LONDON, March 19: All non-EU persons coming to the UK to work or study will have to pay £50 extra for visa, ostensibly to help areas struggling to cope with immigration.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has recently undertaken a review of the fees charged for visa and consular services, both in the UK and overseas.
Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said it meant people coming to the United Kingdom to work or study would pay a levy on top of the basic cost of a visa.

She acknowledged that economic migrants already contributed to services through their taxes, but said the visa fund would provide extra money to “ease the transition” for areas which had seen a big influx in short periods of time.

“Where there are impacts as a result of migrants coming in on the local community, we think it’s fair that the migrants themselves should be asked to pay a contribution towards those impacts to make sure that local people don’t feel that they’re really under strain,” she said.

The government on Thursday announced changes to the consular fees to be charged with effect from April 9 under the Consular Fees Order approved on Wednesday.

Fees for passport applications made in the United Kingdom remain at current levels whereas the fees for passport applications made abroad including applications for temporary and emergency passports have been increased.

A new Emergency Travel Document is also being introduced during 2009-10 and is priced at £89.

This is a more secure and internationally acceptable document than the emergency and temporary passports currently used and are correspondingly more expensive.
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