U.S. citizen Caryn Radlove, right, with her English husband Glenn Havelock and their son Sammy. They are struggling to make ends meet in the U.K.By Beth Gardiner
Now, hit by whopping increases in the fees that Britain charges immigrants seeking residency, visas and citizenship, she is putting those plans on hold.
The price tag for naturalization more than doubled in early April to £575, or $1,135, from £200, part of a wave of steep increases in fees to immigrants. The biggest rise was in the cost of the long-term residency permit, known here as indefinite leave to remain, which rose to £750 from £335. Same-day service for the permit costs £950, compared to £500 before the change.
Officials say the proceeds will help pay for a big new push to enforce immigration laws and crack down on illegal arrivals. The Home Office, the government department in charge of domestic security, said it wanted to hire more enforcement agents, build detention centers and increase its ability to process migrants efficiently without spending tax money.
Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said it was fair to require those who benefit economically from living in Britain to pay for the changes. The Home Office emphasized that the biggest increases were directed at foreigners who live and work in the country, not at students or visitors, and said it was fair to raise charges now because they had not gone up since April 2005.
But immigrants say they are being unfairly burdened with the cost of an effort that was previously shared by all British taxpayers, not just the foreign-born ones.
"We consider ourselves fully functioning members of British society," said Radlove, who works part-time for an insurance company. "I just happen to be with an American accent."
But Radlove, who has a year-old son, says the fee is far more than she and her husband, who is British, can afford while he finishes his doctoral studies. Her husband also works part-time, but until he finishes his degree and gets full-time teaching work, the couple's combined income does not leave room for unexpected extras like the citizenship fee.
"There's absolutely no way we can come up with more than £500," she said. "That's a huge amount of money when you're struggling just to live normally."
George Tah, 34, a native of Cameroon who moved to Edinburgh three years ago, said it was unfair to require foreigners who follow the rules to shoulder the cost of stopping illegal arrivals.
The residency fee that he is due to pay in October is nearly equivalent to his monthly salary as a customer service representative for an energy company, he said. Tah plans to ask the Home Office if he can pay in installments. Otherwise, he said, "I'll have to forgo my bills."
A spokeswoman for the Home Office, speaking on the condition of anonymity under department policy, said the department did not allow visa applicants to pay in installments.
The new fees affect hundreds of thousands of immigrants and expatriates, from wealthy business executives to struggling families and minimum-wage workers from developing countries.
Nearly 70 percent of the 161,000 successful citizenship applications received in 2005 were from Asians and Africans, who also make up a majority of the roughly 145,000 people granted residency each year.
Fees for some visas, including indefinite leave, stayed the same or increased only marginally for those applying from overseas. For applications in Britain, though, charges in some of the major categories more than doubled.
Work permits for investors and business owners increased to £750 from £335. Student visas rose much less, to £295 from £250; officials said this was in recognition of the financial constraints faced by young people.
"We believe it is fair that those who benefit most from using our system - those who come here to live and work - should pay more to fund it," Byrne, the immigration minister, said in announcing the increases.
"The extra money will be at no extra cost to the taxpayer and will help pay for a firm but fair immigration system, tackling illegal working, organized crime, extremism and terrorism."
Britain is not alone in imposing new requirements on immigrants. France recently mandated that any non-European Union national seeking settlement take a day-long civics course, demonstrate language proficiency and sign a contract promising to respect its secular and democratic values. At €99, or $133, though, long-stay French visas remain far cheaper than in Britain.
Many foreigners in Britain complain that a consultation on the British increases was poorly publicized and failed to seek reaction from the immigrants who would have to pay the heftiest charges.
The Home Office spokeswoman said the public had been given a chance to comment on the changes before they were adopted, with the consultation posted on the office's Web site for eight weeks.
The increases were announced in March, less than a month before they took effect. The spokeswoman said that the Home Office had announced the changes as early as it was able and that it had met the legal requirement of giving 21 days' notice of any price increases.
"Most people are astonished," said Nero Ughwujabo, director of the Croydon Black and Minority Ethnic Forum, an independent panel that monitors race relations in the South London borough.
"There seems to be a lot of anger, one that the changes were introduced in the first place and second that they were at such extraordinary rates."
For many, the fees can add up quickly. Those who have not been here long enough to apply for residency often pay yearly work permit renewal fees, and after getting indefinite leave also apply eventually for citizenship.
"All of these fees have gone up, and when you start adding them together, that's when it will become very costly," said Rhian Beynon of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, an immigrants' advocacy group.
Another change that has angered some immigrants - and added further to their expenses - is a new requirement that those seeking residency pass a written test on British life, a hurdle that until April was required only of foreigners seeking citizenship, and only since 2005.
The test costs £34, and a recommended study booklet is £10. Those who cannot demonstrate proficiency in English are now required to take a language class before getting residency. Sophie Barrett-Brown, an immigration lawyer in London, said some of her clients had had to pay for visa extensions after learning at the last minute that they needed to take the British life exam.
Barrett-Brown said the test included questions that even many native-born Britons would find difficult to answer, like the names and dates of the national saints' days of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
She said it was less a test of culture than an exercise in memorizing a study booklet. "It's for most applicants very onerous, it's another hurdle and it's a timing issue," Barrett-Brown said.
The Home Office spokeswoman said the exam tested far more than memorization skills and was a useful way to encourage immigrants to integrate into British society.
Radlove, the American, said that after seven years in Britain, she was deeply disappointed at having to postpone her citizenship application.
"Now we may have to say, 'Well, maybe we won't be able to do this until we're much better off financially,' " she said.
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