Thousands of young people who came to the UK as children face paying astronomical fees to maintain ‘leave to remain*’ in the country.
The cost of leave to remain fees has increased by 331% in just six years. The ten-year route to permanent settlement through leave to remain requires five applications totalling £12,771 per person. This does not include a lawyer’s fee or any hidden cost that may creep up.
The cost to the Home Office of processing each application is just £142, meaning 86% (£891) of the application fee represents profit to the Home Office. Young people who have grown up in the UK and want to contribute to the country they call home face the very real risk of being driven into illegal status. The Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted young people, increasing the risk of young migrants falling out of legal status.
The Home Office must reduce the cost of fees to avoid driving young people who have grown up in the UK into illegal status.
We launched our ‘Chasing Status’ campaign in June 2018 to challenge these punitive fees, and will continue to do everything in our power to persuade the government to think again.
