"It’s not my story, it’s every migrant's story"

"It’s not my story, it’s every migrant's story"

Dreaming of a better life, Mictin Ponmala, a National Health Service nurse, has watched those dreams crumble under the weight of constant increases to visa fees, which have left him struggling to make ends meet.

When NHS delegates came to his home region of Kerala, in Southwest India, in 2017, looking to recruit staff, Mictin attended the interview. During it they explained much about the United Kingdom, including its culture and the type of work he would be doing. They left out what the visa terms and conditions would be though.

Mictin describes coming to the UK as a “smooth process”. It took him about seven months to pass all the examinations needed, and his visa fees and Immigration Health Surcharge were all covered by the NHS, for his first arrival. 

“They just want to bring us here after that they don’t look after us,” Mictin now says. The issues surfaced when his visa was about to run out and Mictin had to cover the thousands of pounds needed for renewal fees. The delegates who visited Kerala had failed to mention that he would have to pay the fees, leaving Mictin to only find out when he was already working in the UK as a nurse. 

Like many workers, Mictin found out he was left on his own. The reason for that lies in the NHS having a lot of workers and he claims that they “can’t accommodate this many people”. 

What’s more, when Mictin’s wife joined him in the UK, they had to cover her visa application costs in full. At the time those fees amounted to £700 for the visa and £200 for Immigration Health Surcharge. While this was expensive years ago, costs have risen dramatically since: today, an application for a 2.5-year visa, inclusive of Immigration Health Surcharge, costs £2,608 per person. With the increases proposed by the government this July, the price would be around £3,790.

Three years later, Mictin and his wife moved to Luton as she settled for a job; by then, the Immigration Health Surcharge had doubled to £400. The application fee and health surcharge are not the only costs migrants face: Mictin and his wife paid approximately £140 just for an appointment to submit the application; many also pay to submit their biometrics (necessary for the application), other necessary documents and, often, solicitor’s fees to make sure they submit the application correctly. A 2022 Migrant Voice report on the impact of visa costs on migrants found that people regularly spend thousands of pounds in visa costs before they are able to settle in the UK, with many spending more than £20,000 for themselves and their families, often risking being forced into debt and destitution.

Along the way, whenever Mictin changed between different areas of the NHS for a better job offer, the visa would be changed, and the fees had to be paid. 

Mictin’s journey as a migrant took an even harder twist when he applied for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) last year. The costs were eye-watering, as the application fee was around £2,404, adding around £500 for a fast track to avoid losing his passport to the Home Office until he received a decision, £140 for an appointment, and £70 for checking the documents. There is no place for mistakes as there are no refunds, and any small error would lead to the whole process being repeated.

The visa costs and the inflated living expenses by itself have made Mictin’s financial state challenging. His wife and son have not applied for the indefinite leave to remain as it was too expensive for all three of them to do. They have not been able to visit home for years, which has understandably impacted on their mental health.

The visa demands might push Mictin and his wife towards a cultural dilemma. Mictin’s child was born in the UK during Covid, and the son hasn’t visited India yet as the family could not afford travelling, instead having to save their money to cover the rising visa costs. There is no difference in cost between a child’s visa and an adults, and while applying for a British citizenship would be a cheaper option than paying for ILR, Mictin and his child would have to let go of their Indian citizenship. Holding onto one’s identity and roots seems also to come with a cost. 

The extortionate costs, now set to increase even more, have pushed many NHS workers to leave the country they were invited to work in, Mictin says. Eventually, the outcomes of this crisis would not be restricted only to NHS migrant workers, but “ultimately patients” would be affected as well.

Mictin himself has experienced the effects of NHS shortages. When his child needed emergency treatment, he had to wait for two hours in the queue and about seven hours before his son could be treated. 

Mictin has led a campaign that was debated in Parliament to shed light at the unjust policy towards migrants when it comes to visa fees. The petition asked for a reduction in the ILR fee for NHS workers, but MPs debating the issue insisted that high fees are necessary to finance the whole visa and immigration system.

According to the overseas nurse, they are recruiting healthcare assistants with a starting salary of £20,000 and nurses are getting £28,000. Mictin asks, “How come they are expecting a minimum wage person to pay this much of fees?”

Mictin points out at the “illogical” system that the government is following when it proposed to increase visa fees to pay for salary increases for workers in the public sector – many of whom are migrants and pay visa fees themselves. “They want to increase the pay for NHS workers by 5% by taking around 15-20% more on visa costs. How much are we losing here?” 

Mictin is speaking out because he has built his life here: his son was born here, his wife has a job here. He wants to stay in the UK, but the rising price of visas alongside the daily demands are becoming more than what a person can handle. He is seriously considering moving to a different country, as he does not know how he will be able to afford the increased fees.

By and large, Mictin says that the expectations he had when he was planning to come to the UK have proven wrong. Invited here and hoping for a better life, he now says: “I am using an old phone, wearing cheap clothes, and ended up struggling here”.

The current visa and immigration system is incredibly hard to navigate and many policies are openly hostile. With the proposed visa fees increases, many more will struggle to make ends -meet. Similar to every migrant story, “People come here to survive but it’s not a good country to survive in at the moment”.

Photo: Courtesy of Mictin Ponmala