IHS fee for spouse visa

[shijovmathew]

Hi All,

My wife is in the UK on ILR(Indefinite Leave To Remain). I am applying for a spouse visa and I have a couple of questions that I need to confirm before proceeding with my application.

a) How much is the IHS Fee that I need to pay? How much will be the duration of my Visa? And, what will be the visa fees or total fees (IHS + Visa charges)?
b) In the online application form, there are 2 options as mentioned below, which one do I choose?
(i) Applying alone
(ii) Applying to join somebody(the main applicant) in the UK
c) Will I be going as a settlement route or dependant partner?

Do kindly help out if you have the requested clarifications, please.

[secret.simon]

Assuming that you are applying from outside the UK, the fees are £1,523 for the application itself and £1,872 for the IHS for a 2.5 year visa. You will need to renew the visa after 2.5 years (but before the visa expires), but what the costs will be at that point is a known unknown. Immigration fees have been known to go up by 25% year-on-year in the past.

Keep in mind that you will also need to factor in fees for English test, etc.

[Theunknownusername]

I recently paid for my wife's application in PKR. On the day it cost me £1584.66 for the visa fee and £1947.79 for the IHS fee. Not sure if I will be getting a refund for the overpayments as I did everything I could to make the price as accurate to the conversion as possible. Just seems like the UK Gov's Visa fee pages are a little misleading.

[AmazonianX]

I recently paid for my wife's application in PKR. On the day it cost me £1584.66 for the visa fee and £1947.79 for the IHS fee. Not sure if I will be getting a refund for the overpayments as I did everything I could to make the price as accurate to the conversion as possible. Just seems like the UK Gov's Visa fee pages are a little misleading.

An exchange rate is something to factor in when making payment not in the currency that is stated in this case presumed you didn't pay in GBP.

[shijovmathew]

I recently paid for my wife's application in PKR. On the day it cost me £1584.66 for the visa fee and £1947.79 for the IHS fee. Not sure if I will be getting a refund for the overpayments as I did everything I could to make the price as accurate to the conversion as possible. Just seems like the UK Gov's Visa fee pages are a little misleading.

Thank you for your kind response...

[shijovmathew]

Assuming that you are applying from outside the UK, the fees are £1,523 for the application itself and £1,872 for the IHS for a 2.5 year visa. You will need to renew the visa after 2.5 years (but before the visa expires), but what the costs will be at that point is a known unknown. Immigration fees have been known to go up by 25% year-on-year in the past.

Keep in mind that you will also need to factor in fees for English test, etc.

Hi Simon

Thank you for your response, much appreciated. Yes, I am applying from outside the UK and I just have to have one more clarity. The below-mentioned two options show different amounts for the IHS Fee when selected i.e.GBP 1872 for option B(i) & GBP 2124 for the B(ii) option. Which one do I go with?

b) In the online application form, there are 2 options as mentioned below, which one do I choose?
(i) Applying alone
(ii) Applying to join somebody(the main applicant) in the UK

[TODMATT]

Assuming that you are applying from outside the UK, the fees are £1,523 for the application itself and £1,872 for the IHS for a 2.5 year visa. You will need to renew the visa after 2.5 years (but before the visa expires), but what the costs will be at that point is a known unknown. Immigration fees have been known to go up by 25% year-on-year in the past.

Keep in mind that you will also need to factor in fees for English test, etc.

Hi Simon

Thank you for your response, much appreciated. Yes, I am applying from outside the UK and I just have to have one more clarity. The below-mentioned two options show different amounts for the IHS Fee when selected i.e.GBP 1872 for option B(i) & GBP 2124 for the B(ii) option. Which one do I go with?

b) In the online application form, there are 2 options as mentioned below, which one do I choose?
(i) Applying alone
(ii) Applying to join somebody(the main applicant) in the UK

£1872 is the fee to be paid when applying from
Abroad. You are applying alone because your sponsor is not the applicant. When you reach the IHS page, click on the green bit where it says “ you don’t have any dependants” if you click on the blue bit then the IHS fee will go up!

[Theunknownusername]

I recently paid for my wife's application in PKR. On the day it cost me £1584.66 for the visa fee and £1947.79 for the IHS fee. Not sure if I will be getting a refund for the overpayments as I did everything I could to make the price as accurate to the conversion as possible. Just seems like the UK Gov's Visa fee pages are a little misleading.

An exchange rate is something to factor in when making payment not in the currency that is stated in this case presumed you didn't pay in GBP.

Well the exchange rate I received was 1GBP = 220.6139 on the 13/07, I made sure to only go on the IHS first and then the Visa payment page (stating 349,598 PKR) on the day I was ready to apply for the visa because I knew that the price gets locked in with that days exchange rate. If you look on the GBP to PKR history on any website on 13/07/21 you will see that the average going rate on that day was supposed to be a cost of £1590.25 https://ibb.co/WKXvmD6. (Google MasterCard currency converter calculator and see for yourself). I must have bought during a good time of the day as I got it 6 pound cheaper but still way above the supposed price. Why isn't the GOV website isn't using the global exchange rate at the time to convert £1523 into PKR?

I literally tried everything I could to bring it down to the supposed £1523 in whatever currency you were paying but it would only give it in PKR corresponding to around £1590ish no matter what day it was. I got overcharged.

[secret.simon]

The UKV&I has a visa fee calculator, suggesting a fee of INR 159577 (about £1,585.58, according to Oanda, the UKV&I's preferred currency convertor) for the OP's circumstances.

It does seem that the fees being charged for overseas applications are higher than those stated on the UKV&I's website.

[shijovmathew]

Assuming that you are applying from outside the UK, the fees are £1,523 for the application itself and £1,872 for the IHS for a 2.5 year visa. You will need to renew the visa after 2.5 years (but before the visa expires), but what the costs will be at that point is a known unknown. Immigration fees have been known to go up by 25% year-on-year in the past.

Keep in mind that you will also need to factor in fees for English test, etc.

Hi Simon

Thank you for your response, much appreciated. Yes, I am applying from outside the UK and I just have to have one more clarity. The below-mentioned two options show different amounts for the IHS Fee when selected i.e.GBP 1872 for option B(i) & GBP 2124 for the B(ii) option. Which one do I go with?

b) In the online application form, there are 2 options as mentioned below, which one do I choose?
(i) Applying alone
(ii) Applying to join somebody(the main applicant) in the UK

£1872 is the fee to be paid when applying from
Abroad. You are applying alone because your sponsor is not the applicant. When you reach the IHS page, click on the green bit where it says “ you don’t have any dependants” if you click on the blue bit then the IHS fee will go up!

Thank you, Simon. I appreciate your help...

Cheers

[shijovmathew]

Assuming that you are applying from outside the UK, the fees are £1,523 for the application itself and £1,872 for the IHS for a 2.5 year visa. You will need to renew the visa after 2.5 years (but before the visa expires), but what the costs will be at that point is a known unknown. Immigration fees have been known to go up by 25% year-on-year in the past.

Keep in mind that you will also need to factor in fees for English test, etc.

Hi Simon

Thank you for your response, much appreciated. Yes, I am applying from outside the UK and I just have to have one more clarity. The below-mentioned two options show different amounts for the IHS Fee when selected i.e.GBP 1872 for option B(i) & GBP 2124 for the B(ii) option. Which one do I go with?

b) In the online application form, there are 2 options as mentioned below, which one do I choose?
(i) Applying alone
(ii) Applying to join somebody(the main applicant) in the UK

£1872 is the fee to be paid when applying from
Abroad. You are applying alone because your sponsor is not the applicant. When you reach the IHS page, click on the green bit where it says “ you don’t have any dependants” if you click on the blue bit then the IHS fee will go up!

Hi TODMATT

Apologies, thank you for your help...