Johnmcd

Hi there,

I am a UK citizen who married my wife in the USA. I had a sole proprietorship company there which I have continued to run when we moved to the UK last summer, my wife under a student visa.

Her visa runs out in January and we need to apply for a spouse visa.
In March I registered a Limited Company in London.

If the financial requirements ask how much my limited company made in the last financial year, then the answer is zero because it didn't exist.

Is there any way to use earnings from this so far?
I will only have personal and business bank statements for the short time it has existed, but will this matter as long as they demonstrate enough income?

It looks like I can't combine these earnings with those of my company in the US. If I just tried to use my US earnings then it looks like it would be difficult to get all my historical banking information, as well as issues such as currency conversion rates, accountant accreditation, etc.

I'm starting to get really worried about this. I don't want my wife to have to leave the country for God knows how many months while this gets sorted out.

Thanks in advance.

englishguygoinghome

I'd guess that if the company doesn't have a full year accounts then you can't use it. There are no provisions I can find made for that case so I'd expect the Home Office to argue that the required evidence list is valid.
Also - if you've only been employed by that company for a couple of months, then you will have aproblem - you need to be in the job for 6 months when applying, or show earnings over the last 12. In that case you are going to need to get the details for the US earnings anyway. Were you employed by your own company or self-employed in the US? If the former then you probably won't need corporate accounts

Johnmcd

I was self employed in the US.
I had a company for which the taxes were filed under my name.

However I didn't issue myself any payslips, and rarely transfered money from the company account to my personal one. I just used the company account as my own, which isn't unusual for a single owner LLC.

Could I use my US tax return along with the company bank statements?

Alternatively, couldn't I say I was employed by my limited company in the UK and just issue 6 months payslips from that?

Johnmcd

Since my wife is on a student visa which expires in January, is there any obvious way she could extend her visa until April when my Ltd company will complete its financial year and we could apply for the spouse visa?

englishguygoinghome

But you are now no longer self-employed in the US, only employed by your Ltd in the UK I assume?

You will need to do that form the somund of it anyway BUT check out paragraph 9 of the rules FM-SE: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/po...appendix-fmse/

You may want to talk to your accountant about running a different financial year for your company so the first one is only 6 months long. Not sure whether that would get you all the points of evidence on the list in a Sept/Oct/Nov timeframe or whether you would have to wait until April to file the tax returns anyway.

Johnmcd

I can say I'm still employed by the US company.
It still exists.

englishguygoinghome

Then take a good long read through appendix FM-SE and decide which paperwork you could produce to give you and idea of your best strategy. As for timing, if you are now married I think you can apply for the spouse visa at any time - you don't have to wait for your wife's student visa to run out

Johnmcd

Thanks,

Is it definitely FM-SE? I thought it would be FLR(M)?
What is the difference?

englishguygoinghome

FLR(M) is the name of one of the forms
The rules are now written in two appendices:
- FM - which contains the basics and the overall requirements such as the income threshold etc (Family Migration)
- FM-SE - which contains the list of specific documents needed (Specified Evidence)

Johnmcd

Thanks,

It looks like the only thing blocking me is that I haven't been transferring money from my business account in the US to my personal account.
They are both Bank of America and are linked.
The FMSE says that 12 months personal bank account statements are needed to show that income from the company was being paid to yourself...but I was just using the business bank account.

englishguygoinghome

Can you show clear personal outgoings from the business account? And also show that that wasn't a tax-fiddle (ie show your tax return which doesn't claim the grocery shopping to be a business expense)? If so then I gues that comes under "reasonable equivalent" or may at least be worth trying

Johnmcd

Definitely not a fiddle, and no dodgy expenses.
I'm just worried that if what I provide doesn't precisely match their requirements list then it's an auto-refusal.

englishguygoinghome

Maybe add a letter from your certified accountant saying that you used the one account for business and personal. That this was done in accordance with US tax laws and is common practice for this form of self-employment in that state. (If you know your accountant well enough to persuade him to do that)

If you apply now then you at least know whether you need to find a plan b and have time to do so before January. Downside is possible loss of the visa fees and ticking the "previous refusal" box next time (but for a refusal based on missing evidence that shouldn't cause much of an issue if you have the evidence later)