&w=3840&q=100)
August 2025 immigration changes: UK fee hike, Re 1 visas, Saudi work permit
University fees in England to rise from August 1
Students in England, including Indians with permanent residency, will now pay up to £9,535 a year for undergraduate courses. The increase of £285 comes after tuition fees were frozen at £9,250 since 2017.
'For those worried about affordability, we're also increasing maintenance loans to support students with the cost of living,' said Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson in Parliament in November 2024.
The new fee cap applies to courses offered by 'approved (fee cap)' providers depending on their Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) status and access plans. The changes take effect from August 1, 2025.
Here's what full-time students will now pay annually:
£9,275: Providers without TEF but with an APP
£6,355: Providers with TEF but without an APP
£6,185: Providers with neither TEF nor APP
Accelerated and part-time course fees have been raised proportionately.
Students doing final-year courses under 15 weeks, sandwich placements, or a study-abroad year will pay reduced percentages—50 per cent, 20 per cent, and 15 per cent of the standard fee, respectively.
International fees are set independently by universities.
India's first-ever ₹1 visa sale on August 4–5
Travellers applying for visas to over a dozen destinations—including the UK, US, Australia, France, Germany, and Indonesia—can now do so for just ₹1 during a two-day campaign by visa platform Atlys.
'If you book through Atlys, for select Schengen countries like Greece, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, we have slashed both our service fee and the appointment fees,' said Mohak Nahta, founder and CEO of Atlys.
He gave an example: 'In France, the appointment fee is about ₹2,047 and our usual service fee is ₹2,950. As part of this offer, both are reduced to just ₹1.'
The same offer applies to US visa applicants, where the standard Atlys service fee of ₹19,940 will drop to ₹1.
'For the UK, we are charging just ₹1 total—there are no extra fees, hidden charges, or visa costs during the campaign,' Nahta said.
Countries covered include the UAE, UK, Vietnam, Egypt, Oman, Qatar, Kenya, Morocco, Taiwan, and more.
UK to train 60,000 construction workers
Starting August, new construction foundation apprenticeships will open in England, backed by £40 million. It is part of a broader £600 million investment over four years to tackle construction skill shortages.
The scheme, which falls under the government's Youth Guarantee, could be a chance for Indian-origin youth settled in the UK to access training and enter skilled trades.
August 2025 US Visa Bulletin: Small gains for India
In the latest update by the US State Department:
India's EB-2 green card dates remain unchanged.
EB-3 (Skilled & Other Workers) categories have moved forward by one month.
EB-5 unreserved investor visas advanced by 6.5 months for India.
EB-1 remains current for most countries, but cut-off dates for India and China are still 15 February 2022 and 2 November 2022 respectively.
These dates decide who can file green card applications (Form I-485) using the Final Action Dates chart.
Saudi Arabia enforces skill-based permit rules from August 3
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Human Resources has made it mandatory from August 3 for all new foreign workers, including Indians, to be classified under a skill-based work permit system.
Three categories have been introduced: high-skill, skilled, and basic. The classification is based on education, experience, technical capabilities, wages, and age.
Assessments will be carried out digitally via the Qiwa platform. Employers and workers are expected to complete classification or reassessment requests through it.
Foreigners already in the country were brought under the new system from 18 June.
What counts for classification:
Educational qualifications
Years of relevant experience
Practical or technical training
Current wages
Age
Occupations are mapped to nine groups, including professionals, clerks, sales workers, agricultural workers, and machine operators.
For example, a basic-skill worker will typically be under 60 and in a lower occupational group, while a high-skill worker will need to meet stricter wage and qualification criteria.
Saudi Arabia remains a major destination for Indians, with 2.65 million Indian nationals working there, according to India's Ministry of External Affairs.
New US form fees from 22 July: August deadline to comply
Starting 22 July, USCIS introduced new mandatory immigration fees under law H.R. 1. Applications postmarked after 21 August 2025 without correct payment will be rejected.
The fee increases apply across asylum applications, work permits, and temporary protection cases, and cannot be waived.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
2 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Travellers to US to soon require up to $15,000 bonds for tourist, business visas
The US State Department has proposed to start requiring bonds of up to $15,000 for some tourists and business visas to enter America under a pilot program which is scheduled to launch in two weeks, a government notification said on Monday. In an attempt to crackdown on visitors who overstay after their visa expires, the federal government said it would start a 12-month pilot program under which people who belong to countries with high over stay rates and lack in internal document security controls could be required to furnish bonds of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 when they apply for a US visa. The notice published in the Federal Register stated that the program would commence within the 15 days of its formal publication and that it would be necessary to ensure that the US government would not be financially liable if the visitor does not comply with the terms of his or her visa. The proposal by the State Department, which could make the process unaffordable for many, comes after President Donald Trump started cracking down on illegal immigration after coming back to office in January as he boosted resources to secure the border and arrest people staying illegally in the United States. Trump had issued a blanket travel ban in June against citizens of 19 countries that fully or partially blocked them from entering the United States on national security grounds. The notice by Federal Register stated: 'Aliens applying for visas as temporary visitors for business or pleasure and who are nationals of countries identified by the department as having high visa overstay rates, where screening and vetting information is deemed deficient, or offering citizenship by investment, if the alien obtained citizenship with no residency requirement, may be subject to the pilot program.' However, the State Department refrained from listing the countries whose citizens would be affected, saying the list will be released once the program takes effect. The bond, however, could be waived by the federal government depending on an applicant's individual circumstances.
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
Fiscal fitness
Mansplaining Donald Duck is my superpower Nobody is focusing on fiscal fitness, I said to Kamala as we walked briskly round our neighbourhood park. She narrowed her eyes as she realised I was talking about money, then confessed she didn't understand money. Most Indians know how to make money and hoard money but are clueless about the Budget or things like American tariffs and what impact these have on our daily lives. Our basic fear is that everyone, including banks, netas, the markets and every person who calls on the phone, is trying to loot our hard-earned money. I puffed my chest out to mansplain money matters: Imagine if you had a friend – a very rich, important, delusional friend – who runs a chain of veggie shops. Imagine if you grew tomatoes in your farm and you wanted him to buy these tomatoes and sell them on… I could see I was losing Clueless Kamala so I tried to make it even simpler: If this close friend, based on his friendship alone, was charging you 25% more to sell your tomatoes in his shop, it would make tomatoes costlier in his shop while creating a glut of tomatoes in your farm. Kamala looked confused but I continued: Imagine if this friend saw you buying Kerosene from Puttaniah and levied a penalty because he didn't like that. Plus, this friend tells everyone that he also stopped the fight we had last weekend and that we would be divorced by now if not for him. She perked up: 'Were we fighting with our neighbor Pakkath Mane Parvathi because her sons keep lobbing balls into our compound and creating destruction every time they jump over the compound wall? But we are still playing cricket with them.' Kamala was finally getting the hang of international affairs. I had made the whole thing as logical as The Kerala Story getting the national award. She sat down on the bench and gave me a withering look: 'This friend of yours sounds like a bully. I don't think he is anyone's friend.' I hummed an old Shammi Kapoor song: Tariff karoon kya uski jisne usse banaya. I told her he was a self-made man so we couldn't blame God or Nehru for this situation. Donald Duck used to be a harmless cartoon without pants when we were growing up. He still is – but the world is not laughing anymore. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Economic Times
9 hours ago
- Economic Times
Handful of groups investing in India; low consumption growth a concern: Parth Jindal
Synopsis Parth Jindal of JSW Group highlights that only a few companies are currently investing in India. He emphasizes the need for broader participation in private capital expenditure. JSW Group plans to invest USD 50 billion in the next five years, showcasing its confidence in India's growth potential. PTI JSW Paints MD Parth Jindal Only a "handful" of corporates are investing in India, JSW Group scion Parth Jindal said on Monday, stressing the need for "democratisation" when it comes to private capital expenditure. The Mumbai-headquartered group having interest in cement, steel, ports and sports, believes in India's growth potential and will invest USD 50 billion over the next five years, the 35-year-old Parth, the son of Sajjan Jindal, told reporters here. "You have today a handful of groups investing in India. We need it to be more democratised. We need more MSMEs to invest. We need everyone to invest," Jindal, the managing director of the USD 49 billion group's cement and paints arms, told reporters here. It can be noted that some other industry captains, including billionaire banker Uday Kotak, have expressed concerns around investments getting done by a few groupings in the past. The JSW Group is investing across its businesses, Jindal said, pointing out that while his father Sajjan Jindal -- the group chairman and managing director -- has announced investing USD 60 billion over five years, group executives are pegging it at USD 40 billion and he himself feels it will be USD 50 billion. "We believe that there's incredible potential in India, incredible potential to export from India as well. And also really... in the China plus one strategy," the Jindal family scion said. Other private companies have opted deleverage or paying off their loans over investment in capacity addition, which is more sought after for the growth impetus it gives, Jindal said. Private companies have strong balance sheets, but they are not investing, he rued, adding that the government is also "perplexed" about this phenomenon because the fundamentals of the economy are very strong. Stating that manufacturing in India needs to go up, Jindal pointed to challenges around land acquisition and labour laws being a deterrent to invest. "(there are) so many laws, so many rules... tribal land, SC (Scheduled Caste) land, ST (Scheduled Tribe) land, OBC (Other Backward Classes) land. I mean, it's very difficult for any foreign company to come and understand or even a startup to come and think about it. So, that needs reform," Jindal said. The government has done a lot of reform, and its arms like the Niti Aayog are looking into how this can be reversed. Jindal also flagged concerns around the sagging consumption growth in the country, pointing out that it is a "tale of two Indias" where the top 20 crore people in the country are spending. "...it's a tale of almost two Indias. Now, you have a widening gap between the top 200 million Indians and the rest. And that's a really big concern because you're seeing value growth, but you're not seeing volume growth. And that could only mean that, you know, that this divide is increasing," he said. Jindal said JSW Group looks at manufacturing as its core strength, where it can put up a big plant right from acquiring a piece of land to erecting the facility. The group will list either the e-commerce arm JSW One or JSW MG Motors over the next two years, he said.
