Talent visa for UK costs fifty times as much as for South Korea

In the UK it costs nearly twice as much as in France to secure a skilled worker visa for an overseas scientist. It costs roughly ten times as much as in Australia, and fifty times as much as in South Korea. The numbers are from the Royal Society, the UK's leading scientists' association, which is worried that what it calls a "punitive tax on talent" will undermine efforts to restore British science's links with Europe by renewing UK membership of the €93 billion Horizon programme. Increases in employer costs, visa fees and the NHS surcharge for visa-holders use of the health service will raise the upfront cost of a five-year Global Talent Visa to £5,891 as of this month, and the cost for a family of four to nearly £21,000. The UK's post-Brexit freedom to set its own visa fees is turning into a nice little earner for the Home Office, and leaving the idea of a globally influential knowledge economy in pieces.