Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the current additional cost of a UK visa applied for in Mirpur, compared to one applied for in Lahore, Karachi or Islamabad; whether they have sought to reduce that cost through procurement; and if so, how.

The cost of applying for a visa itself does not vary anywhere in Pakistan, however, the Mirpur Visa Application Centre is User Pays as opposed to the other sites in Pakistan which are Free To Use. As such use of the Mirpur site attracts a User Pays Fee, which is governed by Fees Regulations and is currently the equivalent of £55 in local currency and can be found on gov.uk under section 3 of https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visa-regulations-revised-table/home-office-immigration-and-nationality-fees-2018 This amount is the same for all User Pays Centres across the globe and is set at a level only to meet the delivery costs of these sites.

If this amount was not charged then HM Government would be unable to provide a service in Mirpur and applicants from in and around that area would have to travel to another site, either in Pakistan or beyond, which they are still free to do, but at their own expense.

The costs associated with these sites are bound by the terms and conditions of the current Next Generations Visa Services contracts with VFS Worldwide and Teleperformance and which are currently set to expire on 31 March 2021. Under those terms no re-procurement of these services can take effect before this date.