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UK visa shock for SA youth
11/04/2007 13:32 - (SA)
Patrick Burnett
Cape Town - Young South Africans wishing to work and travel in the United Kingdom will have to dig deeper into their pockets after the British High Commission more than doubled visa fees on April 1.
Each year thousands of young South Africans apply for a UK working holiday visa, which is offered to Commonwealth citizens aged between 17 and 30.
The visa allows them to travel to the UK for up to two years, and to work for 12 months of that time.
The visa fee has now more than doubled from R1 483 to R3 030.
Jodie Fraser, manager of the Youth Discovery Programme in Cape Town said people rushed to take advantage of the old visa prices last week.
"At the end of the day there is nothing much we can do about it," she said this week.
She said the higher visa fees may deter poorer youngsters from taking advantage of the opportunity to travel overseas.
"People are still applying (for the visas) but in the long term there will probably be a decline," she said.
Jan Schavemaker, logistics manager for Visa Express in Cape Town, said that the new visa costs, combined with courier costs and visa consulting company costs, could raise the cost of applying for the visa to around R4 000.
Schavemaker said speculation in the travel industry was that the increase in visa fees was an attempt to decrease the number of applicants and encourage serious applications.
According to a message posted on the website of UKvisas, which manages the UK's visa operations: "...those that benefit from the migration system should help pay for it. This is a widely accepted principle internationally in visa charging."
The message said fees were also increased to improve controls and customer service and that additional revenue would be spent on improving technology and risk management processes, as well as on marketing and information campaigns. / West Cape News
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