Applicants for a British visa from June 1 will have to pay a fee of 5.48 pounds sterling (about 400 rubles) when contacting customer support via e-mail, reports BBC. An additional fee for those outside the UK will result from the fact that the British Ministry of the Interior, also known as the Home Office, hired an outside contractor, Sitel UK, to provide help desk services. The website of the British Ministry of Internal Affairs states that "in order to contact us by e-mail, you need to make a payment using a credit or debit card". According to representatives of the British Ministry of Internal Affairs, the new fee should reduce the burden on British taxpayers, as customer support services cost the government a significant amount. However, defenders of migrants' rights object that visa fees are already high, and innovation will lead to an even greater number of visa refusals. "The more difficult it is to apply for a visa, the more likely it is to make mistakes and, as a consequence, return applications. This only increases the costs and the amount of work for the Home Office, which already has few resources, "says Chait Patel, director of politics and legal affairs at the Joint Council on Welfare of Immigrants.. The cost of a British visa is from 89 pounds (about 6,5 thousand. Rubles) for a semi-annual standard tourist visa up to 3250 pounds sterling (about 240 thousand. Rubles) for a visa that ensures the transfer of an elderly or for some other reason dependent person to Britain. According to the National Statistical Office of Great Britain, for Findok, which ended on March 31, 2017, was filed about 3 million applications for the British visa. According to the contract with Sitel UK, the number of languages ??supported by clients has been reduced from 20 to 8, English, two variants of Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Arabic, French, Hindi, Russian and Spanish are left, CNBC reports.. Under the reduction, for example, the languages ??of Punjabi and Urdu. In the British Ministry of Internal Affairs, it is noted that 80% of all telephone conversations and all correspondence are in English, and only 4% in those languages ??that have been decided to reduce.

Original article: British authorities introduce additional fees for issuing visas.