Paul M B

My plans for returning home have been dead in the water for over a year now but I have a new development that I have a question about. I am planning to start a business here in the U.S. that would net me well over the income threshold if successful. My question is would I be able to apply for a spousal visa to the UK through my continued ownership and net income of the business located in the U.S.?

Shirtback

I Am Not An Expert:

Doesn't the business have to be in the UK to qualify via the self-employed route?

Paul M B

I'm not sure at all. The self employed route is very unclear to me. However, I am also hoping this business could put my clear funds up to where they need to qualify.

Paul M B

I started a thread for this but it got either lost or ignored for possibly being a daft question. If I own a business here in the U.S. that nets me well over the income threshold would I be able to return to the UK and use my income from it to apply for my wife's visa? That is I would continue to be a partner in the business and operate it from the UK.

quiltman

not a daft question at all. Probably not being ignored - I'm responding! - but more because most BE posters work and so may take a day or so to even see your post, or no-one has a definitive answer. My own opinion is likely NO since as I understand it, the job offer has to be from a UK based company, even multinationals have a UK registered subsidiary. Brit in Paris may be along later with all his experience. It is possible I suppose , that you could set up a UK subsidiary of your US company and get that UK subsidiary to make you a formal job offer meeting the requirements.The alternative may be to use the savings method. If you can show savings of £62,500 , then you do not need a job offer.

Paul M B

That's a little over $100,000? I have high hopes for this company so it could be possible.

Pollyana

Your posts were moved into this new thread as the one in which you posted was for basic info, rather than questions on individual situations

spouse of scouse

Paul, the UK will determine if you meet the financial requirements on the day of your application by referring to the spot exchange rate on oanda.com You can go onto the website yourself any time and check how many US$ equates to the GBP62,5000 cash savings requirement (that amount is for the spouse only, not including 'foreign' children)

If you haven't done so already, have a good read of the requirements for cash savings - what is counted as cash savings, what isn't, how long you have to have held the funds for etc. If you can manage to accumulate these savings and hold them for the required time (usually 6 months), then you're home and hosed - no proof of jobs or income required.

meinkl

Indirectly linked to the OP problem and might assist if holding an offshore pension..

There is another recent development that might help people who have transferred their UK pension into a QROPS scheme when they left the UK. I am not a financial wizard so relying upon my finace guys' help and my interpretation of the financial requirments document from UKgov.

In that document it states that savings must be in a cash ccount at the time of application. It also states in an example 7.4.15 :

The applicant’s partner has an investment portfolio worth approximately £1m, although this value fluctuates. In order to meet the financial requirement, she liquidates part of her investment 2 months prior to the date of application and transfers £62,500 in cash to her personal savings account. She is able to provide a portfolio report showing that the value of the liquidated assets was at least £62,500 7 months prior to the date of application. The cash savings meet the requirements of Appendix FM-SE at the date of application and, by combining the period the money was held as investments with the period the money has been held as cash savings, the funds have been owned by the applicant’s partner and under their control for at least the 6 months prior to the date of application.
So the financial requirement is met through Category D cash savings.


So if someone has a pension fund in investments and it can be released into cash at any time then those funds are countable provided they are liquidated into actual cash savings account before the application.
Up until very recently QROPS schemes could only be drawn down from at a fixed annual amount, but, according to recent reports, from 1st April 2016 such schemes will be made the same as SIPPS pension funds, where you can draw down up to 150kUKP at any time.
Therefore.. as i see it, but might be wrong, as long as that QROPS has more than 62,500UKP in it as of 6+ months before the application and is turned to cash prior to the application then that investment fund can count as the cash requirement.

If you have a SIPPS pension fund then i think you can already do a transfer to a cash savings and so wouldnt have to wait until 1/4/16.

I stand to be corrected on any of this, and welcome the views of those who know better.

BritInParis

You could either meet the requirements through self-employed income or through cash savings if the business is successful enough to build that amount of cash. Bear in mind though that any cash savings must be held for at least six months before the date of application so you would be waiting longer before you could apply if you went down this route.

Did you have any luck with your wife's Czech heritage?

meinkl

Also... the business "cash" would have to be in the persons name, not a company name, for more than 6 months.