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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be pissed off at how much I am paying the Home Office!!

116 replies

MichKit · 15/09/2009 17:14

Sorry, just a rant. Am off to get naturalised as a British citizen tomorrow and its costing me £750 for me + £460 for DD. Already paid the Home Office £200 for original visa, £255 to extend student visa, £450 for dependent visa, £750 for permanent residency, all in the past 7 years. And after this I will have to pay more for a passport.

Have paid through the nose on taxes, have not been claiming ANY benefits (including child, though I should now!).

AIBU to be feeling taken advantage of? Especially when a friend who works for the HO told me that teh actual admin costs to do all these visas are minimal?

OP posts:
mmrsceptic · 15/09/2009 17:21

yes, sorry, you are wasting energy worrying about it

if you don't like it, don't buy it

Original poster
MichKit · 15/09/2009 17:23

I hate how arbitary the fees are. No justification as to where the money is going, and what they are doing with it. I could completely understand if they were more transparent about it, but its all shrouded in secrecy!!!

OP posts:
mmrsceptic · 15/09/2009 17:25

why should they tell us? that's the charge

StewieGriffinsMom · 15/09/2009 17:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

OtterInaSkoda · 15/09/2009 17:31

YANBU to be annoyed at having to shell out but YABU to feel that you're being taken advantage of. I dislike having to pay for my MoT, road tax, income tax, you name it. But it has to be paid, and it seems fair that that someone is me, seeing as I'm earning the money and using my car and my ds goes to school and we all use the NHS here and there and I'd prefer to live in a society where we don't send families to the workhouse...
Interesting to hear that your HO friend knows the costings per transaction though.

expatinscotland · 15/09/2009 17:36

YABU.

I am a naturalised Brit myself.

I see the visa fees I paid and the naturalisation fees I paid as being a sort of fee for the priviledge of staying here, because no one forces someone to immigrate to the UK and no one holds a gun to your head and forces you to stay there.

If you don't like it, you can leave.

And so what if you paid tax and didn't take benefits?

You pay tax everywhere.

That's part of life.

ilovemydogandmrobama · 15/09/2009 17:39

Absolute bargain at the price.

why are you wanting to be a British citizen anyway?

JJ · 15/09/2009 17:40

I agree with expat. Am paying for indefinite leave to remain this week - am very excited and don't begrudge the fees at all.

Hando · 15/09/2009 17:43

I agree with Expat too. You don't have to live here or be a British citizen, it's a choice not a compulsary fee!

Original poster
MichKit · 15/09/2009 17:44

Sadly I don't have a choice as DH has his job here, so stuck here. I'd rather not be here at all!!! And my ILR runs out early next year, so have to apply for naturalisation!!

OP posts:
Bucharest · 15/09/2009 17:47

If you have ILR- it means indefinite leave to remain. To say it runs out next year is a contradiction in terms, surely????

Hando · 15/09/2009 17:48

Michkit - "I'd rather not be here at all!!! "

NICE!

ilovemydogandmrobama · 15/09/2009 17:49

ILR doesn't run out...

Mine hasn't it and I've had it for 10 years.

Why do you have to apply for naturalization?

expatinscotland · 15/09/2009 17:52

ILR doesn't run out.

You are not compelled to apply to naturalise at all if you have ILR.

And no one is EVER stuck here. This is a democratic nation.

You're free to jack in the job and leave if you're that miserable.

If you don't like how it's run here, you're free to go.

Original poster
MichKit · 15/09/2009 17:52

No, seriously, I would rather not have to live here. I would rather be in my home country. I am not saying that I hate the UK, as I have made great friends here and am happy living here. But if I had a choice, I'd rather be living in my home country. I only came as a student, and fell in love with DH, which is why I stayed in the first place.

Its just a pain to have to pay all that money and not know where its going... we all know where our taxes go, but this is one area where no one knows what the money does or goes to.

OP posts:
FabBakerGirlIsBack · 15/09/2009 17:52

YABU

Maybe you should go somewhere else.

expatinscotland · 15/09/2009 17:54

'Its just a pain to have to pay all that money and not know where its going... we all know where our taxes go, but this is one area where no one knows what the money does or goes to.'

It's a pain to you.

Others of us see it as the price to pay for the priviledge of staying here.

Original poster
MichKit · 15/09/2009 17:54

ilovemydogandmrobama, I was told in immigration forums that ILR is only valid for two years, and you have to naturalise or leave after that.

I'll have double check on that now!! Because if that is the case, I will probably stay on ILR and save some money.

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 15/09/2009 17:55

At present, FLR is for 2 years.

ILR is permanent.

There are plans in the works to make changes to ILR, but not until 2011.

expatinscotland · 15/09/2009 17:56

And then that will apply to people who only became eligible for it/obtained it in 2011, not to people who had it before that.

mummygirl · 15/09/2009 17:57

The fees are ridiculous though.

My husband and I are both British, born and bred in england by english parents, but two of our three children were born abroad (one in greece, one in Italy) and both times we had to pay through our noses (or so it felt to us) for our kids to be registered as british citizens!!!!! Not to mention that they're not entitled to ANY other nationality....

YANBU, they should have expenses to charge money like this, or WHERE does it go????

Bucharest · 15/09/2009 17:58

LTR (leave to remain) or LLR (limited leave to remain)
Check the Border Agency website.

Original poster
MichKit · 15/09/2009 18:00

Expat, how do you know that, have you had experience? The reason I was told I would have to naturalise is also because DH is going to be on placement in a European country for around 2 years soon, and I was told that unless I naturalised I wouldn't be allowed back into the UK on ILR?

Because I would rather not naturalise and save on the fees if I don't have to!

OP posts:
Bucharest · 15/09/2009 18:00

Mummygirl- your children, if you and/or your husband were born in the Uk were both British Citizens at birth. There was no need for either of them, presuming the above is the case, to have been registered as a BC.

expatinscotland · 15/09/2009 18:00

I had to pay a fat wodge of cash to register my three children as American nationals and get their passports.

It's the law that, if a person is entitled to US nationality, he/she enters and leaves the US on a US passport.

So I had to stump up.

That's life! There's a lot of fees and getting ripped off.