Disgusted at how the UK government will charge EU nationals £65 and no iPhone app

[Rosepetalgeranium]

Even if someone has been here working hard and paying tax for decades they will have to pay £65 to stay and there's only an android app to apply not even an iPhone app!

@planespotting I have done a quick one now, it looked a daunting task

To be honest, as someone who has been here 20 years on 2 work permits and then LTR, I fully expect things will change. I, for example, am not a British citizen and don't really want to be one BUT I suspect that there may be a change of immigration law that says that people here over a certain time MUST become citizens/get a UK passport and pay for the privilege.

@clinkers Sorry about that - not sure why it didn’t click with me!

I think weighing up responses, like an mp with their postbag / email inbox, can be useful.

Weighing not weighing up..

All sounds fantastic. I don’t disagree with you in principle. But when you’re a SAHM with 3DC, a DH who works abroad half the month and a terminally ill mum to nurse, it doesn’t leave you the time to do it. That’s why I was disappointed in my MP. We can’t all be politicians, after all.

We get the politicians we deserve, I'm afraid. I hear what you are saying but if everyone assumes that someone else will do it then the outcome is a non-representative collection of candidates who have the leisure time to spare.

I did campaign alongside people whose DCs walked miles with their mum to canvass the neighbourhood, knew of shift workers who made canvassing calls for the party in their meal breaks and have occasionally seen breastfeeding babies in the public gallery at Council meetings.

These are the exceptions though; the vast majority of those I come into contact with (from all political parties) are financially secure, older, straight, white - not representative of the society they are seeking to represent at all.

Oh, just as a "heads up".
When you renew your passport, you will have to pay AGAIN for the LTR sticker to be placed in the new passport. The way around it is to carry your old one and the new one as the old one will still be valid even though it is in an expired passport.

everyone assumes that someone else will

I don’t assume. I’m simply stating the fact that not everyone can get involved, even if they want to. It’s just not possible.

I don’t assume. I’m simply stating the fact that not everyone can get involved, even if they want to. It’s just not possible.

MrsAriadneOliver. My post was an answer to your question "what can be done about it?.....we like to think our voices matter, but they don't"

There are ways to make your voice heard, even with limited time and resource.

@coldheartwarmhands

I’m not arguing with you for the sake of it - but there’ll always be those who cannot make their voices heard. And it doesn’t mean they don’t care enough, or want to be involved, but they just not have the time. I’ve written to my MP. His job it is to represent his constituents, but he couldn’t have been more dismissive if he’d tried.

What else can I possibly do, in my situation? Nothing.

But that’s the thing - I don’t think so, speaking for myself. But what if, WHAT IF they come up with some weird reason to reject my application?!?

Have you looked at the rules? I'm puzzled as to what 'weird reason' they could possibly come up with.

Can I ask - not being goady, genuinely want to know - why would your application be turned down? Are there any scenarios in which that would actually happen to you?

No, but that's not really the point.

The point is that mistakes are made all the time, and do you trust that whoever is processing all of these applications will not make any mistakes?

There have already been examples of EU nationals getting letters telling them to leave the UK and well as the Windrush scandal.
I don't see how we can expect no mistakes will be made when all of these new applications are being processed.

where were you born? Where is your accent from?" I'm Scottish and got asked that when I was working in London in 1985. Don't feel too special.

What else can I possibly do, in my situation? Nothing

Yes, there is a lot more you can do, that would take no more time or effort than posting on MN - but you have to be willing to try.

It doesn’t really matter about fucking over Eu nationals- the rewards or benefits of Brexit are going to be so great that will soon be forgotten.
Oh we have to say ‘long-term’ now. The ‘long term’ benefits of Brexit are going to be so great, to screw people in this way is nothing. Eyes on the prize people!

@jasjas1973, when you get a visa there are background checks as opposed to turning a blind eye. perhaps you should think before writing ?

Have you looked at the rules? I'm puzzled as to what 'weird reason' they could possibly come up with.

When I was applying for my citizenship, after the colossal project that was getting my permanent residence card, I studied the rules and requirements closely.
My sister, who is a lawyer, had applied beforehand so luckily I got some help.
However, when it came to providing proof of English, I could not come up with an answer to my situation by reading the rules.
I spoke to 3 different advisors. These are people whose jobs are to answer questions about citizenship applications.
All their responses were the same. "I see, you have past IELTS in the past (not passed, actually scored very high) and then completed a Postgraduate in Science with a UK well knows University. I see, maybe you don't need to take the exams again, but the team reviewing your application will be different to this one and if they refuse you will lose your (£1,282) fee.

Therefore I forked £150 more for this English test.

I don't think the reason was so weird, but they could have refused mine

Try thinking about it this way. You were born in Swindon but you marry someone from Gateshead. You live happily in Gateshead for thirty years, then Gateshead council says oh, you weren't born here? Well now you have to pay for a permit to live here.

That's what it feels like.

There have been a million questions about why some people didn't apply for citizenship sooner, how £65 doesn't seem too much, and the 72 posts talkinb about USA visas which belong in another thread.

Some people commented on how it is not easy to raise funds and how it is so much more expensive now.

I have been employed here for more than 10 years, public sector. I remember the Union disputes for pay increases and frozen pay which still go on. Everything goes up and we fight for a 2% rise these days.

So, looking at this snaps of information I am posting, including the 25% increase in naturalisation fees of 2016/2017, how can people still not see how dodgy all this bureaucracy costs are?

They have been making it harder and harder for people to apply.
The whole thing is shady

Here 2016/2017 www.gov.uk/government/news/new-immigration-and-nationality-fees-for-2016-to-2017

How is it shady, planespotting?

Details of the costs/fees have always been available publicly - and although British born citizens would have no reason to find out what those fees were, there are campaign groups and even charities which could have raised the profile of this issue and secure the support of native Brits to lobby politicians and ensure that this was a high profile issue during recent elections.

The fact is that not enough Brits cared.

People asking about citizenship, how many of you would choose to spend upwards of a thousand quid on an administrative procedure you didn't need to do?

@coldheartwarmhands a 25% raise in a year?!!!!!
Straight after the Referendum!!!

25%raise

a 25% raise in a year?!!!!! Straight after the Referendum!!!

If Theresa May's campaign team had given this more airtime during the 2017 election campaign, the Conservatives might well have secured a larger majority.

Sorry, planespotting, I don't mean to be flippant, but I just view the increase in fees as yet more evidence that Brits are, as a nation, fairly xenophobic.

I had wanted to live here since I was a teen because my home country was narrow minded under the shadow of dark years of dictatorship

Did I get it all wrong? Was it there all the time but I didn't see it because I was in London?

Costs of the court fees to sue for bigger claims have gone up from about a few hundred to £10k however so massive increases in state fees are not that unusual in the UK. The fee for bigger companies annually for data protection just rose from £500 to £2900.
Costs of passport renewal for UK citzens have gone up a lot too as indeed have my taxes which are massive and I want them to go right down.