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

[MichKit]

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?

And I've worked in Bucharest!

YANBU
it's a fackin liberty. DH and I have paid squillions for all the papers required to get married in his country, then hundreds for settlement visa, nearly 150 quid on his life in UK test he failed 3 times...and 820 quid on ILR. I think we'll forget about citizenship....

Seriously, it's a fuck of a lot of money but hey ho. That's what it costs.

Kat, how on earth did your DH manage to fail the UK test 3 times??? Poor you both! Luckily DH and I got married in India so no paying for anything other than dinner for the 500 relatives

That said, I doubt very heavily that your average Briton would pass the test... we had a professor of politics who was very annoyed that he had to take the test, so decided to use it as a basis for his christmas party quiz. No one passed it, and these were all university professionals!

Well english isn't his first language, his spoken is much better than his comprehension, and he hasn't done any education for 17 years so he's rusty! Plus he's a lazy git.

YANBU. You are not paying for a "privilege" here, you are paying for an administrative process, and it seems pretty steep.

Well, its all paid now, so can't back out any more! There go those shoes I was eyeing up!

YANBU - it's a honking amount of money.
However, welcome and congratulations on your new citizenship!

She hasn't got it yet, lisi....how long is the waiting list now Mich? (it was about 4 yrs when I was there, back in the dark ages...I hope they've got rid of the backlog now!)

Bucharest, 4 years??? OMG!!!

Its 6 months now, though the nice lady at the checking service said that its a lot quicker for people with ILR, so could even be done in 4 months. Its 6 weeks after that for a passport, but apparently they turn them over in just under 3 in the winter

Lady also said my application was very straightforward, so didn't see any problems with it being granted, so at least I feel okayish, that I won't lose the money if its rejected.

The fees are outrageous, there's no question. They have been increased massively.

Example in 2007:

settlement visas: increase from £260 to £500
work permit visas: increase from £85 to £200
visitor visas: increase from £50 to £63
student visas: increase from £85 to £99
indefinite leave to remain: increases from £335 to £750
naturalisation fees: increase from £200 to £575
highly skilled migrant approval: increase from £315 to £400

Prior to the current Labour government, indefinite leave to remain was free, it is now £820.

Numerous other hurdles have been introduced to make it more difficult to get to the UK. The disparity between someone arriving 10 years ago and now is massive, and rather unjust.

The fees are I think an attempt to stem the tide of immigration, but they impose a disproportionate burden on certain classes of immigrants for no good reason other than that they are easy targets.

SomeGuy, exactly. And the fees have risen without any rhyme or reason, with no indication as to where they go and what they are used for.

There must be other ways to stem immigration surely? I have paid through the nose for everything (including international student fees for 5 years), and now I am just feeling resentful and taken advantage of, even though I am a legal resident.

Oh, whoops! Thanks Bucharest - I must be having a bit of a senior moment

Prospective congrats, then - let us know when it's all come through successfully!

Absolutely, SomeGuy - and this must discourage people with valuable skills but who aren't in highly paid jobs from becoming British. Surely we want hard working people like that to be able to achieve citizenship? It seems a bit backwards to me.

Thanks for the wished lisi! Its fingers crossed time now, as you never know who may be having a bad day in the Home Office (not you, obviosuly, Bucharest )

For a visa to go to China it's more than the UK. As a citizen will that mean you are entitled to benefits? If so maybe your fees will cover the cost of tax you missed out paying? The fact that an ambulance will pick you up, doctors will treat you, police will protect you etc.

Most countries charge an obscene amount of money. When my dcs and I visit my parents we pay nearly £500 for double entry (meaning if I have to go to HK for medical reasons more than once I have to get another visa).

To live in this democracy with our freedoms I think it's a very small price to pay.

That's because the Chinese are an insular totalitarian state. I don't think they are much of a benchmark.

posie, you got all this wrong. Everyone in the UK working (therefore having an NI number) pays taxes and is entitled to benefits. Well, not sosure about the benefits bit, maybe certain benefits and not others? But they're definitely paying taxes. And sometimes the most qualified and best paid people come from continental europe, therefore pay A LOT of money in taxes, much more than a high percentage of uk citizens. So, no, this money is not needed for the expenses you mention, these should be covered by the obsene amount of taxes working people in the the UK pay.

A price for democracy???? You make it sound like the OP should be pleased she's given the "opportunity" to be a british citizen as she's trying to escape a non-democratic, oppressive country. We don't know if this is the case. Plus the OP is wondering "where is my money going"? Towards democratic values????

I feel your pain. I could apply in 6 weeks time, but there's no way for me to be able to afford the fees, which means that I certainly won't be able to vote in the next elections, which really bugs me.

To those who think there's nothing to be annoyed about: I pay the same taxes as everyone else, so why should I have no say in what's happening with them. I'm law-abiding and by the end of october will have fulfilled the length of residency criterion.

Thankfully, as an EU citizens I have most rights, too but I still am annoyed, that despite having lived here for long enough, supporting myself and paying my taxes, an arbitrary sum is keeping me from taking the nationality of the state I call my home and which is the nationality my daughter and my partner have.

'Everyone in the UK working (therefore having an NI number) pays taxes and is entitled to benefits. Well, not sosure about the benefits bit, maybe certain benefits and not others? But they're definitely paying taxes.'

No, no they are not, depends on where your country of origin is and what visa you are on.

And why should they be just because they pay tax? Show me a place where you can not pay tax? Every country makes working people pay tax for legal work.

I first lived here on a visa for spouses of British nationals. I had to prove I could support myself without recourse to public funds to be granted that visa, even though I did work I was not entitled to benefits.

I don't see a problem with that, tbh.

Them's the rules.

Don't like it, you know where the door is.

expat I wasn't saying that people paying taxes SHOULD be entitled to benefits, if you had read more carefully you'd have realised I was respnding to this

"As a citizen will that mean you are entitled to benefits? If so maybe your fees will cover the cost of tax you missed out paying? The fact that an ambulance will pick you up, doctors will treat you, police will protect you etc."

And just because certain rules are there doesn't mean people shouldn't question them, isn't this how the world changes for the better?

The NHS is not considered a benefit or a public fund.

People on ILR/ILE can indeed access the same benefits a national can.

What they cannot do is vote or hold certain offices or jobs (a lot of HMRC or Home Office jobs and other civil service jobs require applicants to be UK nationals).

Doesn't one have to be in the UK for a year before one is entitled to NHS treatment?

No. Tourists are not entitled to use the NHS without paying for it (although most trusts don't charge). But people who come on other visas are able to use it straightaway, as are EU/EEA nationals.

Some EU/EEA nationals do have to wait a period, usually 11-12 months, to access public funds like income support, etc.

But they can use NHS rightaway.

Mummygirl,

Your children should be British citizens (by descent) at birth. There was no need to register their citizenship. The only thing you needed to do was apply for their passports. One British-born parent is enough to establish their citizenship. For sure, the passport fees abroad are more, but only slightly so.

Posie, you've got some aspects wrong, i.e. yes I can claim child benefit and tax credits now, but I haven't managed to get around to it yet. I will do it, but at this point we are managing.

I was here as a student originally, and paid a huge amount in international student fees, plus also worked, and paid taxes with no recourse to benefits for almost 7 years. That's a hell of a lot of money to pour into an economy (tuition fees itself came up to £55000).

I was ranting for two reasons... one, the Home Office is very arbiratarily increasing the price of residency and two, its too much for what is merely an administrative process. I just want to know where that money goes, and who the heck sets these prices in the first place? What is their justification for charging this, especially when, as SomeGuy has pointed out the price has increased with no regard to inflation or anything! I know the HO don't have to tell me, but as a resident I want to know where that money goes. After all, we do know where our taxes go!

The NHS is only available for people who are here on a visa that is longer than 6 months. So, my mum when she visits pays private insurance to cover her health costs should she need any health related services here. So do my in-laws.

Yup, a Chinese visa is expensive, but heck, have you seen the rise in the cost of a British visa? And that fact that the government is planning to get relatives of visitors to place a £1000 bond so that said relatives don't overstay?

I think that punishing legal residents/ vistors with exorbitant and unreasonable fees is not the way forward. There must be some other way...