The UK Home Office in their infinite wisdom has decided that foreign students have to pay even more for a visa to study. It was £250 for an in-person application and £115 for a mail application. Now it is £250 for a mail application and £500 for an in-person application. Do they honestly think that foreign students are made of money?
I checked out the fees that would apply to a subject of the United Kingdom who wanted to get into the country. An F-1 Visa is the visa classification for a full time student. The application fee is $100 just to apply (see reciprocity table). If you continue on that page, you will discover is that an F-1 visa for a United Kingdom student in the US has no issuance fee. So they only have to pay the equivalent of £50 to get a visa.
On the other hand, they are going to charge the equivalent of $1000 to get a visa in person in Glasgow. In a horrible room with barely any amenities. I should get a comfortable couch and a back massage for £500. I do not like how they are paying back our friendship and help throughout these years by doing this. An alliance is not just a governmental agreement. It is an agreement between peoples and if they do not want us around to make those deep relationships that sustain the alliance, maybe we should not have the alliance in the first place. At least we should charge them as much. I am sure that would make them go up in arms.
I know that our visa offices are not the nicest places these days but charging that much to get student visa will only make it worse. There is going to be a rally at the Parliament building in Edinburgh on the 23rd of February against this but it has already happened. I think the American students should go up to the consulate on Calton Hill and have a talk with them about making the UK understand that this is not fare to us.
posted by Chris #11:06 PM | 0 comments |
