British Citizenship fees - why in the name of sanity.....

[Lottapianos]

.... do I have to pay EIGHT HUNDRED AND FIFTY POUNDS to have a form processed?

Sorry for shouting but it drives me around the bend. I'm happy to pay a fee but Christ on a bendy bus! They say it's to cover the administration costs and the cost of the citizenship ceremony you get invited to if/when your application gets approved. I can only imagine it must be an Elton-John-style White Tie and Diamonds Ball if that's how much they are charging!

Anyone shed light on why it's so bloody expensive? Is there a good reason or are they just taking the you-know-what? Thanks!

That's true FredFred, you can claim back taxes taken under that code, and also back claim for a number of years (I've done both). So even if they are right to apply the higher code, he should still get the money back.

Oh yes, sorry for derailing too Just hate to see anyone paying too much tax!

I'm really glad you did - we're skint, I'd love some money.

i worked until recently in Nationality issuing/rejecting British citizenship. Firstly they put the fees up every year but it doesnt stop people applying. To the person who thought it was £50 in 2004 thats not true, I started working there in 2000 and it wasnt that cheap then. It takes a lot of work processing the form, then going through the persons details to see if they are eligible then finally issuing the certificate

It is an outrageous amount of money to have to pay to process a form. I suppose it is just indicative of the actual inefficiency at the Immigration Department - but then again, all those salaries of all those people pushing paper around do require paying, lol!

Really, it is comparable to being blackmailed - you want citizenship- you have to hand over a huge wad of cash first! Scandalous!

To renew your UK passport from outside the UK costs about 300 pounds AND it is processed in Germany with no contact apart from a number that costs you 1.50 a minute to call. the message tells you the average hold time for the call is 45 minutes. And don't get me started on the British Embassy here in Qatar. it's just another rip off imposed by self important little pen pushers.

In order to have the right to vote in a general election my oh would need to be a citizen. It's the only difference it would make and can't justify the cost. He can not vote at a national level in any country.

I think it is perfectly reasonable. You pay way more for a hunk of metal to drive you around for a much more limited time. This is to have all the rights and privileges for life and all the time and effort that goes into getting it.

If you want to talk about cost, I need two new passport. Ouch. I think my kids need them too. Six passports is going to cost a bloody fortune and theirs only last five years.

Actually you don't need to be a citizen to have the right to vote in the UK. I'm from NZ and have always been able to vote because I'm a commonwealth citizen.

And theodirakis it's the same if you renew your British passport in NZ. Can't remember how much DH paid, but the only contact is a paid phone that costs an absolute fortune to ring, with a ridiculous wait time. And the contact number is in Wellington, NZ. The passport issued in Wellington too.

@Hopandskip. But this isn't (or shouldn't be) essentially a monetary transaction. You don't buy citizenship of a country. You earn it by contributing to and integrating into that country's society over a long period of time (typically over ten years). If you wanted to evaluate the "cost" in time and effort involved in becoming a citizen of another country you would find it was much greater than 850 pounds. This a fee to process a form, not the cost of becoming a British citizen (and you don't get it back if your application is rejected).

@Idreamofsunshine. Was the aim to discourage people from applying? If so, why didn't they simply put the bar higher for granting citizenship ? I had understood - maybe I'm wrong - that granting citizenship was always discretionary, in that there are criteria that must be met for someone to be eligible, but no-one ever has the right to become a citizen, it can always be refused.

@Hopandskip. However, I agree wth you that the cost for passport renewal is extortionate. I've never understood how it can be right that a government requires that people should have a certain document like a passport and then charges for that document. For example, I'm regularly asked by some government department or other for a copy of my birth certificate, which I can obtain by paying what seems like an awful lot of money to another government department.

I have LTR, since 2003. I had no recourse to public funds for 4 years prior to that, but had full NHS access & could vote as a Commonwealth citizen. I was only charged emergency tax until I received my NI. I paid full taxes like every normal person but had no security if I lost my job.

With LTR I am effectively a citizen without UK passport. I received SMP & receive CB & could apply for others, although I have never done so apart from one week of JSA in between jobs. I have never heard of anyone with LTR being denied NHS care.

I'd like citizenship but I simply can't afford it right now, what with DD & mortgage payments and the fact I only earn min wage at present. And seeing as the fee has trebled over time, to me it's just a moneyspinner. I have attended Home Office events through a previous job & it was made clear that it is a major revenue stream.

You already have citizenship of the country you're from, so I'm not sure what the problem is really.

I said my OH needs citizenship to get the right to vote nationally, I know it's different for commonwealth citizens. Although why an Australian who has lived here for 18 months should be able to vote when people who have lived here for 10 plus years can't has always been a bit of a mystery to me

I had to do this a few years ago. I was born in Australia to a British mother. I lived in the UK with Right of Abode which had been free. However the last time I had to renew my Australian passport and therefore get a new sticker in my passport there was a fee attached, about £180.

I thought it would be cheaper just to get a UK passport at £750 than to keep paying for the Right of Abode every 10 years (which would increase in price). I didn't have to sit the citizenship test but did have to attend the local citizenship ceremony.

However if my father was British I would just have to fill the normal passport form and pay £75. It really pissed me off that I had to pay £750 just because it was my mother who British.

I have iltr, and I believe that you only have to do the test once. Either at iltr stage or citizenship stage depending on your immigration stream?

You choose to have a passport .. So pay. You choose to have a car, so pay tax. You choose to be a citizen here, so pay.

The taxpayers pay for enough.

well said cookcleaner.

I would charge more.

And I would charge anybody else coming in the country a huge amount so most cant get in and if they did get in they would not be entitled to any benefits until they had worked and paid tax for 10 years.

callow have you checked the recent rules, the Mother / Father rules were changed in 2010 to bring mothers on a par with fathers, my wife went from ~1000 cost to acquire it, to just paying the passport fee (ie she already has nationality) with the rule change.

Not that she's actually got around to it yet.

I have mixed feelings about this, I suppose I think the system is about right in the UK, even if the fees are painful.
I lived in the UK almost 20 years before I got citizenship.
I think it's important that people who live here long-term become citizens; it's not just about rights, but encouraging them to embrace responsibilities & to become more invested in the future of the country. I wanted to become a citizen to get the right to vote. In that 20 years, I've paid 13 yrs of taxes, had 12 yrs of child benefit, 9 yrs of CTC & 2 weeks of unemployment benefits.

The high price put me off applying even though I had LTR from the days when LTR was free (FREE!). I often wonder how many others are like I was, here for good but without political representation & feeling like maybe we don't really belong, the future of this country might not really be ours to worry about too.

Here's another example of fees gone mad. We have just legally adopted our son. The Identity and Passport service sent us a "short form" birth certificate but informed us that in most official cases a "long form" would be required and that it would cost £9.95 to send us one or £ 28.95 for fast processing. Why did they not post us a long form to begin with??? The only reason is to grab some more of our hard earned money. Bastard Tory government....

BTW, I also paid those high fees to be a citizen, and while I grumbled about it I think it was money well spent so I can vote the bastards out of office next election!!! :)

FredFredGeorge

Thanks for that. Too late now. It is now £80. I wonder if I can get my money back. Although I would have had to pay for the Right of Abode, but just not the £750 for the special UKM citizenship.

Fredfred - that's interesting my mothers British just not my father am off to look.

FredFredGeorge I've just looked and its seems clear that I can after living in the Uk all my life, only speaking English, feeling English, having a British mother, brother, husband and children paying my taxes etc finally become British. I always knew that I qualified but couldn't afford it. Wow it's now going to cost £80 where's my cheque book? This has truly made my day.

Thank you.