Substantial Hike In UK Visa Fees For Visitors, Students; To Be Effective From This Date

London: The British government has announced that a proposed hike in visa fees will become effective from October 4.

A tourist visa for up to six months will cost 15 pounds (GBP) more while students will have to shell out an additional 127 GBP, reported PTI.

The increased visa fees will be applicable for travellers from around the world, including Indians, according to legislation tabled in Parliament on Friday.

UK Home Office said the cost for a tourist visa for less than six months will now be 115 GBP (around Rs 13,000) and the fee for applying for a student visa from outside the UK will be 490 GBP (around Rs 50.400).

Kin July, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had announced that the fees and health surcharge paid towards the UK’s state-funded National Health Service (NHS) by visa applicants are set to rise “significantly” to meet the country’s public sector wage increase.

“We are going to increase the charges that we have for migrants who are coming to this country when they apply for visas and indeed something called the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS), which is the levy that they pay to access the NHS,” Sunak had said.

“All of those fees are going to go up and that will raise over 1 billion GBP, so across the board visa application fees are going to go up significantly and similarly for the IHS,” he said.

Hike in fees applies across most visa categories including health and care visa, applications to register and naturalise as a British citizen, fees for up to 6 months, 2, 5 and 10-year visit visas.

The hike also applies for majority of fees for entry clearance and certain applications for leave to remain in the UK, including those for work and study, fees for indefinite leave to enter and indefinite leave to remain, and fees in relation to certificates of sponsorship and confirmation of acceptance for studies.