The government has published the previously announced new application fees on 13 July 2023. The statement explains that the increase was made "to pay for essential services and to prioritise more funding for public sector pay increases." The explanatory memorandum provides additional information: "A 15-20% increase is sought across a variety of immigration and nationality products and services in order to significantly contribute to the Home Office's wider funding objectives."

The changes include:

• Fees for up to 6 months, 2, 5 and 10 year visit visas.
• The 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.
• Convention travel document and stateless person’s travel document.
• Health and Care visa.
• Fees in relation to certificates of sponsorship and confirmation of acceptance for studies.
• The in and out of country fee for the super-priority service and the out of country fee for the priority service. The settlement priority service will be reduced so it is aligned with the cost of using the priority service.
• Applications to Register and Naturalise as a British Citizen.
• The fee for the User Pays Visa Application service.

Subject to Parliamentary approval, the immigration and nationality fees will increase from 4 October 2023. Today’s changes do not include the planned increase to the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) which is scheduled to be introduced later in the Autumn.

This increase will apply to both applications for entry clearance submitted from outside the UK and applications for leave to remain, Settlement and citizenship submitted from within the UK.

Visitor route: up by 15% from £100 to £115

15% increase to fees on visit routes, with the exception of visits for up to 2 years, where a 6 % increase is applied to ensure that the new fee is within the bounds of the fee maximum that was in force at the time the increases were agreed cross-Government, as set out in the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Order 2016.

Worker route: up by 15%

15% increase to fees on work routes including Skilled worker, Innovator founder, Hight potential individual, UK expansion worker, Global Talent, and Scale-up routes. In some cases, a proportionally lower fee increase is being made to ensure that the new fee is within the bounds of fee maxima that were in force at the time the increases were agreed.

Student route: up by 35% from £363 to £490

Alignment of fees on the student route, with the out of country fee increased by 35 % to align with the in-country fee (which is at the level of fee maximum that was in force at the time these increases were agreed).

Settlement: up by 20% from £2,404 to £2,885

20% increase on the Route to Settlement and applications for British citizenship. A lower 4% increase is applied to the fee for ‘Route to Settlement – Refugee Dependent Relative’, to reflect the recent refresh of unit costs published in April 2022 in line with the historical policy position to endeavour to set these fees at the unit cost.

Priority or Super Priority Service: 100% increase

Alignment of fees charged for optional PV and SPV expedited application processing services, across applications made in and out of the country. PV will be aligned at £500 and SPV at £1000. This results in a 100% increase in PV fees charged out-of-country and a 25% increase in SPV fees charged in the UK, as well as a 13% decrease in the fee charged for the Priority Settlement service in the UK.

Not all UK visa application fees are increasing.

For example, the cost of applying for a private medical treatment visa for more than six months will continue at £200, while the cost of applying for a Hong Kong BN(O) visa for five years will remain at £250.

The Home Office fee for a worker sponsor licence application and a temporary worker sponsor licence application will remain unchanged at £536 for a small sponsor and £1,476 for a large sponsor. The cost of issuing a certificate of sponsorship is expected to increase by 19% to 20%.

Immigration Health Surcharge Fee Increase

Later this autumn, the immigration health surcharge will increase from £624 to £1,035 annually. This is subject to a separate procedure than the application fee increase, as both Houses of Parliament must vote to approve the changes, so its implementation will take longer.

The majority of adjustments are scheduled to take effect on 4 October 2023, with two exceptions. New route 'Appendix Gurkha and Hong Kong military unit veteran discharged before 1 July 1997' will be added to the rules on 5 October 2023, at which time the £1,846 fee will become applicable. The £10 fee for an Electronic Travel Authorization goes into effect on October 25, 2023, which is also the date when applications can be submitted.

ARIS International Lawyers are UK immigration experts and advise all types of UK visa applicants. If you need advice on applying for entry clearance, further leave to remain or extension in the UK, or applying for settlement, please leave a message or call 020 3865 6219.