Court rules controversial UK immigration charge can continue

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that Home Secretary, Priti Patel, can continue to charge more than £1,000 for each child application made for British citizenship. The Court’s decision has sparked outrage among UK immigration lawyers and immigrant advocates following a four-year-long battle to get the fees scrapped.

The controversial UK citizenship application fee for children results in a £640 profit for the Home Office for every child applying. This is the case even when children were born in the UK, with some having to go through the process of obtaining British citizenship because their parents have a certain type of UK immigration status.

While the UK Supreme Court acknowledged that the cost of child’s UK citizenship application is more than three times the Home Office’s administration cost of £372, judges said that ‘it’s down to MPs or peers to determine whether it’s right for children’s applications to be charged according to the processing costs.