Hi,

woundering if anyone has experience with completing or namely paying for a uk settlement visa for wife + step daughter. i have looked and found two sources vfs global in bkk which seems to suggest 2 x 40,500 bht (about £1620) and the uk border agency which seems to suggest £972 for the main applicant + £486 for the dependant (step kid) ie £1458 overall.

anyone have a definative price/answer?

much appreciated

thanks

ch23

If applying for the initial 27 month visa in Thailand then the fee on the UKVAC website is correct; i.e. 40,500baht each.

The fee you have quoted from the UKBA website, £972 for the main applicant plus £486 for each child under 18 included in the application, is for Indefinite Leave to Remain. They apply for this after living in the UK for 24 months.

Bad news as 7/7 has clarified.

thanks for clearing that up; bad news indeed.

I think if they are entering the UK together they should be allowed to go on the same form & be processed together.

They are losing out on a good money spinner by not offering 'Priority Processing' for those in a hurry! This way they could offer a similar 'buy one get one half price' as with ILR.

I am feeling a little jaded as I am doing the ILR paperwork at the moment for my wife and daughter and not looking forward to forking out the £1500 for that!

Saving grace is that it is not as much of a pain to do as the original settlement visa because the required documentation is rather more straight forward (I hope!).

They are losing out on a good money spinner by not offering 'Priority Processing' for those in a hurry! This way they could offer a similar 'buy one get one half price' as with ILR.

I am feeling a little jaded as I am doing the ILR paperwork at the moment for my wife and daughter and not looking forward to forking out the £1500 for that!

Saving grace is that it is not as much of a pain to do as the original settlement visa because the required documentation is rather more straight forward (I hope!).

Yes its expensive for sure.

When my wife and step-daughter applied for settlement in 2000 I asked at the embassy why a settlement visa was so much more expensive than a visit one. I was told that it was because the cost of a settlement visa included the cost of processing any later in UK applications such as ILR; which seemed logical. When my wife and step-daughter applied for ILR there was no fee. If I recall correctly, at that time all in UK applications were free!

Then Blair and Brown saw a money spinner. They raised the out of UK fees and introduced new, high in UK fees. They also decided that all these fees should be raised at least once a year by amounts well above inflation.

Despite vociferous objections to this at the time from both the Tories and LibDems, the coalition government has continued this policy.