Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2024 to Question 13206 on Migrants: Health Services, whether applicants who applied for entry clearance under paragraph 319X of the Immigration Rules before 12 April 2023 pay the Immigration Health Surcharge if their application is processed after that date.

Appendix Child Joining a Non-Parent Relative, also known as Appendix CNP, allows for extended family with protection status in the UK to sponsor children to join them where there are serious and compelling circumstances. This can be in situations where a child has no parents or relatives to care for them, or where the parents or relatives in their own country cannot safely care for the child.

Simplification of the Immigration Rules, by inserting Appendix CNP on 12 April 2023, did not impose different Immigration Health Surcharge requirements, but replicated the existing provisions contained under paragraph 319X.

There were no policy changes made to the requirements of this route and it was solely formatting changes in line with the wider simplification format. Decision makers have been instructed to consider all applications made before and after 12 April 2023 under Appendix CNP. This means that all applications submitted prior to, and after, 12 April 2023 must pay the Immigration Health Surcharge. The requirement to do so may be waived where the sponsor is determined to be destitute, but it is in the best interests of the child to come to the UK.