Birmingham network meeting

Birmingham network meeting

Family life applications for permanent residence take 10 years and cost well over £10,000 each.

Come and join the discussion at our next Migrant Voice Birmingham and West Midlands network meeting to hear experiences of how this is affecting our communities:

We will look at the impact of the ever increasing cost of immigration and visa fees on individuals and families - both British and migrants. The meeting will take place on Wednesday 6 March, 6.00-8.30pm at Saathi House, 49 Bevington Road, Birmingham B6 6HR.

Speakers include legal and community professionals alongside people affected by Home Office fees.

While we at Migrant Voice welcome the announcement from the government to make EEA settled status applications free, we are concerned by the level of inflation in charges for all other immigration related applications.

Examples include the increases in the family life applications, the doubling of the immigration health surcharge from £200 to £400 a year on top of the £1,000 cost of the application. And this must be renewed four times over a 10 year period at the cost of just over £2,000 per applicant every 2.5 years.

As noted by Barrister Colin Yeo, the current fee for an indefinite leave to remain (ILR) application is £2,389 and a naturalisation application £1,330, while the cost to the Home Office of processing an ILR application is £243 and a naturalisation application £372.

The application fee for registering a child as British in 2018/19 has now broken through the £1,000 barrier, but the cost to the Home Office is again £372.

This is a great burden on many local residents in the West Midlands as well as other residents and citizens across the country who often have to rely on churches, mosques and family members to meet the cost of the Home Office fees. It not only costs the local authorities millions as families unable to pay become stuck in emergency accommodation, but the human cost is immeasurable.

I hope you can join us to discuss solutions and actions to challenge the excessive fees and reduce the burden on communities.

To confirm your attendance email [email protected] or 

Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/migrant-voice-home-office-fees-increase-tickets-56713517658