Visitors won’t have to pay £3,000 UK visa bond – British High Commissioner
Thursday, September 26, 2013Omoba
The British High
Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr. Andrew Pocock, has said no Nigerian would be asked
to pay £3,000 as fee for a British visa.
Pocock said this
yesterday when he visited the Nigerian Stock Exchange to ring the closing bell,
and to discuss ways in which more British companies can be encouraged to invest
in the capital market.
He said, “The visa
bond, as it is being called here, is not a £3,000 charge for a British Visa.
That is not the case, it is not going to happen now and it is not going to
happen in the future. Visa fee, which is what you pay for a visa, will not go
to £3,000 or anywhere near it.”
Reports had emerged
earlier this year that the British government was planning to implement a new
scheme under which some visitors from six commonwealth countries, including
Nigeria, would be asked to pay a £3,000 cash bond in return for visitor visas
that allow them to stay in the UK for up to six months.
“In the long run, we
are interested in a system of bonds that deters overstaying and recovers costs
if a foreign national has used our public services,” an unnamed Home Office
official had been quoted as saying in June.
The development had
resulted in an outcry by nationals of the affected countries.
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