January 21 2010

The UK visa service, in an unending quest to cash-in on the global demand for British visas has today announced a new ‘home visit’ visa service aimed at the wealthy at an incredible cost of per application £15,000!

As part of the Home Office’s new UK visa fee increases, wealthy immigrants living in the UK on highly skilled work visas are being offered the chance to pay £15,000 to extend their UK visas without having to wait in line.

This ‘premium’ service is being marketed to super-rich highly skilled migrants such as international football players working in the UK and will allow them to avoid delays and other inconveniences.

The service will include the offer for UK Border Agency staff to visit the UK visa holders to sort their visa applications and to take the biometric information. Previously, these applicants would have to have their biometric information taken at collection centres or post offices.

The scheme will be launched as a pilot to begin with, with 50 appointments being made available from April 2010 for the following 12 months. The UK Border Agency admits that the actual price of providing the “mobile biometric and case working” service is just £1,982. So why are they charging people seven and a half times the cost of providing this service? Send your questions on a postcard to the Home Office – but please don’t hold your breath waiting for an answer, chances are you will never get one!

The pilot is intended to help the UK immigration department to work out whether the activity is working as a means of raising revenue for the department.