Home Office Immigration and Nationality Fees 2016-17

Here is the letter received today from the Home office regarding new fees

Dear colleague,

I am writing to inform you that, on 11th January 2016, legislation was laid in Parliament, which enables the Home Office to make future changes to visa, immigration and nationality application fees over the next four years. This includes fees for premium services. This legislation also sets maximum levels that can be charged by the Home Office for broad categories of fees within the next four years. We have no plans to raise fees to the maximum amounts.
Individual fees will change for 2016-17; these will be introduced after further legislation is laid in Parliament before April 2016. This letter provides you with further information on the proposed changes; further detail is available at www.gov.uk/government/news/new-immigration-and-nationality-fees-for-2016-to-2017
It is our intention to reduce taxpayer contributions towards the Border, Immigration and Citizenship system and ensure that by 2019-2020 the system is self funded by those who access services. This intention was outlined in the Government’s recent Spending Review.
The Home Office has given careful consideration to striking the right balance in revising fee levels. We must balance our aims of supporting growth in the UK through delivery of a visa system that attracts visitors to the UK and welcomes the ‘brightest and best’ migrants from around the world to do business and invest in the UK, whilst ensuring that those who directly benefit from accessing services within the system make an appropriate contribution to the costs.
In summary, for 2016-17:
• Visas linked most closely to economic growth, such as those offered to workers and students, will be restricted to an increase of 2%.
• In recognition of the UK’s position as one of the world’s top tourist destinations and to help maintain this position amongst our competitors, a 2% increase will apply to all visit visas.
• Fees for all sponsorship categories will be held at the current rates.
In order to maintain competitiveness by protecting growth routes from higher increases, other fees will be increased to help us move to a self-funding system. These include:
• Up to 25% increases for settlement and nationality fees. These products deliver the most benefits to successful applicants, for example indefinite leave to remain in the UK, full access to free healthcare and other public services, and unrestricted access to the labour market.
• Up to 33% for optional premium services offered by the Home Office such as the super premium service and priority visa services overseas
We are confident that our proposed fee increases strike the right balance between ensuring we continue to provide a competitive level of service and maintaining a fees structure that remains attractive to businesses, migrants and visitors.
Improving our services
We have significantly improved the range and quality of services to meet the needs of applicants and partners, both in the UK and overseas. This work will continue as we look to develop additional services that improve the customer experience.
Already 95% of visit visa applications are decided within 15 working days and we are extending the range of premium services offering an even faster and more flexible service. Our Premium Service Centre opening hours have been extended and we offer a personalised account management service for sponsors. We have also recently achieved customer excellence accreditation right across UK Visas and Immigration.
All of this will continue as we seek to improve and develop our services, ensuring our offering is both competitive with other countries and attractive to customers.
Should you have any queries in respect of the fee increases, or would like to discuss any particular areas of interest, please contact me at feesandincomeplanning.requests@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Yours faithfully,

Hannah Witty
Acting Director of Finance

Net migration to the UK hits record high of 336,000

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has revealed that net migration to the UK hit a record high of 336,000 for the 12 months ending in June 2015. David Cameron’s government aims to get net migration down to five figures by 2020. The last time net migration fell below the 100,000 mark was 18 years ago, in 1997, coincidentally the year Conservatives lost office after 18 years.

According to the data from ONS:

Net migration of European Union (EU) citizens showed an increase of 42,000 to 180,000;
Net migration from countries outside the EU is also up 36,000 to 201,000;
Two thirds of migrants had a definite job;
Two thirds of the immigration increase is attributed to EU citizens who are mainly coming to the UK for work;
The numbers coming to study have remained stable at 192,000.

The figures show high levels of immigration from EU countries. Britain is unable to limit these numbers under the current EU rules so it is difficult to see how the Government can make good their promise, which they first gave in 2010 when they came to power after 13 years of Labour rule. David Cameron is renegotiating with the EU to reform welfare benefits available to EU nationals to make Britain less attractive to EU migrants. The government also plans extensive reforms to the Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa and Tier 2 visa routes. Changes to immigration rules are likely to be introduced in April 2016.

Our current view is there is no way the Government can make good on their promise, short of leaving the EU. Watch this space.

Good news for UK employers! The minimum salary requirement for Tier 2 restricted CoS applications has returned to normal for the first time since June 2015

November 24, 2015

Five months after requests for Tier 2 restricted CoS first overwhelmed the number of skilled worker visas available to employers each month, the minimum salary requirement for this UK immigration route has finally returned to its original, and lowest possible level.

Recently published figures show that a whopping 2,100 restricted Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) were granted this month, as applications needed to score only 21 points and offer a salary no lower than £20,800 to the migrant employees in question, in order to become eligible for consideration.

This comes as a huge relief to UK employers who earlier this year experienced the shock of a £46,000 minimum salary requirement and a point score of at least 50, meaning that many applications were not considered for allocation at all.

These almost impossible requirements were the result of the monthly demand for restricted CoS outstripping supply in June 2015. Similar levels of over subscription have been seen every month since, and the Home Office consequently prioritised those requests which scored the most points.

This meant that over the past five months, the higher the salary offered by a restricted CoS application, the more points it would score and the higher the chances were of it being granted.

However this month’s figures suggest that recent changes to the system are indeed working.

Following the ensuing chaos, the Home office introduced new measures in order to maximise the system’s reach and to prevent a similar situation from occurring again. A new points table was unveiled just in time for October’s allocation which allows applications greater opportunity to accrue points.

These measures also enable the Home Office to reclaim any unused restricted CoS from employers if they have not been used during the first three months following their initial issuance. So far, this has proven to be very effective in freeing up a good portion of unused restricted CoS on a monthly basis, with 15% of November’s restricted CoS and 28% of October’s having already been reclaimed and reissued to new employers.