Immigration Update: Proposed Fees Increase

The UK Border Agency has announced today that it is proposing fee increases for visas and applications made from within the UK.  These new fees will take effect from 6 April 2012, subject to parliamentary approval.

The fees will increase from £1,025 to £1,500 for a large sponsor licence and from £310 to £500 for small sponsors and charities.

As mentioned in our alert on 23 December, the new optional premium customer service will be rolled out slightly later than previously planned, in April.  The annual fee for this service will be £25,000.  A more limited premium service will be offered to small sponsors for £8,000 a year.

The majority of increases will be limited to approximately 2% and fees paid by dependants, for applications made within the UK, will remain at their current level of 50% of a main applicant's fee.  However, notable fee increases are as follows:-

• Tier 1 General Extensions will increase by 50% from £1,000 to £1,500
• Tier 2 visas will increase from £400 to £480
• Tier 2 Intra Company Transfers for less than 12 months will increase from £350 to £400 

A copy of the full fees table can be found via the link below.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/aboutus/fees-spring-2012.pdf

For more information please contact: Nicolas Rollason