Spouse Visa UK Fees & Costs in 2023 (& Other Hidden Partner Visa Costs)

in this video we will discuss the current UK spouse visa fees and costs in 2023 and 2024. we will discuss whether you will be making an application from outside or from inside the UK and this is important to know because the spouse visa fees and costs are different the standard spouse visa fee the optional priority service and the costs associated with that the immigration Health surcharge are the costs which Partners sometimes initially Overlook and we will discuss answers to frequently asked questions about all of the above furthermore we will cover the fees and costs for both House of country and in-country applications so if you're making a UK spouse visa application this video will be relevant to you as an ois regulated UK immigration law firm specializing in UK partner visas we are very well placed to discuss this let's first quickly establish whether you'll be making the application from outside or inside the UK as previously mentioned the fees are different but so too are the process and requirements so it's crucial to know to make an application from inside the UK in other words make an in-country application the applicant who's the person applying must be in the UK when the application is submitted they must have a Visa granted for a period exceeding six months unless they're in the UK on a fiance or proposed civil partnership visa and finally they must not be in the UK as a visitor rather applicants who are in the UK as a visitor are expected to return to their country of nationality or legal residence and submit the out of country application there so if the applicant does not have any UK visas they must apply from outside the UK I.E they can only make an out of country application and this is the case even if the UK partner the sponsor intends to complete the online application on the applicant's behalf and help by submitting the documents whilst they're inside the UK this standard home office spouse visa UK fee from 2023 to 2024 is 1538 pounds for applications made from outside the UK and 1000 48 pounds for applications made from inside the UK these figures are the cost per person that is applying for a UK spouse or partner Visa therefore if you have dependent children who are also applying for a Visa at the same time as their parent you will also have to pay the same fee for the home office to process their visa as shown in this table please note the word applying dependent children who are British citizens or who already have settled status do not need to apply for a Visa and will therefore not increase either the home office fee or the immigration Health surcharge which we will also talk about later on in this video for example the applicant wants to make an out-of-country application and has three children one child is Australian and will be joining their parent to the UK one child is Australian and will be staying with their other parent in Australia and one child is a British Citizen and will be joining their parent in the UK here there will be one dependent child applying so the total standard home office fee will be 3076 pounds let's now discuss the priority homework spouse visa UK fee so the priority service is an optional additional cost service which will reduce the standard processing time we have a separate video discussing the spouse visa UK processing time and optional priority service so we won't elaborate on that too much here and we'll just focus on costs for hours of country applications a priority service is normally available which will reduce the processing time to 30 working days on average at the cost of 211 pounds this 211 pound cost comprised of the standard home office fee of 1538 pounds and the additional priority fee of 573 pounds for in-country applications Partners can opt for the super priority service which will reduce the processing time to one working day on average at the cost of 800 pounds when is the standard all priority home office fee page once you've completed the questions in the online application form and have paid the immigration Health surcharge which is another cost that we will also discuss shortly you will reach a page that looks like this example of an out of country application in-country applications are similar you can see that only the standard service was listed when the screenshot was taken for out-of-country applications where the priority service is available this can ordinarily be purchased at two stages of the application firstly When You Reach this payment page in the online application second if the priority service is not listed here again where available and assuming that you're not applying from a tiny minority of countries like Cuba where the application process is slightly different the priority service can be purchased on the VFS or TLS website we explain the spouse and partner Visa process and enroll that VFS and TLS play in our spouse visa UK requirements YouTube video so if you want to learn more about that feel free to check that out for in-country applications the super priority service can only be purchased when you reach this page it cannot be bought on the UK vcas website which is where you'll be redirected to after submitting the application by paying the home office fees on the online application for partners who want to opt for the super priority service for an in-country application if the expiry date of the Visa permits it may be worthwhile to check this page at a later time before you make payment for the home office fee super priority Visa appointments usually aren't released daily so why does this screenshot here say USD rather than GBP this leads us to the first hidden cost that we will point out the home office fee and the immigration Health surcharge for out of country applications are rarely charged in British Pounds more commonly it's the case that the fee will be listed in USD Euros or another currency depending on the country in which the applicant will be applying from perhaps more significantly is the exchange rate the home office use resulting in Partners sometimes having to pay up to 10 above or below in the overseas currency compared to the rate that you'll see on Google furthermore for out of country applications depending on the card that you use for payment you may incur an additional foreign currency conversion fee in-country applications on the other hand are always charged in British Pounds the date that this spouse visa fee is paid is significant for both out of country and in-country applications it is on this state that the requirements must be met in the immigration rules and online application this is called the date of application for example Bob relied on his employment income to satisfy the financial requirements two days after submitting the online application by paying the home office fees he quit his job this is technically irrelevant to the application and should be fine because again the relevant date that the requirements must be met is when the home office fees are paid let's quickly address home office fee refunds and when they will be issued firstly the home office fee will unfortunately not be refunded for refused applications secondly if the application is withdrawn before the applicant attends the visa center a refund will be issued and thirdly if the application is withdrawn after the applicant attends the visa center a refund will not normally be issued let's now just discuss the immigration Health surcharge the immigration Health surcharge often referred to as the IHS is a mandatory payment that provides applicants with access to the National Health Service unfortunately the fact that the applicant or sponsor has already paid thousands in UK tax does not change the fact that this fee must be paid for out-of-country applications the IHS will cost 1872 pounds and for in-country applications this will cost 1560 pounds like the home office fee the IHS must also be paid for each dependent child applying so this totaled with the standard home office fee will require you to pay at the very minimum 3410 pounds for out of country applications and 2 608 pounds for in-country applications I say at the very minimum because there are some other minor costs that we will discuss later on in this video the payment for the immigration Health surcharge is made as part of the online application process for both out of country and in country applications the IHS is paid before payment of the home office fee using either a credit or debit card and there are two other things worth noting here firstly out of country fiance visa applicants do not have to pay the IHS for the fiance visa application they must however pay the immigration Health surcharge for the next partner visa application and secondly the IHS will be refunded if a partner visa application is refused or withdrawn even if the applicant attends the biometric appointment let's now discuss the other more minor costs associated with the application that partners are not always initially aware of one document translations the immigration rules state that specific documentation that is not in English or Welsh must be translated the cost for this will depend on what documents you need translated and how many words or Pages those documents are the cheaper translators in the UK tend to charge about 60 pounds to translate a one-page document and about 85 pounds to translate a two-page document there are a few quick points worth making about the document translations one the translation can be done both in the UK and overseas if you prefer to get the translation done by an overseas translator you can find a list of overseas translators by Googling list of translators and interpreters abroad gov dot UK two the immigration rules lists specific documentation translation requirements the translation must be dated and includes confirmation that it is an accurate translation of the document the full name and signature of the translator or an authorized official of the translation company and the translator or translation company's contact details and if you're submitting an in-country application the translation must include certification by a qualified translator and details of the translator or translation company's credentials and three if a document is in English and other languages such as marriage certificates from Denmark which often helpfully contains five or so different languages the document will not need to be translated to TB test as we discuss in our spouse visa requirements and process YouTube video certain out-of-country applicants will need to pay for a TB test TB test costs tend to vary quite a bit but on average these tend to cost between 65 pounds and 110 pounds and since the TB requirement also applies to dependent children who are also applying with the applicant a TB test fee may also apply to them three secure English language test costs the different secure English language test costs vary from around 150 pounds to 200 pounds there are a few quick points I want to point out here which we discuss in more detail in our one hour plus spouse visa requirements and process YouTube video One not all English language tests will do instead the test must be a home office approved secure English language test and we list these tests on our website migrate.org.uk two there are other ways to satisfy the English language requirement which will incur no additional cost for certain applicants we discuss the various ways to satisfy the English language requirement on our website and in our spouse visa requirements and process YouTube video three dependent children who are also applying will not need to take an English language test as the English language requirement does not apply to them and finally it's worth pointing out that to save money if the applicant's English language ability is good enough they can choose to sit the A2 or B1 test and this is because even though the secure English language tests are only valid for two years in most situations the English language test can be reused if a partner visa application is being extended and it was successfully relied on in the previous partner Visa Grant four other additional services such as document scanning there are several optional added value services available at visa application centers these vary by location and you should look at these on the UK vcas website if you're making an in-country application or VFS or TLS depending on the country in which the application is being submitted from if you're making an out of country application for out of country applications one service which we want to highlight is the keep my passport service which usually costs between 50 pounds and 70 pounds depending on the visa center this service can be very useful if you want to travel whilst the Visa is being processed or even come to the UK If you have the correct documentation to do so for in-country applications applicants will always retain possession of their passport as part of the standard process but please note that if the applicant leaves the UK whilst the application is processing doing so will withdraw the application we do not generally recommend the document scanning service which tends to cost between 15 pounds and 95 pounds Partners tend to prefer the free alternative which is to self upload the documentation for a detailed one hour plus step-by-step guide on UK spouse visas feel free to check this video here and if you want to see more of these kinds of videos from us feel free to subscribe like the video and let us know in the comments below I hope you found this video helpful

Channel: Migrate org uk - Spouse Visa UK Specialists

Views: 10,354

Keywords: spouse visa uk, uk spouse visa, spouse visa uk fees, spouse visa uk costs, spouse visa uk 2023, spouse visa uk fees 2023, spouse visa uk costs 2023, uk spouse visa 2023

Id: SL3OGsQlX90

Length: 12min 59sec (779 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 27 2023