Tier 2 Visa Extension--Help!

Any advice on how long to extend my Tier 2 General Visa? My current visa expires in Sept. 2020 with issue date and entry in August 2017. I want to try to avoid paying for a third year for the health surcharge, as it will be for myself and my husband and daughter so a total of £1200.

My plan is to apply for ILR for myself and my husband as soon as we are eligible, but our daughter was born here so we want her to apply directly for citizenship (meaning we need our ILR first BEFORE her Tier 2 visa expires and that will of course be tied to my expiration date as the main applicant).

Do I just need to face the fact that I have to extend for 3 years for everything to line up?

Is 'super priority' service later down the line a good alternative (recommended by the immigration specialist)?

Or is there a mysterious third option that I don't know about currently?

Thanks, that's useful! Re: the £1200 that's £400x3 if I extend for three years rather than two.

My concerns is the gap between an application and the results. That is, my employer has assured me that I'll be okay in terms of 'right to work' as long as I submit the ILR app before my Tier 2 visa expires but what about access to NHS?

This is after all what the health surcharge is meant to cover anyway.

I'm assuming if my husband and I have a ILR application in then that's absolutely fine, but that leaves my daughter stuck in limbo until our ILR is approved. I'd be afraid of having a gap between her Tier 2 visa and citizenship in case she needs health care during that time.

By third option I just meant is there something I've missed in the rules. I've read everything carefully, but of course things change regularly (e.g. fees were £200 per person per year for health surcharge in 2017) and so it's possible I'm missing or misunderstanding something.

CR001 wrote: ↑

Fri May 29, 2020 3:07 pm

Are you asking about the extension or ILR?? There is a specific ILR sub forum for ILR queries. Any application that is submitted in time, before a visa expires, and the visa then does expire while the application is pending, engages Section 3C of the Immigration Rules, which means your existing visa conditions continue until HO makes a decision on your application.

I'm asking about how long to extend my Tier 2 Visa, but am thinking ahead to the ILR application so that I can avoid a gap between applications. Basically, I'm debating between extending for two or three years for the reasons I mention in the previous post.

You mention needing to pay 150% NHS costs if there's a gap for my daughter, which would be precisely my concern and what I'm aiming to avoid.

Is it worth asking this question on the ILR board too?

Okay, thanks! The 'gap' I mean is in my daughter's case. We don't have private insurance so it's just NHS that we rely on and in which case the 150% would apply. Sorry if that wasn't clear--messaging isn't always great for explaining meaning.

Anyway, I do fully understand the situation for my husband and I now--thank you! I still feel--perhaps wrongly--that three years extension may be the best choice as I don't want to leave my daughter without NHS coverage or a valid visa, and as the rules state on parent must have ILR before an application for citizenship can be made then there's really no way to guarantee that we'll have our paperwork in time if we only apply for a two-year extension.

CR001 wrote: ↑

Fri May 29, 2020 3:40 pm

Your best option then to minimise the risk is to apply for ILR using super priority service, even if only for yourself and apply standard service for your spouse. Only one parent needs ILR for your daughter to register as British.

I read through other previous posts and one stated that British-born children awaiting their citizenship decision would also be entitled to emergency NHS care even if their Tier 2 visa expired. Is this information accurate? I don't mind delaying nonessential specialist appointments, as my daughter is generally healthy, but we've had at least one situation where an ambulance was needed for her along with treatment in A&E so I mainly worry about those scenarios cropping up after her visa expires. I'd call the NHS myself but when I first moved here found they didn't know much about these rules and just said my daughter had a right to NHS indefinitely (rather than the 3-month rule) when I inquired.

My work is suggesting I just get the two-year extension, so I don't know if I'm overworrying/overthinking the whole transition to citizenship for my daughter. Timelines for these decisions on previous threads seemed to be about a month if I read correctly, so while it's not guaranteed I suppose if do super priority and all goes smoothly that she should get her citizenship close to, if not before, her visa expires.

Redstar222 wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 01, 2020 9:47 pm

I read through other previous posts and one stated that British-born children awaiting their citizenship decision would also be entitled to emergency NHS care even if their Tier 2 visa expired. Is this information accurate?