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briandear

Meanwhile, in Australia, they’re raising student visa fees to $1279 (USD.)

US student visas, after all fees are roughly $500 (USD.)

UK skilled worker visas are about $1660. The H1B is about $1700.

The U.K. multi entry visitor visa for 10 year validity is about $1200.

The U.S. version: $185

I understand it’s popular to post articles that sensationalize how “bad” the U.S. is, but reasonable people probably should have some perspective.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australias-ruling...

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Australia and the UK have their own particular immigration crises. In Australia, overstaying a student visa is the most common way of becoming an illegal immigrant, and so the increased fee is part of a larger suite of reforms designed to reduce this. In the UK, the government wishes to reduce the number of skilled worker visas to deal with a pay compression issue: the average salary for a new graduate in the UK is the same as the minimum wage.

This visa integrity fee seems to be a much blunter instrument.

> In Australia, overstaying a student visa is the most common way of becoming an illegal immigrant,

This may be due to the difficulties with border crossings.

> This may be due to the difficulties with border crossings.

It’s no harder getting out than it was getting in.

There is, however, a long history of immigration to Australia that is illegal under Australian law; see the 'Timeline' section of this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asylum_in_Australia

> the government wishes to reduce the number of skilled worker visas to deal with a pay compression issue

At least in IT/tech I would expect an opposite effect - with number of skilled immigrants reduced there will be risk that multinational companies will close development offices in the UK, startups will have one more reasons to choose another country too. With number of available jobs going down workforce reduction will not prop salaries up IMHO.

You do not sound very genuine. It does not say it is multi-entry fee enywhere. For tourists very few countries ask more except visa fee (and many do not require visa at all). For UK this fee is only 16GBP for 2 years and not 1200 USD:

https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/electronic-travel-author...

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