Hello, This Febin Cyriac again coming back with another petition, We worked together on the IELTS petition which opened up the doors for 1000's of nurses to have their dream job in the United Kingdom, More than that we supported the NHS to tackle staffing shortage. 

Overseas nurses playing a vital part in the UK healthcare system during this pandemic and it wouldn't be possible without your support. We have another challenging issue ahead of us and we can make it happen. 

IHS (Immigration Health Surcharge) fee was introduced by the UK government in April 2015 for migrants (Non-EU) working or studying in the UK. All foreign nationals coming to the UK either for studies or employment have to pay (in advance) the IHS fee of 200 GBP annually., later increased to £400/year As per the recent announcement by the government, this IHS fee will be increased to 624 GBP a year from October this year, which necessarily means that a person coming on a 3 years visa will have to pay 1872 GBP as IHS fee. A family of 5 members will have to summon a huge sum of 9360GBP for IHS fee apart from the mandatory visa fee. There is no doubt, that this would be the single biggest barrier that would force the migrants to reconsider their plans of working in the UK.
A nurse working in the UK is already bound to pay the National Insurance every year costing 1750 GBP approx. The individual is further burdened with an additional fee of 624 GBP in the name of IHS fee. In short, the person is forced to make a double tax or a payment twice only with different names.
Presently, migrant workers play a vital role in fighting against this though they knew that there is a high risk on them since they are from the BAME (Black, Asian. Minority and Ethnic) community and many BAME workers sacrificed their lives fighting in the frontline and their contribution and efforts cannot be neglected.

It is really painful and rather a feeling of great deprivation, yesterday when we heard the home secretary said that, she hardly remembers uttering something in favour of relaxing the IHS fee for the healthcare professionals. She feels the fee should stand as it is and increasing to £624 from October 2020. Precisely a slap of migrants workers face. A few weeks back, when the COVID was it's peak and when we had no PPE she promised a possible consideration of removing/relaxing the IHS fee burden of NHS workers who are extremely busy fighting the rigorous and uncontrollable spread of the virus across the world and particularly the UK.

Now I am calling every migrant worker to sign this petition as I believe this is the only way ahead of us. Since the petition was made in the UK Parliament site, Government will respond to this when we have 10K signatures.

we can make this happen if we all stand together, Let's get our voice heard. Please share this with your friends. We don't need claps, Scrap the double tax on us and we are here to make a living. Let's make a change. Please please do share with your friends and we would need 100K signatures. Here is the link: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/301948

Thanks in advance Febin Cyriac

Note: You will receive an email after signing the petition to confirm your vote. don't forget to verify that. At 100,000 signatures, this petition will be considered for debate in Parliament.