Visa Fees For Overseas Students

EDM number 1929 in 2002-03, proposed by Tony Colman on 17/11/2003.

That this House notes that fees of ú155 and ú250 for certain categories of visa were introduced, without prior consultation, earlier this year; notes with great concern the impact of such fees on the economic and cultural contribution of overseas students to the United Kingdom; is further concerned by evidence of delay in the batch processing of payments at the Cannock office and suggest that such students be enabled to make prepayment at a bank; draws attention to the considerable disparity in fees paid by overseas students at entry clearance offices abroad, namely ú36, and those now paid in the UK; considers that the new fees regime was introduced with insufficient notice to those directly affected and without sufficient resources to process applications with the efficiency warranted by the high level of those fees; and calls on Her Majesty's Government to review the fees regime as a matter of urgency and to bring before the House proposals to rectify the manifest defects of that regime.

This motion has been signed by a total of 20 MPs.