The substantial fees that applicants have to pay to apply for leave to enter or remain in the UK is set to rise again from Thursday. An application for Indefinite Leave to Remain will now cost £2,297. This is the highest the fee has ever been, rising above the £2,000 mark for the first time. Made last Thursday and laid before Parliament on Monday, the speed at which these changes will be implemented is not new to experienced immigration solicitors working in the UK.
Sheona York, Solicitor at the Kent Law Clinic, highlights the concerning fact that clients are faced with a situation where the costs of the applications they need to make are rising faster than they are able to save money for them. The following example is given to demonstrate the impact that these fees have on clients and the legal professionals advising them:
Think of a single parent mother with two children who meets the requirements to gain indefinite leave to remain in the UK. Under the 2016 Regulations, today this mother would have to pay £5,625. As of Thursday, the cost to the family will be £6,891. The £1,266 difference is remarkable. It is not difficult to imagine she would be unable to afford these costs. This mother, like many of our clients and a vast number of hopeful applicants, are therefore faced with very difficult questions:
- Does the mother apply for leave to remain for just herself, knowing and allowing her children to become unlawfully present? Once granted indefinite leave, she will be able to apply for British citizenship for her children, costing significantly less than the application for indefinite leave would cost. However, no solicitor will be able to advise or assist her in making this application.
- Does the mother apply for all three of them to gain a further period of limited leave to remain? This will cost less than the application for indefinite leave to remain but will require a similar decision to be made again in 2 and a half years, as the new period of limited leave comes to an end.
There are a couple of interesting points to note from this dilemma.
Firstly, from the solicitor’s point of view. A solicitor cannot ethically advise or allow an individual to become unlawfully present in the UK, or allow others to become unlawfully present. No solicitor would therefore be able to advise the mother in this scenario to take the first approach outlined above. This is true despite the fact that the solicitor may see this approach as the only way the family can, within their current resources, secure their status in the UK and avoid having to make fresh applications every 30 months.
Secondly, from the point of view of the mother. The mother is faced with the ethical dilemma of deciding whether to secure her own status, allowing her children to become unlawfully present, but hoping to ensure the long-term status of the family; or continuing to apply every 30 months for limited leave for them all, providing less long-term security and costing the family more money. Taking the first approach comes with the additional difficulty of less professional support, as qualified solicitors are required to advise against it.
Thirdly, from the point of view of the Secretary of State. Government policy aims for the visas and immigration services to be self-funding. Therefore, the fees that are set and increased each year are levied with the intention of covering the costs to the Home Office associated with them. When coupled with the fact that the Home Office has a backlog of such applications to deal with, it is bemusing that fees should be set that trap people in a situation where they qualify for indefinite leave to remain but are forced to make an application for limited leave every 2.5 years because that is the only thing they can afford to do. This entrapment causes the Home Office more work as they have to deal with the fresh applications every 2.5 years.
The new Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Regulations 2017, drawn up by the Secretary of State, replace a similar set of regulations made in February 2016. This table sets out each of the new fees that will cost an individual over £1,000, and a comparison to the fee for the same application under the 2016 Regulations:
| Application Type | New Cost | 2016 Cost |
| Application for entry clearance as Tier 1 (Investor) Migrant | £1,561 | £1,530 |
| Application for entry clearance as –
a) a Tier 2 (General) Migrant; or b) Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) Long Term Staff Migrant, Where a certificate of sponsorship has been issued for a period of more than 3 years |
£1,174 | £1,151 |
| Application for entry clearance on a route to settlement in the United Kingdom (that being an application made with a view to becoming ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom without being subject to any restriction on the period for which an individual may remain there) | £1,464 | £1,195 |
| Application for entry clearance as a parent, grandparent or other dependant relative of a person present and settled in the UK | £3,250 | £2,676 |
| Application for indefinite leave to enter the UK as a dependant of a member of HM Forces | £2,297 | £1,875 |
| Application for limited leave to remain in the UK as a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) Migrant | £1,228 | £1,204 |
| Application for limited leave to remain in the UK as a Tier 1 (Investor) Migrant | £1,561 | £1,530 |
| Application for limited leave to remain in the UK as –
a) a Tier 2 (General) Migrant; or b) Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) Long Term Staff Migrant, Where a certificate of sponsorship has been issued for a period of more than 3 years |
£1,354 | £1,328 |
| Application for limited leave to remain in the UK as a retired person of independent means | £1,874 | £1,530 |
| Application for limited leave to remain in the UK as the dependent of a Tier 1 (General) Migrant | £1,806 | £1,771 |
| Application for indefinite leave to remain in the UK | £2,297 | £1,875 |
The 2017 Regulations do not only refer to applications for leave to enter and remain in the UK. Schedule 8 sets out further increased fees for applications relating to nationality. Here is a snapshot of those fees:
| Application to naturalise as a British citizen | £1,202 | £1,156 |
| Application for registration as a British citizen under the 1981 or 1997 Acts, where the applicant is over 18 years of age | £1,083 | £1,041 |
| Application for registration as a British citizen under the 1981 or 1997 Acts, where the applicant is a child at the time of the application | £973 | £936 |
| Registration of a declaration of renunciation of British citizenship | £321 | £272 |
By Hannah Lennox, Solicitor’s Assistant