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HSMP Forum's letter to BIA sent on 16th June 2008!! |
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From:
Amit Kapadia Dear Lin, Thank you for your response. We do not believe that the increase in application fee to the amount of £750 would have taken place irrespectively of the Dec 2006 changes to the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme. We believe that the fee for extension of existing Highly Skilled Migrant permits is implicit in our judicial review claim and integral to the resulting court order. We do understand that it is Home Office's prerogative to increase the fee, but we contend that to have increased it exorbitantly by almost double has been unjustified and unreasonable, especially considering the changes in fee was made due to high expectations from Highly Skilled Migrants such as significant contribution towards the economy etc. This expectation and subsequent fee rise was in line with the introduction of the points based extension criteria and thereon the tier system.
It is also unfair to apply such high fees to migrants who need to undergo a second extension (the original 1+3 category) to finish the additional one year for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) due to the April 2006 changes in the ILR qualifying criteria. Highly Skilled Migrants who are thus caught by the lengthening of the ILR qualifying period thus face much larger and extra payments than they could reasonably have expected or planned.
We consider the increase in fee as arbitrary, since even with inflation taken into account the new amount is disproportionally high. The only reason that is clearly relevant to this exorbitant hike in fee is the introduction of the new points-based system for the extension of visas, and as such, applying this increased fee to existing migrants who benefit from the Judicial Review can be considered as an abuse of power and not to adhere to the spirit of the judgement.
I hope you would reconsider your position on this matter.
Regards
Amit Kapadia Executive Director, HSMP Forum -------- |