A grieving husband has criticised the Home Office for holding on to thousands of pounds in visa fees he paid for his wife to come to the UK, despite the fact that she died before she was due to arrive in the country.
Ubah Abdi Mohamed, 25, from Kenya, was granted a spouse visa to join her husband, Mohamed Jama, 47, a British citizen of Somali heritage who lives in north London.
UK visa fees usually include an immigration health surcharge (IHS) to fund any NHS care the person applying for the visa might need while they are in the UK. As his wife’s sponsor, Jama paid the visa application fee of £1,938, plus a £3,105 IHS.
In March 2024, Ubah Abdi Mohamed was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer. Jama then travelled with her to India to get treatment, while their three-year-old daughter, Ikran, stayed in Kenya with her grandmother.
“Everything was going well,” Jama said. “Ubah was smiling, she was putting on weight and the tumour was getting smaller. We were so happy when the Home Office granted the visa on 9 June.”
But on 11 June, Ubah Abdi Mohamed died unexpectedly while still in India. Shortly afterwards, Jama instructed his lawyer to notify the Home Office of his wife’s death and ask whether the £3,105 IHS could be refunded.
The response from the Home Office was a pro forma letter, wrongly addressed to Ubah Abdi Mohamed, saying: “We are very sorry to hear about the applicant.”
It said that there were no exceptions to the rule that relatives cannot be refunded after paying the IHS, but if the addressee was “unhappy with this policy” they could raise a complaint.
Applicants whose visas are refused, or who withdraw their applications, are entitled to an IHS refund, but there is no repayment policy in the event of a death.
“My wife was a very special person. There are no words to express the love between myself and my wife,” Jama said.
“This policy of not refunding the money to pay for any NHS treatment when the person hasn’t even entered the UK is very cruel. It’s common sense that the money should be refunded because my wife hasn’t used the NHS.
“I’m speaking out because, even if the Home Office don’t change their minds in my case, it might help others in this situation in the future.”
Adam Spray, a senior associate solicitor at Wilsons, said: “This sad set of circumstances regrettably highlights the Home Office’s inflexible and all too often callous approach to real-world tragedies.
“It is frankly unconscionable that the Home Office refused to refund any of the fees paid to the grieving widower and father at such a difficult time. We hope the Home Office will take time to reflect … and reconsider.”
In response, Home Office sources pointed to a longstanding policy that it does not comment on individual cases.
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