Dependant Visa Renewal/Extension

[themalern]

I have just gone through a crazy application process with my wife's extension of her spouse/dependant visa. There are several things that I'd like to point out though. First things first, I am an overseas nurse employed by one of the NHS hospitals in Sussex area.

The first obstacle came when we wanted to renew our visas early back in April of this year as we were planning to apply for a Schengen visa because of a holiday we planned on October. However, during the application process (perhaps I am just too uninformed or ignorant of the visa renewal process) I found out that a new Certificate of Sponsorship had to be generated by my employer for the renewal of my visa to be granted.

Human resources said that the earliest that they can issue a new CoS would be on the 25th of June -- 3 months before my current visa is set to expire. But I already completed the application and was able to pay £247 just for a new BRP to be sent to me but still had the same expiry date!

Fast forward to a few days ago, the new CoS was issued very late, it came around the 8th of this month and I ended up scrambling to renew my visa because I only have more than a month to work on it and my wife's dependant visa was also set to expire on the same date as mine.

Then the second obstacle came. My colleagues who are also in the same position as I am, informed me that there was an option to include my dependants during the application of my visa renewal, saying that I would have to pay for them in the last part of the application. However, when I got to the payment part, I was surprised and worried that I only had to pay for one person (which was for myself) and not for my wife.

We have no children, although we are expecting one to be born on October.

Given the circumstances of the situation, I did some research and asked around. Eventually I found out that she needs to apply separately for a spouse extension as we have no children. Initially, I took the family route and I was surprised to find out that instead of the £247 fee that I was expecting, we were required to pay £1000+ for the visa and a further £1500+ for the IHS! I didn't have any choice as I was desperate to renew her visa as it expires the same date as mine.

Another concern of mine is that I eventually found out after further digging that instead of the family route, she was supposed to apply for the FLR (M) route. But to be fair, the requirements and questions to the application are almost the same. We decided to stick to the family route as we have already paid for it.

Now, much of our little savings have been used for this extension. My wife and I haven't been together long. We just had our first-year anniversary last month and we met March of 2021 and a few months and a flurry of emotions later, we got married and a few months after that, I got her to the UK. But we are expecting a baby soon. She has a permanent job as a carer in one of the care homes nearby and both of our salaries are more than enough to satisfy the financial requirements.

At the moment, I am still waiting for a reply from home office about the renewal of my own visa and she is scheduled for her visa appearance in London on the 25th of this month. Right now, we are in the process of scanning the required documents and uploading them ourselves before her biometric scanning.

Can someone tell me if I did the steps correctly? This is our first time with all of these. I would've asked around in the forum granted we were given enough time. Also, is there a possibility that my initial payment of my early visa renewal can be refunded?

Many thanks.

[CR001]

If you are on a skilled worker visa, she must apply as a skilled worker dependent. There is no other visa she qualifies for.

[themalern]

Thank you!!!! Everything is clear now! I'll have our initial application cancelled as well as a refund for the IHS! Thank youuuu.