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If a skilled migrant such as an academic wants to work in the UK, they must pay for the privilege in four different ways.

As with everyone, their wages are taxed to run the country generally, and National Insurance is deducted to cover benefits during retirement, illness or unemployment ¨C to which migrants do not have access before settling. In addition, foreign nationals have to pay visa application fees and the immigration health surcharge (IHS).

Before 2020, the IHS cost ?200 per year of the visa. It then rose to ?624, and then, in February 2024, to??1,035. The IHS is paid by migrants ¡° to the UK¡¯s National Health Service¡± ¨C even though migrants use the NHS than local residents. Despite the long waiting lists, there isn¡¯t an option to opt out and divert IHS fees to private care instead. And, by the way, universities often decline to mention this fee when they recruit you ¨C an omission that another academic recently described in Times Higher Education as a con.

As for the visa, this costs per person (up from ?827 in 2024 and ?776 previously), regardless of whether it is for one, two or three years. If you need to extend it or switch employer within the visa period, you have to pay the fee again, even though the visa process is administratively simple and is finalised online.

After five years on a skilled visa ¨C the maximum permitted ¨C you can pay ?3,029 per person (up from ?2,885 last year) to apply for indefinite leave to remain provided you haven¡¯t spent a continuous period of more than six months abroad in that time. If you don¡¯t meet that condition, you start over again ¨C and this is now to be a 10-year period to reduce net migration.

Despite the high stakes of this process, the ÍøÆØÃÅ Office (HO) refuses to clarify its vague requirements or give advice in specific cases. This is despite the fact that some applications cry out for the exercise of discretion to avoid delays and overpayments. Can years previously worked in the UK be considered when, for instance, a pandemic maroons you abroad for years on end? Does that depend on your nationality or profession? Or is there no avoiding the costly process of starting the qualification process over again regardless of the reason for your long absence?

Any query is quickly dismissed because the HO declines to give what it considers to be legal advice. A standard response reads: ¡°We are unable to advise on case specific enquiries. Directing you to the relevant is the only advice we can provide. If you need any further help regarding this, you should seek independent immigration advice.¡±

But legal advisers are themselves unable to get clarity and tend to just regurgitate HO website information. Eventually, they suggest simply applying and trusting to luck ¨C for which advice they ask at least ?250 per hour.

Universities also interpret the law differently, and not all reimburse any of these fees, even when the lack of clarity leads to basic but unrefundable errors by the applicant.

In 2021, for instance, I was in London on a tourist visa?because of the unavailability of flights to my country, Australia, during Covid. One London university offered me a post, only to refuse to give me the necessary Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) from inside the country because the regulations said this could only happen if I was switching from another working visa. The HO had an exemption in place to that rule given the global circumstances, but, despite multiple requests, it refused to confirm this to the university in writing. So the job offer was rescinded, leaving me to look for another post after I had declined other offers.

Yet even after some travel restrictions were lifted later that year, my current employer, the University of Hull, sponsored me from within the country, rather than requiring me to travel 27 hours one-way to Australia to get my visa stamped and then fly right back ¨C all at my own cost. Hull has also been very supportive in various other ways.

This different interpretation of the same policy in the same year by two employers meant that I wasn¡¯t sure if I should apply for a five-year visa at once (at greater, non-refundable cost, especially considering the five years of IHS payments I would also have had to make upfront), or a one-year visa, in the expectation of receiving indefinite leave to remain after that on the basis of years previously worked. A year¡¯s payment of visa and IHS fees would have been less to write off if I was subsequently told that I was meant to exit the country first and then pay.

I had no clarity from the HO during the two years I chased them about this until my local MP got involved. The result was that I paid for a one-year, then a two-year, then another one-year visa at much greater cost than the five-year visa would have been. When asked about the different policies of the two universities, the HO simply said: ¡°Unfortunately, we have no control over how outside organisations¡­interpret the Immigration Rules¡­If a person believes they are being given incorrect information, then it is open to them to seek advice elsewhere. There is nothing further we can add on this matter that is not already published.¡±

I wonder how declining to give legal immigrants equal access to services can be compatible with the . I also wonder how the UK can hope to attract the brightest in research and higher education on this basis, as it claims it wants to. The HO¡¯s behaviour and policies make it obvious that the UK no longer wants even legal skilled migrants. And the constant?recalibration?required to stay compliant with shifting regulations leads to?perpetual uncertainty and fatigue.

Hence, I am wondering whether it is time to invest my efforts in the Global South instead. If we have to spend so much money for mediocre services from the HO and for mediocre social services that these costs should have guaranteed, we might as well take a risk for a worthy cause.

Developing societies are likely to appreciate any contributions we are able to make much more than the UK does.

Meron Wondemaghen is senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Hull. She would like to acknowledge the assistance of?, postdoc society lead at the University of Cambridge, and , lecturer in psychology at the University of Reading, who helped shape this piece.