Juliet Jacob Ochenje
Nigerians visiting the United Kingdom for education and tourism purposes may pay more as the country’s government has announced a plan to increase the cost of student and tourist visas.
According to a statement by the UK’s Home Office on Friday, the cost of a visit visa for less than six months will increase by £15 to £115, while the fee for a student visa will rise by £127 to £490.
The hike which is scheduled to take effect on October 4, is subject to approval of the UK Parliament.
It is part of the government’s plan to raise funding for its public sector, its Home Office said in the statement, adding that it will enable it run a sustainable immigration and nationality system.
The proposed changes are coming less than six months after the UK announced increments in the cost of visa applications and health surcharges.
“If we’re going to prioritise paying public sector workers more, that money has to come from somewhere else because I’m not prepared to put up people’s taxes and I don’t think it would be responsible or right to borrow more because that would just make inflation worse,” the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, had said in July.
The new changes will also affect the majority of fees for entry clearance and certain applications for leave to remain in the UK including those for work and study, among others.
“Today’s changes do not include the planned increase to the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) which are scheduled to be introduced later in the autumn,” the statement added.
According to a data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency in the UK, 44,195 study visas were issued to Nigerians for the 2021/2022 academic session.
