Holdenapple

Hi Everyone

We are currently living in Toronto and are planning to move to the UK in the Summer. I am from London and British. Our two sons hold British passports. My wife is Canadian and qualifies for the Visa through her Scottish born grandmother.

My questions are though:

1) As myself and our two children are British passport holders, is it correct we do not qualify as "dependents" on my wife's application form?

2) Bank Statements - There are so many contradictory websites and information on this. Does anyone know how many statements you need to submit. Some say 90 days worth and some say one recent bank statement evidencing funds has been successful. Also anyone know the approximate amount.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards

Pulaski

[1] You are correct, you and your children can already come and go from the UK whenever you please, you are not dependents for the purposes of your wife's ancestry visa.

[2] Per the UK .gov Ancestry visa web site, the requirement is (only) to provide "bank statements to show you’ve enough money to support yourself". Therefore only one recent/ current statement is required. How much is enough? Well £18,500 is deemed enough to survive for a year without government assistance, so my guess would be that say £10k would be sufficient, but personally, if it was my wife applying, I would want to have more than that in the account, so as not to leave any room for doubt.

Holdenapple

Thanks so much.

BritInParis

1) Your children are dependant on your wife but they are not being included in her application thus you should answer the questions accordingly.

2) Your wife will need to meet the accommodation and maintenance requirement. There's no hard and fast figure to give you as it depends on your circumstances. You are advised to provide at least three months worth of evidence (bank statements) but you cannot be refused solely for providing less, i.e. one bank statement showing savings of £10,000 then you clearly meet the maintenance requirement without further statements being necessary. Broadly speaking, three months' worth of bank statements showing at least £2,000 in her bank account should be sufficient.

Bear in mind that your wife will need to work or be able to show she was looking for work in the UK over the next five years. An UK Ancestry visa is a work visa and should be treated as such. If she does not intend to work then you should be looking at applying for a spouse visa.

Holdenapple

Thank you

1) So I guess you could specify that I have dependent children but are not dependent for the purpose of the application and provide a copy of their British Passports.

2) We have a letter from my father stating he will provide rent free accommodation at his home until we find a place of our own. We have a copy of his passport and title to the home as well. We have those bank statements and I also have quite a substantial amount saved in my UK account.

My wife fully intends to work. She is a fashion executive over here and has been in contact and set up meetings with executive recruitment agencies already in London for when we arrive. We will include all these exchanges with the documents.

BritInParis

Correct. Generally the form will ask if you have dependant children and then a follow-up question about whether they are applying with you or not so it'll be yes to the first question and no to the second, the reason being they are British citizens.

The rest sounds perfect.

Holdenapple

Thank you so much for all your help.

I guess I could provide my most recent statement showing the balance of my UK savings account. I haven't really used it so there are no transactions on it, just shows a balance and also write a quick letter explaining that these funds will also be used for maintenance in addition to my wife's cash savings.

Kind Regards

BritInParis

UK Ancestry visa applications permit third party support so your savings can be used for your wife's application but if your wife has have own savings then better to use those instead - keep it simple.

Holdenapple

Thanks for your help Brit in Paris

Sorry just one more question :-)

Our Current and Savings account are both joint accounts here in Canada. These are the only two accounts we have, so I believe my name would appear on our Savings account statements as well.

Would that pose a problem with regard to the bank statements. We currently have approx CAD$10,500. I believe that should be enough given the above circumstances mentioned.

Kind Regards

BritInParis

Joint accounts are fine - and that amount is more than sufficient.

Holdenapple

Thank you for all your help

Holdenapple

Just want to say thank you to all that helped with my questions.

My wife received her passport back today with her UK Ancestry Visa.

Not heading to the UK for a few months but just relieved to have the decision.

Thank you all again!!!!

BritInParis

Congratulations! Just remember that your wife will need to accumulate five years residence to be eligible for ILR so don’t leave it too long, particularly with the current situation. You may find you cannot travel when you want to.

Holdenapple

We have until 30th May, so hopefully things will have calmed down a bit by then but obviously will roll with the situation.

Thanks again.

BritInParis

Up to you but the way things are going I’d be looking to book a flight to fly this week. Best of luck.