For all of you who are resident in the UK but not citizens and have missed the news, the Home Office is raising application fees as of the first of April, in some cases very substantially. All visa costs are going up, however, including all the basic work and student visas. (Details here. The Home Office has only published this list in PDF, which isn't nearly so elegant to link to.)
Notable changes include raising the cost of applying for Indefinite Leave to Remain from £335 to £750; the price of naturalization application rises from £200 to £575. The price of a student visa will change from £250 to £295.
Also, as of April 2nd, anyone applying for indefinite leave to remain will need to take the "Life in the UK" exam first.
While technically these fees are still only "proposed", odds are high that they will be implemented.
(Thank you to the two of you who brought this to my attention. It doesn't immediately affect me. The Home Office still has several years to raise their fees again before I'm eligible to apply for anything else here.)
Notable changes include raising the cost of applying for Indefinite Leave to Remain from £335 to £750; the price of naturalization application rises from £200 to £575. The price of a student visa will change from £250 to £295.
Also, as of April 2nd, anyone applying for indefinite leave to remain will need to take the "Life in the UK" exam first.
While technically these fees are still only "proposed", odds are high that they will be implemented.
(Thank you to the two of you who brought this to my attention. It doesn't immediately affect me. The Home Office still has several years to raise their fees again before I'm eligible to apply for anything else here.)
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owlfish- S. Worthen
- S. Worthen
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Doesn't that make you feel warm and fuzzy?
There are also changes to the fees charged for visa applications done outside the country. Looking at the official UK Visas site, those changes are defineitely going in. UK Visas item on it here.
I need to get a new LTR visa for my new Work Permit in the next couple months. The price difference between in country LTR and out of country LTE was big enough before that I was planning to check with the home office whether doing it as a LTE from the US would cause problems when I go to add up my years on WP/HSMP for ILR in another 4 yrs or so (have almost 1 yr of the 5 done at this point...) - Cos with a price difference as it was - that was £335 for LTR vs. £85 for LTE - which nearly pays for the airfare on a trip back to the states!
Now... after April 1, not so much so... £350 LTR vs. £200 LTE. (Work permit LTR is going up less than some other categories, provided one applies via the post of course...)
Bloody glad I hadn't already booked flights for an appointment *after* April Fool's Day and stuff based on the old prices working to my advantage
Time to figure out what I'm doing for certain... which might be "take a trip home REAL SOON" ;-)
That's a hard call - especially given how far in March we are already - and can you get an appointment in time? I imagine there's more of a rush than usual just now - but may be worth a try anyways.
the bigger issue is- if it turns out to make sense to do it, can I get the time off work at such short notice?
you need to take the life in the UK exam because it's compulsory for people applying for indefinite leave/citizenship.
If you live in the UK on a work visa, regardless of being married, then work visa charges and renewals are all you need to worry about.
If you get married and want to switch visa status on those grounds, there are two possibilities.
1. If you get married and want to change visa status very shortly after moving over, you may have to apply for "limited leave to remain", a two year residency visa. I don't know if this is true or not for you if you arrive on a work visa. It probably isn't relevant, but I simply don't know.
2. The other option is to apply for indefinite leave to remain. This is a visa which lets you live in the UK with no limitations on when you have to leave. Its expiration date is tied to that of your passport. I don't know when you'd become eligible for it - certainly within two years of moving here, I would think, if not sooner. If your work visa lasts at least five years, you may not want to bother with ILR.
ILR is NOT the same thing as citizenship. It's the equivalent of Canadian "landed immigrant" status. It means you can live and work here or study or be unemployed and not be constantly renewing visas. It also means if you ever lost your job here, you wouldn't be thrown out.
Thus you might need to eventually take the "Life in the UK" exam, should you ever decide to apply for the ILR visa.
Note: if your passport expires in the next 2 or 3 years, you may wish to get it renewed now to avoid extra visa transfer applications, again, depending on the length of the visa you're applying for.