to think it's unfair we have to pay a £500 surcharge for the NHS

[alaskanbaby]

My DH (let's call him Mr. Alaska) and I both work full time, and pay income tax like everyone else, which goes towards our use of the NHS like everyone else. We've just found out that we need to fork out a £500 surcharge for his use of the NHS as part of his extension of his immigration visa (for being my husband of 5 years, and father of our 18 month old DD - both she and I are British, though I guess she's sponging off the NHS quite a bit). Am I being unreasonable to think it's unfair that my DH has to pay twice?

Tuskerfull

You don't have to worry - if your husband has settlement already then the surcharge won't apply to him.

R.e. the 'why don't you live somewhere else' line, there is the fairly significant complicating factor in a spousal immigration case that saying that is essentially saying that a British citizen should also go live somewhere else, just in order to have a family life with their chosen partner. And in spousal immigration cases, it is a family at least half (if not more, with children) made up of British citizens that is bearing all of these extra costs.

If he is from alaska then i'm sure £500 is ridiculously cheap compared to US health insurance plus all the copays and deductibles. Not to mention the cost of all the things the health insurance won't cover. you could always move to his home country to save the £500?

yeah, that makes about zero sense. why should policies in his home country have any effect here?

It's not unfair for people who are new to the country and haven't been paying tax for as long to be asked to pay a bit more.

you have people in this country who haven't paid a pence into the system their entire lives (not children, I am talking adults). While they haven't paid into the system, they also haven't taken from it. so his tax input matches what he has been taking from the system.

The current climate for immigrants is shocking, despite the fact that many immigrants have been working and paying tax since they set foot in this country. I started working 15 hours after entering the country and have been continually working since then. it's a complete slap in the face for such people (thankfully I came a few years ago).

But immigrants make convenient scapegoats, and have throughout the ages. Hopefully it won't get uglier. so no yanbu.

Also, the surcharge goes directly to the government and, if you're in Scotland, a proportion will go to the Scottsh NHS based on the Barnett Formula. This makes no sense as the Barnett Formula won't necessarily line up with the proportion of immigrants in Scotland vs the rest of the UK. So, if you're settling in Scotland you aren't even directly paying to the NHS that you will benefit from.

apart from when he was an international student and paying £10,000 per year fees

Those fees have gone to at least £15k/yr now.

There is quite an important lesson here about getting ILR, citizenship etc sorted out asap. However expensive & hassle it seems. The rules are only getting stricter & the costs higher in future.

Indeed. When I became eligible for citizenship the fees were £800, now they're £1000

Should myself and my husband (EU immigrants) be charged? Bit of a slippery slope here, I only moved here at age 29 so of course haven't been paying in all my life.

DoughDoe just read your post - my goodness I had no idea the new fees were quite that bad!

It does seem hard but sadly it is the reality of being an immigrant, married to a UK citizen or not...!

Dh and I have stupidly gone through all of this twice, once with him migrating to the UK and now with me migrating to his country. The visa costs both ways are astronomical and there is no option but to keep paying for renewals. In his country there is no NHS so we pay everytime we visit a Dr and/or need a prescription (and it's a lot more than £7 a time for a prescription even for dc). Since we've been in dhs country we've spent way more than 500 on medical care, plus there is the equivalent of Ni to subsidise the health system, so tbh I don't have much sympathy with that issue specifically!

It may well be the reality, but it's still (IMO/Experience) a shitty, stressful extra layer of crap that immigrants who marry a Brit could well do without. (Or any immigrant, really…)

It may well be the reality, but it's still (IMO/Experience) a shitty, stressful extra layer of crap that immigrants who marry a Brit could well do without. (Or any immigrant, really…)

no one is disputing it's a reality. we are trying to ascertain if it's reasonable to expect otherwise...

Without any moral basis, they are making life for immigrants more difficult. it's popular and economical to do so, but that doesn't make it right.

keepitsimple0 Oh I agree, it's also not a patch on the appallingly inhumane treatment of people seeking asylum in Australia (whole other kettle of fish…)

TriJo no. EU applications are exempt. Plus, since you aren't required to apply for a Permit, it's unenforceable anyway.

Tusker it was only brought in in April. You have to pay £200 per year up front for the majority of visa applications on top of the application fee unless you are applying for ILR.

I've lived a few places, and there's normally been some kind of extra payment/tax/insurance/something that I have to pay that natives to the country have to pay.

There are extra forms, fees, visits, restrictions. TBH, I've always just thought that as long as they are navigable, then that's something that I'm paying for the ability to spend some time working and living in their country. The fact that I pay tax there is a function of my working there, the other stuff is to allow me to work there.

The UK doesn't seem to be anything special in this regard (although we lack points systems that I've had to do for other countries)

I find it hard to get worked up about. Yes, it's a pain in the bum, yes, it's bad luck that the person you've fallen in love with has these issues in order to live in your country, but as my mum and dad told me - life isn't fair.

The UK doesn't seem to be anything special in this regard (although we lack points systems that I've had to do for other countries)

The uk does have a points based immigration system.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Points-based_immigration_system_(United_Kingdom)

And about the uk not doing anything special regarding family visa applications let me quote something from the article below:
"Other EU citizens are free to come and live in the UK with spouses from outside the EU. And yet British citizens do not enjoy the same rights. The feeling of being victimised by one's own government is a bitter pill to swallow."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/15/uk-immigration-policy-britons-spouses-trauma

Chunky

If the you are among the pretty large proportion of the population who earns less than £18,600 a year, you actually can't, under any circumstances, live in the UK with your non-EU spouse. Is that just a case of life aint fair?

This charge comes at the end of a whole list of things that the government has done to try to make life harder for immigrants who want nothing more to contribute to the country. I got the life isn't fair canard as a kid too, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't protest against unfairness, or indeed interrogate why it's happening. I think what gets my goat about this charge is that isn't about the NHS, it's entirely a cyncical political ploy.

*cynical!

I didn't use the words "fuck off" - I simply pointed out that if it annoys you that much, there is nothing to stop you living in a country which doesn't have such charges. Except that; no country is perfect; I actually like my chosen country although it is not perfect; I think everyone has the right to an opinion about where they live, even if they have an accent; his SPOUSE and mine lives in the chosen country so it would be a bit odd to move to Australia when your DH or DW lives in your chosen country; it is difficult to get in with a spouse visa, it might be impossible to get in somewhere without one (so where is this mythical country where they can live?).

I am angry. Mainly because, living for 9 years in a country that isn't my own, if I mention anything, I get that response from some people.

"The MH provision here really needs to be improved" Go Home if you don't like it.
"Homelessness really needs to be addressed" Go Home if you don't like it.
"The treatment of First Nations people is shocking" Go Home if you don't like it.
"The immigration system is really slow and expensive" Go Home if you don't like it.

I will always have my accent so when I am 97, having paid tax for half a century, having produced a citizen with my own body, I will still not be entitled to an opinion according to some people.

MrsTP

You are home!

I agree that it is unfair. I live in Mexico and have had lots of free medical treatment here even though I am not Mexican

Atenco and I'm willing to bet Mexicans living in the UK will not be excempt from the fee like Australians and New Zealanders!

Mexican national colleague who was a student in UK, moved to France for 3 yrs, now back in UK (with non-EU wife). He said it cost him £5k and 3 months of paperwork to take up job offer in UK.

YANBU

Non-EU immigrant to the Netherlands here. Like the UK, the Dutch government doesn't extend the EU rights of family law to its own citizens. So someone from the UK or France can come to the Netherlands with their non-EU partner and it costs €40 and an hour to secure their partner's residency permit. If my partner was Belgian or Spanish we would have been fine.

Instead we have paid thousands for the privilege of being able to stay together in my Dutchie's country of birth, where he has a mortgage/family/friends, and for me to pay into the local tax system as well as the mandatory €100 monthly cost of basic health insurance. We paid the bills ourselves when our son was born as my residency application was delayed, meaning i couldn't buy local cover and no private insurer would cover pregnancy unless the policy was bought before falling pregnant. My travel insurance didn't cover it so another €6000 was billed.

yes, when I am hit with the extra hundreds of euro health 'surcharge' each year it does feel like i'm a cash cow. If I lose my ID card it costs €250 to replace. For everyone else it's €40.

The irony is... if we'd upped sticks and moved anywhere else in the EU the whole process would have cost us €40 and we could have sponged off the local health system. I don't begrudge anyone else the ease of immigrating here, I just wish the disparity wasn't so insultingly obvious.

But any hint of negativity is met with "go back to where you came from then."

Well, ok, i'd like to leave as I really don't like this country after being ripped off at every turn. But we can't afford to as our savings have been poured into the health and immigration departments.

It's a sad thing to become so bitter about an adopted country that every spare cent is being saved to get the hell out of it.