Following legislation being laid in Parliament on 15 September, the U.K. Home Office announced that a range of immigration and nationality fees will increase from 4 October 2023.1
Many of the visa application fees and Certificate of Sponsorship fees will increase by 15 to 20 percent following on from the government announcement on 13 July, whereby subsequent to the Public Sector Pay debated in Parliament, the U.K. government had announced that it had accepted the headline recommendations of the independent pay-review bodies in full. This included acceptance of the proposal to increase visa and Immigration Health Surcharge fees (IHS) as part of funding a pay-raise for public-sector workers.2
According to the Home Office press release on 15 September “increases to immigration and nationality fees will pay for vital services and allow more funding to be prioritised for public sector pay rises.”3 The changes announced on 15 September do not include the planned increases to the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) which are scheduled to be introduced later in the autumn with a specific implementation date not yet announced (for prior coverage, see GMS Flash Alert 2023-144, 18 July 2023).