UK Citizenship Fees Hit £5,065 Despite Attracting Record Number of New Brits

The UK's high costs for citizenship have not deterred people from applying, despite some individuals finding the fees 'gutting'. The Home Office charges £5,065 for full citizenship, including a mandatory ceremony, on top of an initial permanent residency permit costing £1,839. This is significantly higher than many other European countries.

According to Cambridge Professor Catherine Barnard, this is because the UK's costs are intended to cover the cost of running the immigration service, unlike other countries. Another factor contributing to these high fees is the Home Office's ability to raise prices in certain areas, such as nationality applications, to fund operations like border security and drug-smuggling enforcement.

Despite these challenges, migrants continue to be attracted to the UK by factors like English being the spoken language, existing family connections, and economic opportunity. The number of new Brits naturalized has reached nearly a quarter of a million in the year to June, the highest since 2010. Professor Barnard notes that while fees have gone up significantly over the years, demand for visas remains relatively inelastic.

Ben Brindle, senior researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, suggests that there will be a point where these high costs deter people in a meaningful way, but it's unclear what that threshold is. The UK's current policy may face pressure from peer governments who are eyeing up this model.