Allow Visa applicants to pay health surcharge in instalments
If someone applies for a five-year visa, they currently must pay £1,035 per year upfront, totalling £5,175. We think applicants should have the option to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge in instalments instead of the full amount upfront for the entire visa duration.
Signatures
2,969
signatures
Government response threshold (10,000) · 2,969/10,000
Debate threshold (100,000) · 2,969/100,000
- 19 JUN 2025Petition closedFinal total: 2,969 signatures
- 19 DEC 2024Petition opened for signatures
Background
We think requiring applicants to pay upfront often results in a surge of fee waiver applications, creating backlogs, delaying visa processing, and increasing taxpayer costs. We believe some applicants exploit this system to extend their stay while transitioning to another visa. We think the high upfront cost, especially for families, leads to frequent fee waiver approvals, causing financial losses for the government. We think instalment payments could curb fee waiver abuse, ease the Home Office’s workload, and boost revenue.