Visa Application Fees as Institutional Reverse Remittances from Africa to the Global North

This paper examines institutional reverse remittances from African countries to the UK in the form of visa application fees—a dimension largely overlooked in migration scholarship. While the existing literature focuses on remittances from migrants to their countries of origin, this study explores fiscal flows in the opposite direction. Using publicly available data from the UK Home Office (2020–2023) and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, the paper investigates how rising non-refundable visa fees generate significant revenue for the UK. Underpinned by transnationalism, the analysis reveals that UK embassies in Africa function as revenue infrastructure, extracting large sums through visa regimes. These findings challenge dominant remittance narratives by showing how institutional mechanisms in the Global North entrench mobility inequalities in the Global South. The paper contributes to migration studies by foregrounding the role of visa regimes in sustaining mobility inequalities and “global apartheid”.