Indians to pay more for British visas

LONDON : The health surcharge that Indian professionals, students and others have to pay while applying for a visa to stay in the UK for six months or more will double from later this year, raising the overall cost of visa.

The current health surcharge introduced in 2015 per person is £200, which will rise to £400 per year.

The discounted rate for students of £150 will go up to £300 per year, the Department of Health and Social Care announced on Monday.

Doubling the surcharge was one of the manifesto promises of the Conservative party before the 2017 general election.

It also mentioned doubling the Immigration Skills Charge of £1000 per migrant worker per year in the Tier 2 visa categories, including the Intra-company Transfer visa popular with Indian IT companies, by the end of current parliament.

The department said that doubling the health surcharge is intended to better reflect the actual costs to the National Health Service (NHS) of treating those who pay the surcharge.

It estimates that an extra £220 million every year will be raised through the new surcharge.

“Our NHS is always there when you need it, paid for by British taxpayers. We welcome longterm migrants using the NHS, but it is only right that they make a fair contribution to its long term sustainability,” Health minister James O'shaughnessy said.