The Government recently raised already eye-wateringly high visa fees and charges again, leaving a family of four facing a bill of over £10,000 every few years. Even before this hike, people who have migrated to the UK were facing some of the highest visa fees in the world.
Instead of ensuring that everyone who needs it can get help during this cost-of-living crisis, the Government are intent on treating some people in our communities as cash cows to be tapped whenever the need arises, regardless of how long they’ve been living here or whether they’re working and paying taxes.
At Praxis, we see people every day who have been forced into terrible hardship by these costs. Desperate parents juggling multiple jobs who still don’t have enough to feed or clothe their children because they need to save for their visa renewal. Children growing up in cold, overcrowded homes, whose parents can’t afford anything else because all the money is going to the Home Office.
There is a fairer way. The Government could choose to cut visa fees and charges, instead of hiking them, so that people are only expected to cover the actual cost of processing their application.
Most MPs don’t know much about the extortionate visa fees, or the damaging effects they have on people in our communities.