The United Kingdom has said that its visiting visa will now cost N112,000 from its previous N14,000 and student visas will now cost a whopping N477,000 as opposed to N123,000.
The recent increase earmarks an over 600 per cent increment in visa prices by the UK. The UK government explained that the increase would enable it to pay for “vital services and allow more funding to be prioritised for public sector pay rises.”
In a statement published Friday on its website, the UK Home Office said the increase in new visa fees is “set to come into effect next month.”
The statement added that, “The changes mean that the cost for a visit visa for less than six months is rising by £15 (N14,592.70) to £115 (N111,878.28 ), while the fee for applying for a student visa from outside the UK will rise by £127 (N123,537.58) to £490 (N476,677.59), to equal the amount charged for in-country applications.”
The new changes also affect the majority of fees for entry clearance and applications for leave to remain in the UK, including those for work and study.
The recent changes are coming less than six months after the UK government increased the cost of visa applications and health surcharges In July, the UK government announced a 15 per cent increase in the cost of work and visit visas. It also announced a 20 per cent increase in cost of study visas, priority visas and certificates of sponsorship.
“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,” Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, had said in July.
The recent statement by the UK Home Office explained that the income from fees plays a vital role in its ability to run a sustainable immigration and nationality system.
“Today’s changes do not include the planned increase to the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) which are scheduled to be introduced later in the Autumn,” the statement added.
The new visa prices would become effective from October 4, and are subject to parliamentary approval.
