online visa fees.  Your enquiry has been forwarded to Midlands, East of England and International responder hub, as we have responsibility for entry clearance matters. I am sorry for the delay in replying to your enquiry. 

 

UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) is embarking on a programme of modernisation, which includes moving to an online application process where almost all customers around the world will apply and pay for their visas online. UKVI has already successfully launched online payment for visas in over 90 countries.

 

Customers in Thailand already apply for their visa online, and as from 16 December 2013, all applicants applying in Thailand have also been required to pay for their visa application online, using a MasterCard, Visa, Debit or pre-payment card. Additional online methods of payment are expected to become available in due course, such as other payment cards and e-wallets.

 

Online payment is mandatory for all customers and other methods of payment, including payment at the visa application centre, are no longer accepted. Online payment allows a more streamlined application process and is consistent with a wider global trend to online transactions and payments; it helps to cut costs in the management of the visas operation which in turn helps to keep visa fees down, and it is also a safer system for both customers and staff as it reduces the risk associated with handling large amounts of cash during the visa application process. 

 

Currently in Thailand it is only possible for customers to pay for their visa in US dollars although we expect further currency options to be made available as we progress.

 

 

We have considered all options carefully and chosen the most beneficial for all concerned.  The currency options are not driven by the UK Government but by global financial services markets, banking regulations and operational requirements within our global visa services network and our online payment service providers. Alternative currency measures may involve high-cost local arrangements with the banks and online payment providers in each country, which when added to the visa application fee would make the process substantially more expensive for all applicants. This would far outweigh the currency conversion fees suffered by applicants who do not own a payment card intended primarily for use in the required currency.

 

UKVI will not refund currency conversion fees or processing charges levied by card issuers.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

 

 

xxxxxxxxx

MPs Account Managers Team | Midlands, East of England & International Responder Hub

[Trevor1809]

Nice to see that in 2014 Croydon actually replied to letters. Now they just throw them straight in the bin.

[theoldgit]

A number of bickering posts removed, give it a rest guys.

[sandyf]

I had a look at the website and it would appear that payment currency for visa fees is based on the "quality", for the want of a better word, of the local currency. Countries like India, Pakistan,China and Singapore get to pay in the local currency whereas places like Thailand, Malaysia and Russia with a 'more exotic' currency must pay in USD.

Kuwait has the most valuable currency in the world but it is still regarded as exotic and they pay in USD.

Applications originating in Gibraltar are paid for in GBP but from the Falklands it is USD.

[sandyf]

Made the payment for visitor visa today and still at the 116 USD as shown a couple of weeks ago.

Current payment options are Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, Paypal and Skrill.

[7by7]

So at today's exchange rate of 1 USD = 0.780244 GBP, you paid £90.50 (plus your bank's foreign currency transaction fee) when the fee set by Parliament is £89!

 

Now an extra £1.50 is not a lot, but it's 1.69%. Apply that to a settlement visa and it adds another £24.16 to an exorbitant fee which in Sterling is already, using UKVI's own figures, 3.5 times the actual cost of processing!

 

Again, some may say £24.16 is not a lot; but this extra income from the exchange rate rip off is a nice little earner for UKVI!