British Prime Minister, Boris Johanson’s plan to attract scientists, lab technicians, nurses, engineers and tech experts, might be mainly discouraging for NHS staff because the visa fees are considered to be among the highest in the world.
Many of Britain’s vacant jobs may remain due to the very high visa fees, which are £1,220 per person or £900 for those on the shortage occupation list, VisaGuide.World reports.
The UK visa fees are considered “sky high” by the immigration lawyer at DLA Piper, Lisa Robert.
“The UK fees are sky-high. With this sort of outlay, are you going to attract the Spanish nurse, or are they going to go to Germany, which doesn’t charge anything?” she asserts.
The Institute for Government (IfG) thinktank has estimated that a family of five members with a five-year work visa has to pay £21,299 for one individual before they are permitted to enter in the UK, including the annual £400 health surcharge that must be paid in advance, per person.
According to the IfG report, Canada charges a visa fee of £220 for an individual visa valid for about three years, while Germany’s ask in payment-visa fee is £147, and the price for a visa fee in France is £2,075.
The amount of money that an applicant needs to pay for one UK visa fee by is double the fee charged by Australia, and compared to Canada, about 30 times the charged amount, where it costs just over £10,000 for a family for five years. Germany charges £756 for entry for a family of that size.