elisabethgalvin

I am temporarily moving back to England for two years from Australia and wonder if anyone can help me understand the British immigration red tape.

I am a British citizen but my husband and children (10 months and 3yrs) are Australian. Do you know if they can apply for a visa to live and work (in husband's case) in the UK through my citizenship?

Thank you in advance!

spouse of scouse

Hi. There's quite a process to go through to get a visa for your spouse and kids - you need the Moving Back to the UK section of the BE forum, specifically Citizenship/Passports Spouse/Family Visas. At the top of that page you'll find this Wiki Spouse Immigration-UK : British Expat Wiki which will explain the basics. Have a read of that and then post any questions in that section. Best of luck.

Swerv-o

The British Citizen needs to meet the income and job offer requirements before a visa will be granted. The income requirements also apply retrospectively before you apply, so you will need to meet them in Australia for a period of time before you apply.

A friend of mine has been caught out by these changes, and he is currently living in the Netherlands with his Aussie wife while he serves out some time to allow him to use the Surinder Singh method.

It's certainly much harder going to the UK than it is bringing a partner to Australia.


S

quoll

Your kids should be British by descent so they will be ok, just get their passports. Your husband is a different kettle of fish! Does he have any UK born grandparents? If so, an Ancestry visa is the way to go. Failing that, does he have entitlement to an EU passport through any other ancestry? If not, then I venture to suggest you're screwed unless you've got lots of savings stashed away or you've a good earning job to go to. Good luck, it's a very tricky situation!

Pollyana

I'll move this to the UK forum