UK hikes visa fees, health surcharge for Nigerians, others

The United Kingdom government has increased the visa application fee paid by Nigerians and other immigrants.

The UK government also declared that the Immigration Health Surcharge paid by immigrants applying for visas will “increase significantly”.

The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who made the announcement on Thursday, July 13, said 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.

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, however, stated that the move will have no effect on inflation as there would be no new borrowing or spending to fund the increases.

The UK government noted that the surcharge – paid as part of a visa application – will go up to £1,035, while the cost of work and visit visas will go up by 15 per cent.

The cost of study visas, certificates of sponsorship, wide entry clearance, leave-to-remain and priority visas, and others, will also rise by at least 20 per cent.

The Star