# health surcharge & IHS reference number



## eddiek (Feb 1, 2015)

my wife applied for her eea family permit visa today in manila, philippines.

i am her spouse, and im irish, living in the uk since already 3 years now.

there is a new health surcharge which has been introduced on 5th april 2015, however (according to my research), the spouses of eea nationals are exempt from this according to this link here: 

https://www.gov.uk/healthcare-immigration-application/when-you-need-to-pay

when my wife went to her interview at the british embassy, they said she must have the IHS reference number, however they were not sure.

since these people work at this day-in-day-out, my wife was a little disillusione, w by this when they said it, however when she said it clearly states on gov.uk that we don't need it, they said that they don't really know, since it's a new thing since only teh start of the month.

to add to this, before we knew we were exempt from this, my wife struggled to get passed the login screen as the website did not accept her password??

anyone know anything about this?

thank you


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

No, she doesn't need to pay IHS as she is family member of an EEA citizen. None is required for EEA family permit as it's only valid for 6 months, but she still doesn't need it for her residence card application on form EEA(FM). 
Lots of confused staff, esp at overseas visa application centres. Just stand your ground.
People have had difficulty logging into their account through IHS portal. Possibly a glitch to be sorted soon.


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## eddiek (Feb 1, 2015)

Joppa said:


> No, she doesn't need to pay IHS as she is family member of an EEA citizen. None is required for EEA family permit as it's only valid for 6 months, but she still doesn't need it for her residence card application on form EEA(FM).
> Lots of confused staff, esp at overseas visa application centres. Just stand your ground.
> People have had difficulty logging into their account through IHS portal. Possibly a glitch to be sorted soon.



thanks joopla, much appreciated for ur great help as always mate


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## 1971bc (Jul 8, 2014)

Hi.. I'm having similar issues.

My wife is Belarusian and dealing with the people in Minsk and Moscow is frustrating. 

I have explained to her that as my wife she is exempt as my understanding of the rules and i have also had this confirmed verbally by Calling immigration while in the UK. But dealing with Moscow is like banging my head against a brick wall. 

I still haven't received any official confirmation in writing moscow don't know and just refer you to the website. 

My next step is to go back to the UK and get the confirmation from them in writing and bring it to moscow to avoid any issues. 

Its a mess for sure as they don't really have a clue.


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