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I am currently on Tier 2 General/Skilled Worker visa with BRP start date as 13th January, 2020 and BRP end date on 14th January, 2025. My COS start and end date is 01 January 2020 and 31 December, 2024. On checking the gov website, it is mentioned that the earliest date, I can apply for ILR is 28 days before you’ve been in the UK for 5 years. I came to UK on 13th January , 2020. I'll be eligible to apply for my ILR from 16th December, 2024.

1) Can I submit and make payments on my online ILR application before 16th December, 2024 and book my biometric appointment for a date after 16th December, 2024? Which date is considered as the ILR application date, is it the online submission date or biometric appointment date? If I do like this, will it affect my ILR application?

My spouse and kids were already in the UK on different visa category (Tier 2 ICT) from 3rd February, 2018 (during this time, we stayed together and is legally married). They then moved to my Tier 2 General visa as my dependants on 3rd November, 2020. I far as what I have read from the different sites, they will need to apply for Tier 2 Dependant Skilled Worker visa extension to complete the gap of 9 months to attain their 5 year continuous residence in UK as my Dependants.

2) Is my understanding correct that my dependants' time spent on Tier 2 ICT will not be considered against their 5 year continuous residence for ILR application under Tier 2 General/Skilled Worker Dependants?

3) Can they apply for this extension visa only after I receive my ILR. Or can they apply the extension while my ILR application is pending.

4) While applying for their extension visa, which visa application reference number of the main applicant should they give? Is it the original Tier 2 General Visa application reference number or current ILR visa application reference number?

Many thanks,

1. This has been asked and answered hundreds of times already. The date of application is not critical or that relevant.
Read: Applicants can benefit from the date of the ILR decision

2. Your understanding is totally incorrect. Such separate routes never existed and the skilled worker rules only need your spouse to have been your dependant under any route for 5 years. Children also do NOT have a residence requirement and settle when the parents do.

3. All apply together for ILR

4. NA

@zimba and other members,

Thank you very much for your response. Regarding point 2, there is a difference in our case,

1) My spouse was a main applicant under ICT tier 2 visa from Sept 2017 till Nov 2020, I was her depandant from Feb 2018 till Dec 2019.
2) Then I became a main applicant under Tier 2 Skilled visa from Jan 2020 till Jan 2025, but my spouse still remained as a main applicant in Tier 2 ICT till Nov 2020. i.e for a period of 9 months, we both were main applicants in different visa.

3) My spouse moved to Tier 2 Skilled dependant visa only after November, 2020. So we have a gap of 9 months
for my spouse to complete the 5 year continuous stay as my depandant when I apply for my ILR.

In this scenario, what can we do?
a) Does my spouse need to apply for an extension Tier 2 Skilled woker depandant visa and after 9 months, apply for ILR?
b) Can my spouse apply for ILR along with me?
c) Any other options, please suggest.

We really appreciate your time and support. This will be really helpful as we are about to start our ILR applications.
Thanks and regards,

Yes, an extension is the only option for your spouse as they need to have 5 years as your dependant

Hi Zimba,

Thank you very much for the quick response.

1) It would be helpful, if you please share with us the link for applying this extension visa. We found this link. Is this the correct one. https://apply-to-visit-or-stay-in-the-u ... anner=true

2) Does my spouse need to wait till I receive my ILR to apply for extension. Or can they apply the extension while my ILR application is pending.

3) While applying for their extension visa, which visa application reference number of the main applicant should my spouse give? Is it the original Tier 2 General Visa application reference number or current ILR visa application reference number?

4) we can see that there is only option to apply for 3 year extension by paying 3 years IHS also. Is there any option to get the IHS refunded once my spouse get ILR after 9 months.

Thanks and regards,

1. The links are here: https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa/ ... d-children
2. They should apply before visa expiry. Their application will be held as you need to get ILR before their extension can be granted
3. You do not need to enter any reference number. The UKVI knows how to deal with these cases
4. An extension visa period is fixed which is 3 years. You cannot request a shorter period. No IHS refund is given when they secure ILR

Hi Zimba and others,

Thank you very much for your help.

We are in the process of apply the extension visa for my spouse. My original Cos is five years and is going to end by 31-Dec-2024. I have given all these information in the application and we need only 9 months to complete my spouse five year stay for ILR. In the application form there is nothing mentioned about the extension duration and when we reached the application payment page it is showing the figure for more than three years which is £1084. How can i reduce this payment such a way that I need to apply for only three years maximum otherwise the IHS payment will also be calculated based on 5 year duration.

Please help.

Enter a date in the future that brings the IHS to a correct value. IHS calculator is not smart

Hi everyone,

Thank you very much for all your support. Yesterday, we received an email from the Home Office confirming that our visa extension was successful, and it has been extended for the next three years.

My spouse’s COS was for five years, and I joined on that visa after nine months, which resulted in a shortfall of nine months. When I applied for the visa, the system charged £1,084 per person instead of £551 for three years, as the COS was for five years.

Initially, we paid only £517.50 for the IHS charges, as that was the amount requested on the website. A week later, I received another email from the Home Office requesting an additional payment of £2,587.50 within two weeks. We paid this amount on the same day, bringing the total to £3,105 (3 × £1,035) for three years. The IHR reference number was the same for both payments.

There were no updates for the next two weeks, then I noticed an error message on the application page indicating that there was a payment issue on their end, which they were in the process of correcting (I have attached a snippet of the error for future reference).

Yesterday, I received an email confirming that the application was successful and the visa has been extended for next 3 years.

The total expense for my visa extension was £1,084 + £3,105. However, in reality, I only needed the extension for nine months but had to apply for a three-year extension.

Although I received a three-year extension, I was charged the application fee for five years (£1,084) instead of the three-year fee (£551), as my COS falls under the Shortage Occupation List.

Is there any way to request a refund for the overpaid application fee?

This was the error message.
"Payment issue affecting some applicants
A problem with this visa application form is causing it to still request payment from some applicants when they have already paid. We are working to fix this issue.
If the problem affects your application, please return after 24 hours. It should then show that payment has been made.
We are sorry for any inconvenience this causes."

This is confusing.
What do you mean you all applied for extension?
I thought you were going to apply for ILR and only extend the visas of your dependents.

Hi Zimba

Sorry for the confusion , let me rephrase it . I have applied for ILR and was successful by Dec itself after that we applied for VISA extension for my spouse and kids .

My COS was for five years, and my spouse joined on that visa after nine months, which resulted in a shortfall of nine months. When we applied for the visa, the system charged £1,084 per person instead of £551 for three years, as the COS was for five years.

Initially, we paid only £517.50 for the IHS charges, as that was the amount requested on the website. A week later, I received another email from the Home Office requesting an additional payment of £2,587.50 within two weeks. We paid this amount on the same day, bringing the total to £3,105 (3 × £1,035) for three years. The IHR reference number was the same for both payments.

There were no updates for the next two weeks, then I noticed an error message on the application page indicating that there was a payment issue on their end, which they were in the process of correcting.

Wednesday, I received an email confirming that the application was successful and the visa has been extended for next 3 years.

The total expense for visa extension was £1,084 + £3,105. However, in reality, we only needed the extension for nine months but had to apply for a three-year extension.

Although received a three-year extension, we were charged the application fee for five years (£1,084) instead of the three-year fee (£551), as my COS falls under the Shortage Occupation List.

Is there any way to request a refund for the overpaid application fee?

First of all, you cannot request a shorter visa extension so the 3 years is fixed when the main applicant has ILR. Also, the fees charged are correct as your COS was issued for more than 3 years initially. The shortage occupation list no longer exists. Not sure why you think you are entitled to a refund

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... ised-table