IHS Fee Increase Delayed… for a short while!*Update Until 27th October 2020

As noted in our previous article in April 2020, the Immigration Health Surcharge was set to increase from £400 to £624 on the 1st of October 2020. However, there is a bit of good news, as the Home Office has not been able to get the new IHS fee increase to go ahead on the 1st of October 2020 as planned, as the legislative process has yet to finalise.

Under the older draft law The Immigration (Health Charge) (Amendment) Order 2020, the commencement sections of the order read as follows:

 commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Immigration (Health Charge) (Amendment) Order 2020 and comes into force on the 1st of October 2020.

(2) In this Order, “the Principal Order” means the Immigration (Health Charge) Order 2015(1).

Uncertain new date!

The New Immigration (Health Charge) (Amendment) Order 2020 now reads under commencement as follows:

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Immigration (Health Charge) (Amendment) Order 2020 and comes into force on the twenty-first day after the day on which it is made.

(2) In this Order, “the Principal Order” means the Immigration (Health Charge) Order 2015(1).

Thus, in simple terms, the new order does not have a specific commencement day, but one which is dependant on the legislative process being completed i.e. 21 days after this is signed in to law.

New addition and clarification:

We are also glad to note that the new draft order also includes some minor additions:

  • It expressly states that migrants applying for the New Health and Care visa are Exempted from the IHS fee.
  • It states a reduced fee of £470 for migrants applying for Tier 4 General Student visas, Tier 5 Youth Mobility visas or Applicants who are under the age of 18 at the date of the visa application.

Very temporary reprieve!

Although this is, of course, great news for those who have been working towards beating the increase deadline, these new fees are not been scrapped but instead being delayed pending the final stage of becoming law.

This, unfortunately, could be law in a matter of weeks or even days, meaning in effect that the reprieve will only buy a few weeks before the commencement, as this new law has already passed through both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, thus is only waiting to be penned-off by the Minister.

Update – 7th October 2020

Immigration Health Surcharge rises to £624 from 27 October 2020 after The Immigration (Health Charge) (Amendment) Order 2020 (SI 2020 No. 1086) was signed into law on 6 October 2020. Thus since this law commences after 21 days later on been signed into law the new date will be 27th October 2020.

Don’t relax…apply now if you can!

Of course, it goes without saying that if you can apply, do it now and save yourself a few 100 pounds before the increase comes in! 🙂

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