A London father living in temporary accommodation with his wife and four children will have to pay more than £17,000 to keep his family in the UK after the Government’s planned visa fee hike for those on the 10-year route to settlement.
On Wednesday the Home Office raised fees by up to 35 per cent for most visas to live, work and study in the UK and has indicated it will raise fees by 20 per cent for those on the 10-year visa route to gain indefinite leave to remain, like Felix Tabiri.
The security guard, 53, believes he will have to pay around £17,284 in immigration costs for his wife and three children under the age of 11 to continue living in London under the planned increase. His step daughter is a British citizen.
The costs include the Government’s planned 66 per cent hike in an annual healthcare surcharge most migrants have to pay.
“These fees are really, really going to have a severe impact on families [and] family life. There is no way people will be able to live in this country,” the Ghanaian national told the Standard.
“It’s sad to hear the Government is trying to do all these [changes].
“We are here already, we’ve got our children, but even those without families, there is no way they can afford these fees.”
Families who are not eligible for the five-year route to residency in the UK, but have immediate family or long-term ties to the UK, can apply for indefinite leave to remain under a 10-year route.
It is often the route taken by parents who have children who are British citizens and have lived in the UK for seven years.
Families must apply for limited leave to remain every 2.5 years, meaning four visa applications have to be paid for over 10 years before they are eligible to apply for settlement.
The 10 year route came into effect in 2012 so many families were eligible to apply for settlement in 2022.
But Mr Tabiri said there are many families, who already struggled to pay previous visa fees, who are at risk of going undocumented to stay in the UK.
Mr Tabiri said he has already taken out loans to pay previous visa fees, and is applying for a visa fee waiver with the help of migrant charity Praxis because he cannot afford the increased cost.
“There is no way you’ll be able to do it because even finding food for your children is a headache and then being able to save to pay for the visa is going to be very hard.”
Mr Tabiri, his wife and children aged 10, eight, three and one, have lived in temporary accommodation for more than 10 months because of the unaffordable living and visa costs.
The family previously had to share one room at a friend’s house to make ends meet, a situation Mr Tabiri said had an impact on his daughter’s academic progress.
He has lived in the UK since 2003.
Mr Tabiri has a severe heart problem and visits the hospital “almost every day”.
He said: “There is no way I can survive if I am to leave this country, and my children too.
“If you have a child who has been born here, 11 years ago, and all of sudden [they have to leave], to me that would be very unfair.”
The Government’s Immigration and Nationality Regulations 2023 states: “It is the intention of the Government to implement a 20 per cent increase to wider Limited Leave to Remain fees, namely the £1,048 fee.
“However, due to the need for further technical arrangements to be put in place to ensure that all applicants can pay the correct level of fee, it has not been possible to include this increase in these Regulations.
“It remains the Government’s intention to implement this increase when it is feasible to do so, through the laying of further Regulations in due course.”
The health surcharge will rise by 66 per cent to £1,035 a year at a date to be confirmed, a Government briefing on immigration fees said.
“The legal process for increasing this takes longer and may not be complete until 2024,” the document said.
A Home Office spokesperson told the Standard: “It is right and fair to increase visa application fees so we can fund vital public services and allow wider funding to contribute to public sector pay.”
