# IHS refund. HELP!!



## Melancia (Sep 24, 2015)

Ok folks my husband and I are quite desperate and totally hopeless to get the a refund on Immigration Health Surcharge. Here is what happened:
in June we paid for the IHS fee U$700 for my husband and I (tier 4 student for him and dependent for me). We thought we were ready to apply for our visas then but few things happened and we only applied in late July.
But effective on July 4th, the IHS fee was integrated in the application process and we had to pay for the fee AGAIN. The official UK website said that a refund will be given to those that had to pay for it twice. Except that it's been 2 months and we are already in England and NO refund!!!! 
The website states that "If you paid the healthcare surcharge from outside the UK, you’ll get a refund for your first payment when your visa application is reviewed." Well, nobody did. We even sent a note about this and the note was neatly returned to our package with our passports. 
We have been using the form online and our case is escalated each time, and each time they give a stupid excuse. The last one was that my GWF isn't showing up in the system anymore. 
I also unfortunately deleted my husband's email that gives the reference number for his 2nd IHS fee and apparently they are unable to find his payment without that reference number which sounds so pathetic and low tech. 
I just went on the IHS website and there is a refund button there which I just clicked on but I'm concerned they will deny our request because because we got our visas but I hope they realize we paid for the fee TWICE. Somebody must realize this! This is just so frustrating.
Has anyone here had the unfortunate experience to have paid for the IHS twice? Did you get a refund?
I feel like giving up but it's a lot of money that is MINE.


----------



## Arjunadawn (Dec 3, 2013)

Melancia said:


> Ok folks my husband and I are quite desperate and totally hopeless to get the a refund on Immigration Health Surcharge. Here is what happened:
> in June we paid for the IHS fee U$700 for my husband and I (tier 4 student for him and dependent for me). We thought we were ready to apply for our visas then but few things happened and we only applied in late July.
> But effective on July 4th, the IHS fee was integrated in the application process and we had to pay for the fee AGAIN. The official UK website said that a refund will be given to those that had to pay for it twice. Except that it's been 2 months and we are already in England and NO refund!!!!
> The website states that "If you paid the healthcare surcharge from outside the UK, you’ll get a refund for your first payment when your visa application is reviewed." Well, nobody did. We even sent a note about this and the note was neatly returned to our package with our passports.
> ...


Clearly there is a problem with IHS refunds. I am online just now because of the same reason. In mid July we applied for a Tier4 visa for my wife with me as her dependent. We paid the IHS charge, etc. 

(Sidebar: Oddly, as an American I was denied because they presumed I had married my wife in order to get into UK. You cant make this stuff up. They said they thought I traveled to SE Asia, married only to access UK, and piggybacked onto a student visa application to come to UK to work and remain. All of this while on retirement visa in Thailand. Utterly retarded reasoning).

In any event, we received a notice saying there was nothing we had to do, IHS charge would be refunded since this visa application was denied.
I reapplied immediately, paid for the IHS charge again, and the visa was approved. Thus over a period of 3 weeks we paid for 3 IHS surcharges, one of which we were informed would be automatically credited. It is now September 28th, 4 days after the above post, and no refund. The time frames are nearly identical. A typical credit for the slowest merchants are approximately 30 days. We are now beyond 60 days and no refund. Also, there is really no clear mechanism to seek redress. One option is to pay to speak to someone, another to email.

The above post is a valid gripe. I wish you luck. It seems your need for your money is a bit more pressing than ours, though we want our money back. I hope your problem is resolved very soon. Good luck.


----------



## Melancia (Sep 24, 2015)

Arjunadawn said:


> Melancia said:
> 
> 
> > Ok folks my husband and I are quite desperate and totally hopeless to get the a refund on Immigration Health Surcharge. Here is what happened:
> ...


Thank you. I'm sorry you are going through similar problem. I just checked my credit card statement and I see I was finally refunded for the fee!!
I don't know how many times I submitted a form to have my case escalated and finally someone that knows what they are talking about, read my message.
I was told to submit how much the refund is, the date of the 1st payment and what the gwf associated with the 2nd IHS was.
Good luck to you


----------



## Francois75 (Sep 26, 2015)

Got the same problem here in Zimbabwe.Filled out the wrong visa forms ,cancelled our applications on advise from the visa center and were told we should have our visa and IHS refunds back in our UK bank account in 28 working days. It is now 38 working days later and nothing in our accounts. Now we must pay to phone a consultant to ask where our money is!!
Really pissed off at this point. We did not hand our applications in, so should get a full refund, but between the UK gov, the South African Embassy and the Zimbabwean Visa center , none of them can tell us even where our money is. This online application and payment is useless, what happened to filling out forms and paying by cash or cheque?


----------



## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

They don't like handling cash or cheque as it costs more in terms of labour and admin.


----------



## anuven (Nov 20, 2014)

Melancia said:


> Ok folks my husband and I are quite desperate and totally hopeless to get the a refund on Immigration Health Surcharge. Here is what happened:
> in June we paid for the IHS fee U$700 for my husband and I (tier 4 student for him and dependent for me). We thought we were ready to apply for our visas then but few things happened and we only applied in late July.
> But effective on July 4th, the IHS fee was integrated in the application process and we had to pay for the fee AGAIN. The official UK website said that a refund will be given to those that had to pay for it twice. Except that it's been 2 months and we are already in England and NO refund!!!!
> The website states that "If you paid the healthcare surcharge from outside the UK, you’ll get a refund for your first payment when your visa application is reviewed." Well, nobody did. We even sent a note about this and the note was neatly returned to our package with our passports.
> ...


Hello,
Even i am sailing in a same boat waiting for my IHS refund which is almost 60 days now,where in you have mentioned about the refund option on your IHS payment site can you help me in guiding with this?i am not able to find the refund option soon after i login,can i trace anything wrt to the IHS reference numbers i have with me,and how long did it took for your refund,please help..many thanks


----------



## Melancia (Sep 24, 2015)

anuven said:


> Melancia said:
> 
> 
> > Ok folks my husband and I are quite desperate and totally hopeless to get the a refund on Immigration Health Surcharge. Here is what happened:
> ...


I'm sorry to hear you are going through this.
I'm not sure if you paid the fee through the same website as the visa application or through the old one.
Before July 2015 we had to pay the fee through this website: https://www.immigration-health-surc...login?signin=be67000e423d24b102c7873a6bf8d4ed

And once you log in there should be an option to request a refund. 

After July 2015 they integrated the IHS fee to be on the same website as your visa application, and I wouldn't know about getting a refund through there. I hope this helps.


----------



## sharingtheinfo (May 18, 2016)

*anyone received refund*

hey guys
im in the same boat now, has anyone received their refund yet?
how long did it take?
what action did you have to take after escalation process didnt work?


----------



## DenisCorrea (Nov 9, 2016)

Hi, I have the same problem here: more than 90 days from my admin review response and I still got no refund from the IHS. Email the UKVI service seems to be useless, as I always get the same automatic answer. In that automatic answer they seem to think that I am requesting a fee refund, not the IHS.
Any help would be useful, thank you.


----------

