Which visa?

Hello again! I've got another question about what visa to apply for...

My husband is in the British army, but he will only be in for another year or so. Would it make more sense for me to apply for the normal spouse visa? Or the visa for family of military members?

The perk of the military visa is the waved NHS surcharge. If I applied for the military one, would I need to reapply after my husband leaves the army?

Thank you in advance for your help!

If you apply for the military spouse visa it will only be made valid until his service end date, so if he only has a year left, you’ll only get a 1-year visa and then you’ll have to apply for the normal spousal visa next year (and both the visa fees and IHS surcharge may well have risen by then - the IHS surcharge is due to double soon and the visa fees rise in April each year). So, you’ll need to apply for 4 visas over the next 5 years.

If you apply for the regular spousal visa, you’ll get a visa valid 2 years and 9 months and you’ll only have to apply for 3 visas in the next 5 years.

So, even though the military spousal visa will save you the £600 IHS surcharge right now, it may well end up costing you about £3,000 more overall.


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That's what I figured- thank you for confirming! Just out of curiosity, do you know about how much the next 2 visas cost as of now?

That's what I figured- thank you for confirming! Just out of curiosity, do you know about how much the next 2 visas cost as of now?

At the moment:

Spousal visa = £1523 plus £600 IHS
FLR(M) visa = £1033 plus £500 IHS
ILR visa = £2389
And
U.K. citizenship = £1,330

However, the IHS is supposed to double soon, and all three visas (spousal, FLR(M) and ILR) are approved to increase to £3,250 each by 2019/2020... though whether they will get that high, we don’t know yet.

We recommend budgeting £10,000-12,000 in visa and citizenship fees over the whole 5 years, just in case.


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ILR visa = £23891

?

£2389

?

£2389

Yeah, that’s a typo due to me replying at about 3am when I couldn’t sleep, and also doing it on my phone.

Weird though, because when I first wrote it, it was definitely only £2,389.  No idea how the extra 1 got on there. Will edit now.


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Yeah, that’s a typo due to me replying at about 3am when I couldn’t sleep, and also doing it on my phone.

Weird though, because when I first wrote it, it was definitely only £2,389.  No idea how the extra 1 got on there. Will edit now.


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I knew it was a typo (hey - we're all HUMAN)... I was just teasing you!! I thought if anyone else came across this and didn't realise it - £23K seemed a bit steep.

I knew it was a typo (hey - we're all HUMAN)... I was just teasing you!! I thought if anyone else came across this and didn't realise it - £23K seemed a bit steep.

I got it .

It’s just really weird because I checked the reply two or three times before I posted it and that 1 was not there... so I have no clue how I ended up adding it on the end!


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Thank you! I wasn't expecting a response last night as I was laying awake with the visa panics, but was very grateful for your reply. Normal spouse visa it is!