The visa fees for the UK are set to go up significantly for applicants from around the world, including Indians. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday said that the fees and health surcharge paid towards the UK’s state-funded National Health Service (NHS) by visa applicants are set to rise to meet the country’s public sector wage increase.
The Indian-origin British premier was under pressure to accept the recommendation of an independent review of pay for teachers, police, junior doctors, and other public sector workers. Today, he confirmed a hike between 5 and 7 per cent across the board. However, Sunak stressed that this would not be met with higher government borrowing for fear of further stoking high inflation and therefore the costs would need to be found elsewhere.
“If we are going to prioritise paying public sector workers more, that money has to come from somewhere else because I’m not prepared to put up people’s taxes and I don’t think it would be responsible or right to borrow more because that would just make inflation worse,” the prime minister told reporters at a Downing Street press conference.
“So, what we have done are two things to find this money. The first is, 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.
“All of those fees are going to go up and that will raise over GBP 1 billion, so across the board visa application fees are going to go up significantly and similarly for the IHS,” he said, adding that this was “entirely right” as these fees have not been increased recently and the government believes it is appropriate given that the costs have risen since the last hike.
Sunak has been under pressure with disputes over the public sector pay, leading to a series of strikes over the past year hitting schools and hospitals. In fact, junior doctors in England began another five-day strike on Thursday after their demands for a 35 per cent pay hike were rejected. In his wage announcement, the prime minister warned that his offer was “final” and further industrial action would not change that decision.
(With inputs from PTI)
