Fast UK Visa Renewals Offered to the Rich

Apparently international bankers and footballers who would like to extend their stay in the UK, are being offered a £15,000 premium visa renewal service. This visa service is being offered as part of a massive increase in emigration fees announced by the Home Office.

Ministers are also almost doubling the fees for migrants who apply to bring elderly parents from abroad to live with them to more than £1,900. There will also be a new separate 10 percent charge for every child. Phil Woolas, the emigration minister, justified the sharp increase in emigration and nationality fees to be introduced in April. He said that it was only fair that those who benefit from using the emigration system help fund it.

The £15,000 premium service is available for the super rich and will enable them to avoid the repeated delays and humiliations that have become routine for UK visa and nationality applicants. The UK Boarder Agency is offering to visit highly skilled emigrants at their office or home to sort out their emigration papers, including taking a new biometric photograph and fingerprints.

The Home Office did admit that the premium £15,000 price tag is far in excess of the £1,982 cost of providing the mobile biometric enrollment and case working service. Fifty appointments will be made available in the first 12 months from this April as part of a pilot scheme to test the revenue raising potential.

The basic cost of visas for emigrants applying to settle in the UK will also increase from £585 to £644. For the people already in Britain, the cost of applying for indefinite leave to remain will rise from £820 to £840, and for applying to become a British citizen will increase from £640 to £655.