Tier 1 Dependent - Change of name

[Chase53]

Hi, My wife is currently on Tier1 dependent Visa valid until May 2018 and qualifies for ILR in May 2019.

She has an Indian Passport and we have just applied for a passport renewal under her Married Name. I understand that we need to apply for new BRP within 3 months of the name change. As I read the average turnaround for the BRP cards is around 2 months and we have some immediate travel plans, so we have decided to go for the same day service. And it is costing about £700 with application fee + same day service.

And we are planning on extending her TIer1 dependent Visa instead under her new name as anyway we needed 1 more extension to qualify for ILR. So my question is, Can we apply for Tier 1 Dependent extension9 months before the expiry of her current leave?

If there is any alternate best idea, please kindly share it with us.

Thanks

[CR001]

Yes you can apply early for an extension.

[Chase53]

Thank you for your reply.

So in your opinion, do you think we can now apply Tier 1 General extension on her new Married Name with which her BRP will be updated?

Which option do you think is the best?

1) Apply BRP now -> £721 + Tier 1 G Extension Next year (£2381 + any Fee change)

2) Tier 1 Extension now -> £2381

I know it is entirely our decision, but I want some suggestions to make a decision, which can help us save some money.

[CR001]

Apply for an extension now once you have the new passport. You could write a letter explaining you are applying early to a) get the new BRP and b) due to travel plans over the next few months.

[Chase53]

Great and I was thinking the same as well, thank you.

Also do you know what happens to the Health Surcharge, does it get refunded if we apply early?

[CR001]

No it does not.

[Chase53]

ok cool.

I just got another question, I understand that if we apply for BRP TOC by post, we need to send passport along with the BRP card. Do we get passport the new BRP and the passport together? Or passport first and BRP later?

Also what is the average turnaround for BRP TOC by post?

Thanks

[CR001]

Yes they come around the same time but not together.

Postal applications can take up to 6 months.

[Chase53]

Thank you for your prompt replies.

And we have made our final decision to go with early Tier 1 general extension under her married name.

Apart from the normal extension documents, do we need to provide any additional documents because of the name change? Because we only have her new passport with the new name as the proof.

[Chase53]

Any help in regards to my last question please?

[CR001]

Marriage certificate??

[Chase53]

Yes, we are going to carry the Marriage Certificate as part of the regular documents and also we used the same certificate for her initial Tier1G dep visa and her last extension as well.

The only change from her previous applications is that she now carries her married name in her new passport.

[Chase53]

I have booked an appointment for the same day service this Saturday. And we realised the name changing process on a lot of entities is time consuming. And incase if we don't get her name changed on the bank statement, can we use my bank statements instead for the proof of funds? (My immigration history is T1G 5 yrs + ILR + British Citizen)

Also how many sets of cohabitation documents do we need for her extension? And I suppose all the documents we carry should have her new name according to her passport isn't it?

[Chase53]

a little help on the above questions will be appreciated

[CR001]

Either bank statements is fine.

[Chase53]

Cheers CR001 for your continuous help. Really appreciate it.

[Chase53]

Hi, just want to let you know that my wife has received her visa last week and BRP card today.

Like I mentioned above, we have applied for extension 11 months before her expiry date and paid £600 health surcharge with the new application.

She has got the visa until 2020 and also they refunded £200 back from health surcharge automatically to my card which I used to pay the fee.

We felt happy that UKBA has refunded the amount without us questioning them at all

Hope this helps everyone who are applying early.

And special thanks to CR001 for her prompt replies.