UK visa fee hike for visitors, students to be effective from October 45Photo© thehindu.com

UK visa fee hike for visitors, students to be effective from October 4

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Following legislation tabled in Parliament on Friday, the UK Home Office said the changes mean that the cost for a visit visa for less than six months will rise to GBP 115 and the fee for applying for a student visa from outside the UK will rise to GBP 490 – to equal the amount charged for in-country applications.

It comes after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had announced in July 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,” he said at the time.