Healthcare surcharge???

I had thought that for a first visa for a fiancee and dependent I did not have to pay this.

However when Corina attended at VFS Manila she was told I have to pay it within 24 hours

And the IHS website is "down for maintenance"

GRRRR

Oh dear! Hope it will be sorted out ASAP.

I'm sorry about your troubles. If I read you correctly, you have applied for a fiancee visa (where you intend to marry within the UK) which has a duration of 6 months, for your fiancee and for one dependent child.

I don't believe that the IHS is payable for visa of less than six months duration so, I suppose there are a couple of possibilities:
1. That the IHS is indeed payable for fiancee visa because it's right on the borderline. I don't know about that.
2. That VFS made a mistake. Perhaps they were confused by the presence of a dependent child and assumed that your visa application was for a 30 month settlement visa. And that brings me to my below point.

I'm not an immigration advisor - I'm just a guy going through the same process as you - but I have spoken to attorneys in the Philippines and used the services of an attorney in the UK - and I would just like to mention one thing that might be relevant to you. My wife has dependents also, and I was advised that a fiancee visa was going to be difficult to obtain because the rules state that you have to show a real, unusal, emergent and pressing need that the kids must be allowed entry - that normally, such applications with dependents would not succeed. I therefore got married there for that reason before submitting an application on the instructions of my lawyer. I realize that every case is different and I have no idea what you put in your papers, but I wanted to mention this in case there was something that you needed to add to your papers, or in case there was something you had missed so as to give you the option of altering your approach at the eleventh hour (since its not too late to delay your submission at this point without losing your fee).

I don't mean to alarm you, or to sound like a know-all. I realize that I'm new on here, and so far I feel that my input hasn't really been welcomed by some people - but I'm really just trying to help.

Oh dear Andrew, you're not having a good experience with your visa application.

I can only think of two scenarios both of which could be wrong, they have made a mistake as it clearly states on the Government website that visas granted 6 months or less are exempt from the charge, or even though you are exempt you still have to go through the NHS surcharge process online to get a IHS number even though you are exempt. My latter explanation is definitely the case for people coming to the UK from countries that have a reciprocal treatment agreement with the UK.

I hope some good people who have just had their visas granted under the same circumstances as yours will post

Timmers makes a good point. I also seem to recall seeing during the application process that you would receive an IHS number even if you didn't have to pay anything.

Use this service to:
check if you need to pay the surcharge
pay the surcharge if it applies to you
get an IHS reference number for your visa application - you'll need this even if you don't have to pay

The above is taken from the following website;

https://www.immigration-health-surcharge.service.gov.uk/payment/start

Yes when the charge first came out I was curious. I ran through the process several times on the govt website. I was allocated several IHS numbers, of course without any payment.

Well I am now thoroughly alarmed!

A child of six needs his mother and I have been his Daddy since he was two.

Don't really know what I could add. I thought it was obvious.

Well, every case is different and I don't know your situation or what your documentation contains. However, my understanding is that for a Fiancee application with a dependent child to succeed, you have to be able to prove in your application that there is a real case that the child can not stay in the Philippines, for example with other relatives, and that there are compelling reasons why the application (for the child) should succeed.

I believe, and I have been told, that granting a visa under such circumstances is the exception rather than the rule, so your application will have to have been prepared with that in mind. To be frank I suggest that you speak to an attorney or an immigration professional like I did.

I was also told that in addition to the additional difficulties that the dependent child introduces, it was a more expensive route in any case, because you'll just have to make exactly the same application (for a 30 month settlement visa) whether you make it now, or whether you make it when your wife-to-be is in the UK and you are married. So you're going through a lot of hassle and expense for a couple of months together in the UK and the ability to marry here.

I also really wanted to apply using the fiance route. I didn't want to believe that such an application was going to be hard to make. However, I was advised that with a dependent child, it is much easier to marry in the Philippines and then petition to bring the child with your wife. However, I'm not a lawyer. I'm just relaying what I've been told and what my understanding is.

I wanted to mention this to you so that you could perhaps do something about it. I'm sorry I didn't mean to alarm you or make you worry. But I felt I would be remiss in not mentioning this when I noticed your post.

One more thing - I also believe that if you make an application with the dependent child on it, and the dependent child is denied entry, then both applications will automatically fail.

If you would like to message me privately for a chat about my experiences I would be more than happy to do that.

I don't mean to alarm you, or to sound like a know-all. I realize that I'm new on here, and so far I feel that my input hasn't really been welcomed by some people - but I'm really just trying to help.

quite the opposite----youre input is very valuable--we are all on the same journey--just at different stages.

as tesco says--"every little helps "

so--keep up the good work

Seems we should have got married first.

Too late now, 2,070 pounds already spent.

No such advice appears anywhere on any of the UK Government etc websites

Well, if your fiancee hasn't actually handed in the documents yet, why not get the opinion of a professional? At the very least, perhaps you can include additional documents showing reason why the child can't be left behind and could not be looked after by relatives.
In any case, maybe it will be OK. The trouble with all this is that it depends on UKVI interpretation of the law, the circumstances of each case, and the caseworkers understanding of the rules. I can only pass on the advice I was given. Perhaps my case was subtly different to yours. I was just trying to help.

I think you may have got caught up in the old system, Andrew. If you started the application before 5 July , then you are using the old system, even if you submit the on-line application for 5 July onwards. The consequences of that are because you paid after 4 July you may well have paid the charge, but because you commenced the application before 5 July, you have to pay the surcharge a second time and claim back a refund!

Luckily, I noticed that small problem before submission and re-started with a new on-line application on 5 July. I wrote about it here...

http://www.british-filipino.com/index.php?threads/ihs-reference-number.10878/page-2#post-86930

Applications started from 5 July onwards automatically calculate the required surcharge, so the risk of non-payment is greatly reduced.

Sorry, but I did not think to mention this to you when you were having problems over the Premium Lounge Payment

She handed in the documents and did the biometrics this morning.

Yes, that is what has happened.

Well. Best of luck then. I'm sorry for worrying you. Most likely there's something about my case that is different to yours which is why I was told to marry first. I have seen entries written by other people in other forums where they did get their fiancee visa granted with a child. I guess we just have to keep our collective fingers crossed.

I think you have probably tried to pay using the login details for the visa application but I think registration to pay the IHS surcharge is different...

https://www.immigration-health-surcharge.service.gov.uk/payment/start

Yes, but this system just chucks you back to where you started

Good luck Andrew. I hope this all works out for you all.

Are you sure you chose the register option?

https://www.immigration-health-surcharge.service.gov.uk/ego/#/register