Government proposes increases to electronic travel authorisation, nationality and sponsorship fees

The government has announced increases to some Home Office fees. There is no set date for the increases as the draft regulations will be debated and need to be approved by both Houses. Full details of the proposed changes are set out below.

It was also announced that people in transit at the airports in the UK will be temporarily exempt from the need for an electronic travel authorisation:

following feedback from the aviation industry, the government has agreed a temporary exemption for passengers who transit airside, and therefore do not pass through UK border control.

This move will primarily affect Heathrow and Manchester airports, as the only UK airports which currently offer transit facilities. The exemption will be kept under review.

Details of the proposed fee changes

Draft regulations The Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2025 were laid setting out the details of the proposed increases which will take place through changes to the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Order 2016 as set out below. The level of fees in the regulations is the maximum that can be charged, so the actual fee charged may be lower than the maximum set out in the regulations.

Electronic Travel Authorisation

Electronic Travel Authorisation will be increased to £16 from £10 (amending article 6, in table 3, 3.1.4A which has the current maximum set as £15). Provision was also made for Guernsey, Jersey or the Isle of Man to charge the same amount for electronic travel authorisations when the schemes are introduced there (at article 5B(2)).

Nationality

Applying for naturalisation as a British citizen to increase from £1,500 to £1,605 (article 10, in table 7, 7.1). The explanatory memorandum said that naturalisation as a British overseas territories citizen will increase from £1,000 to £1,070.

Applying for reconsideration of an application for naturalisation or registration will increase from £450 to £482 (at 3.2.3). This category of fee also covers other administrative reviews but there is no indication in the explanatory memorandum of a current intention to raise the £80 fee of those applications.

Applying to register a declaration of renunciation of British citizenship will also increase from £450 to £482 (at 7.3).

Amendment of a certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British citizen will increase from £400 to £428 (at 7.4).

The cost of getting a document confirming the right of abode in the UK will increase from £550 to £589 (at 7.7). This fee category also covers a letter confirming a person’s nationality or that they are not a British citizen and the explanatory memorandum says the intention is to increase this from £429 to £459.

The fee for a duplicate certificate will increase from £400 to £428 (at 7.8 and 7.9).

Sponsorship

The certificate of sponsorship fee will increase and the current fee of £239 will increase to £525 and the £25 fee will increase to £55 (through an amendment to article 7, in table 4, allocation of a certificate of sponsorship at 4.2). Sponsorship approval under the ‘Sponsor a Worker’ process which has begun a phased roll out and will replace the existing certificate of sponsorship process (at 4.2A) will be increased from a maximum of £300 to £525.

Next steps

We will update this post once there is a set date for these increases.