I have received my (Main Applicant) ILR on the GTV route, and my dependents (wife and son) have spent 3 years and 3 months on the GTV dependent route so far. I now need to extend their visa from within the UK.
After the appropriate form was filled, it calculated the IHS for 5 years (£9,055) and not for 3 years (£5,433). This could be because the form neither asked me for how long they wanted the visa for, nor it asked whether the Main Applicant had settled. There is a field for "Do you know [Main Applicant]'s visa end date?", to which I answered no. I felt that including any arbitary date in this section would be incorrect as I now have an ILR.
I wrote to 'ApplyOnlineE-Support@homeoffice.gov.uk' explaining them the situation and even quoted the GT 24.1 and GT 24.2. They replied back saying that there are no "reported" issues (but I was clearly reporting it!?) and that the form is working correctly. They advised me that the case worker will contact me if there are any "payment discrepancies (including top up links/refunds)".
Would you please be able able to advise on the best course of action in these circumstances? It seems there are 2 options,
Option 1): Pay IHS for 5 years and hope that 2 years worth of IHS will be refunded - I feel anxious that what if they issue visas for 5-years. I do not need it for that long and it would be waste of a significant amount of money.
Option 2): In the "Do you know [Main Applicant]'s visa end date?", include an arbitary date of 3 years from the date of submission to force the form to calculate it for 3 years only - the risk I see here is that any expiry date is actually incorrect/misleading and therefore might amount to submitting incorrect information. Of course, I can mitigate it to a certain extent in my cover letter and enclosing a copy of the emails exchanged so far.
Any guidance you can provide is greatly appreciated. Please let me know if you need a copy of the emails. I feel that the Home Office should have a categoric option for such situations, rather than subjecting the applicants to these "workaround solutions", as I imagine that this is a common situation and the Immigration Rules are very clear on the duration of extention in case the Main Applicant has settled.
Many thanks
