yikes!

[winterbadger]

I missed this last monnth:

Immigration Minister Liam Byrne, today unveiled the timetable for introducing the UK’s tough new Australian-style points based system for migration, during a fact finding visit to Sydney.

I hope it doesn't mean it will be harder to get a visa the next time I try. :-(

Comments

[silme.livejournal.com]

I fear it may well be. It used to be a lot simpler and cheaper to emigrate from the US to the UK than from the UK to the US, but they're making it more challenging and a lot more expensive. I'm regretting that I didn't apply for citizenship when I was first eligible and it was only £150. Now it's £655. :(

[pisica.livejournal.com]

My FLR was £500 in person in January and the next one's gonna be £950 (assuming they don't raise the prices AGAIN). I wouldn't mind half so much if the time they take to complete 70% of their visa load didn't keep increasing grrrrrrrrrrr.

As for the points-based system, I am clinging to AD until I get citizenship - and praying that no one trashes the unmarried partner visa until after I'm here for good....

[winterbadger]

I am hopign that the "new" (Nov06) HSMP regulations are the first wave of the new points-based system and are not going to get *worse*. And that someone eventually realises that there is a difference between discouraging people who are simply seeking to mvoe somewhere where the state will support them from people who want to move to Britain with skills and experience to offer.

Of course, I'm generally regarded as eccentrically naive, so...

[silme.livejournal.com]

Oy. My FLR was free, as was my permanent residency a year later (indefinite leave to remain). One reason I put off citizenship was because I hated having to pay £150. (I'd not paid for a single visa. My first visa was paid for my first job over here. Then I got married, and it was the FLR for free.) Heh. I want to apply for citizenship soon because the price will probably only go up again, and they'll create some more obstacles.

There was an article in the New Statesma a couple of weeks ago (I'm behind on reading magazines) about the price hike that I mean to post soon in my LJ. I only read it yesterday. It's a good article -- points out the moneymaking, how it's not been publicised to the British people, how the people affected can't vote (until they pay for citizenship, that is), etc.

AD?