symbolic picture
London:
The British government has announced an increase in visa fees for visitors and students coming to the country from around the world, including India, and the increase will be effective from October 4. Visitors will now pay £15 more for a visit visa of less than six months and £127 more for a student visa.
Also read
Britain’s Home Office said after tabling the ordinance in parliament on Friday that the changes mean the cost of a visa for a visit of less than six months will rise to £115 and student visa applicants will now have to spend £490.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in July announced major increases in fees and health surcharges paid by visa applicants to the UK-funded National Health Service (NHS) to meet the country’s public sector pay rise.
Sunak said at the time, “We are going to increase the fees charged for applying for visas for immigrants coming to this country. “It’s actually called the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS), which is a levy they pay to access the NHS.”
Britain’s Home Office this week proposed a 15 percent increase in the price of most work and travel visas and at least a 20 percent increase in the price of priority visas, study visas and certificates of sponsorship.
The fee increase has been implemented across most visa categories, including health and care visas.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by the NDTV team and is published directly from the syndicate feed.)