EU Commissioner to Ask British Government to Ease Visa Procedures & Lower Visa Costs for Scientists
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Iliana Ivanova, the EU Commissioner, is set to ask the UK government to ease visa procedures and reduce visa costs for scientists in order to fully benefit from the Horizon programme.
Visa issues and high costs may jeopardise the UK's participation in Horizon, a vital EU funding programme for research and innovation, with an allocated fund of €93 billion.
Last year, the British government warned that the NHS surcharge for skilled visa holders to the country’s health system would increase - from €730 to €1,212, while a 15 per cent increase in costs for visas has also become effective this month.
Iliana Ivanova, the EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, has warned that she will ask the UK to ease its visa procedures and lower costs for scientists, as the country risks losing some of the main benefits of the Horizon Europe research programme.
According to the Financial Times, the EU Commissioner will discuss the issue with the British Secretary of State for Science, Michelle Donelan, on Monday, February 12, during a scheduled visit to celebrate the UK’s re-entry to the Horizon research programme.
We are having some difficulties with European researchers going to the UK due to some visa issues and also higher costs that I’m going to raise with the British side.
Iliana Ivanova, the EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth
Issues with visas can risk the UK’s role in Horizon, the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation, from which Britain left three years ago. Now that the UK is re-entering the programme, the EU Commissioner said that she is going to raise the issue of scientists visas with the British side, who have been complaining over the UK visa system being one of the most expensive.
Last year, the British government warned that the NHS surcharge for skilled visa holders to the country’s health system would increase – from €730 to €1,212, while a 15 per cent increase in costs for visas has also become effective this month.
These measures can discourage skilled workers from being recruited in the UK, with the Royal Society, the UK’s National Academy of Sciences, pointing out that international researchers to the UK will have to pay upfront visa costs that are ten times higher than the average fees in other countries.
As the Financial Times reports, calculations by the Campaign for Science and Engineering, a UK pressure group, said that the upfront costs for a researcher coming to the UK on a five-year Global Talent visa would increase by 57.3 per cent – from €4,067 to €6,898. The fee would increase by 56 per cent for a family of five, reaching €24,573 from €15,662 set currently.
According to EU officials, several member states have asked for the NHS surcharge to be dropped, while Daniel Rathbone, interim executive director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, validated Ivanova’s demand for the UK to lower its prices for scientists.
Big increases in visa costs, including the immigration health surcharge, are totally counterproductive to the UK government’s ambitions of being a science and technology superpower.
Daniel Rathbone, interim executive director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering
The EU research programme, Horizon, has a budget of €93 billion, which is allocated between 2021 and 2027, with almost 90 participant countries. While the UK has re-entered, accession talks for membership are going on with South Korea, and Canada has been accepted.