Young people who have grown up in the UK are being forced into destitution as a result of Home Office fees that have more than trebled in the past five years.
The cost of renewing an application for a resident with limited leave to remain has increased by 238% in five years – from £601 per person in 2014 to £2,033 in January 2019.
Let us Learn, which is part of the charity Just for Kids Law, compiled the data as part of a report by young UK migrants about life on the Home Office’s 10-year route to British citizenship.
Limited leave to remain is granted to people with a strong connection to the UK including those who have lived in Britain for number of years or who have family or property here.
The length of time that a resident must wait before becoming eligible to apply for British citizenship has almost doubled since 2012, from six years to 10 – pushing thousands of lawful migrants into an increasingly precarious existence.
Fees for a limited leave to remain application are applied per person rather than per household, and status must be renewed every 30 months – meaning that some families are paying tens of thousands of pounds every two and a half years to stay on track.
Let Us Learn said it had seen cases where parents were forced to choose which child’s status they could afford to maintain, without enough money to pay fees for the whole family, causing further insecurity.
Andrew Noel, 24, has lived in Britain since he was 11, but lost his family home and ended up having to drop out of university due to the changes. Noel had received most of his formal education in Britain and did not realise he would not be eligible for student finance assistance until he applied to university.
After his family realised that they needed to apply for limited leave to remain, it took years to save up for the fees.
After a failed application and some bad legal advice, they were left homeless and in arrears.Noel, 19 at the time, ended up sharing a bed with his 20-year-old brother. After getting the best grades in his school and finding out he could no longer go to university, he was devastated.
“Up until this point … I didn’t see myself as different to my peers. I had studied here since I was 11, all of my formative years were spent in Britain,” he said.
Noel was offered a scholarship to study law at the London School of Economics last year. But he could still have his status revoked at any time if he is unable to keep up with the payments.
Some young people have had to resort to crowdfunding to make it through university, or have had to work 40-hour weeks alongside full-time study.
The £2,033 fee includes a £1,000 contribution to the NHS, which campaigners have called a double tax.
Chrisann Jarrett, who has limited leave to remain and founded Let Us Learn, said: “The £2,033 cost includes £1,000 for the compulsory health service levy. The Home Office describes this as a charge for ‘temporary migrants’, even though people like me have lived here most of our lives, and already contribute to the NHS through taxes.
“If I can’t afford to pay the fee, I lose my right to NHS treatment and my lawful immigration status.”
The process also involves complex paperwork, she said. “Home Office forms are long and complex. Getting expert legal advice is expensive so often people have to do it on their own. If your application is then rejected, you then have to save up all over again and reapply. Literally adding years to the process.”
The Home Office is in the process of reviewing immigration fees, and said it was “considering a range of concerns that have been expressed”.
A Home Office spokesman added: “It is only right that those that benefit from the NHS contribute to its running. The income generated from the immigration health surcharge goes directly to NHS services, helping to protect and sustain our world-class healthcare system for everyone who uses it.
“Fee waivers are also available for applications under specified human rights routes that cater for children and young people who have spent a significant amount of their life in the UK.
“A waiver can therefore be applied to the health surcharge. In such cases, if the applicant cannot pay either the health surcharge or the immigration fee, we will waive both.”