Pollyana

Asking on behalf of another poster, as I am not really up on all the ins and outs of Uk Spouse Visas, and would rather some of you with more knowledge than me chipped in, in plain English please!

She's married to an Aussie, been out here many many years but they now plan to move to the UK. So he needs a Spouse Visa.
As far as I know they are both retired with only pensions to live on. They do own a bit of land and property in Aus, but not anything big.

She asked me about ILR, but am I right that there are steps to go through before one gets to the ILR point?
I know about the income requirements, but presumably they are different if both parties are retired? Which forms do they need to complete?

The other two things that she has mentioned are
a) "having to come in to Brisbane for a thumb print"? Are there biometrics involved, and if so at what stage?

and
b) how long (approx of course) should they expect before the visa is granted once its applied for and what sort of timeline after that do they have in which to travel to the UK?


Thanks muchly for any help!

SanDiegogirl

Firstly they need to ensure they meet the financial requirements:

Read this:

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...equirement.pdf

Basically they need income of 18,600 GBP per annum to qualify. They can both use their pensions to qualify.

The visa is issued for an initial 33 months. That means they have 3 months after the issue of the visa to arrive in the UK, and then have 2.5 years before applying for the second stage of the visa (Further leave to remain). The second stage is also 2.5 years and only then, at the end of the 5 year period can the applicant apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain.

If everything goes OK with the application it usually takes about 2 to three months. If they pay for priority service it can be shorter.

Start reading about the application, what documents you need here

https://www.gov.uk/join-family-in-uk

(As soon as the wife (British subject) arrives in the UK she will be a settled person, hence the rather strange title of the subject)

Yes there are Biometrics and they will be asked to arrange this when they complete the application.

Pollyana

Thanks for that I'm hoping she'll be online later herself.

So they still have to reach the £18,600 even though they are both now over the pension age?

michali

Yes, they still need to meet the income requirements, either through income or savings, even if they are retired. We are both retired so we applied using savings.

dalziel

Thanks Polly and everyone.
We both have pensions and 30 acres which we are cleaning up to sell,
My pets are ready to go,
I was worried about when to apply for his visa as we wan,t to go when land is sold,.
It is so confusing as I need to get the timing right,the land should take about 3 months,so do you think I should start applying now,
The worst thing will be the journey to Brisbane for the biometrics.
Thank you everyone

SanDiegogirl

Does your application depend on the sale of the land i.e the monies from the land will make up the financial requirements? Even if not, I, personally, would wait until the land is sold, rather than try to sort out a sale when in the UK.

Your application, if using priority service and no hicups, could be as short as a month so it's not a long process. Then you have three months in which to move.

You should start looking at what documents you need to provide for the application.

Pollyana

Don't fret about the trip to Brisbane, get the train down, easy peasy

dalziel

Thank you for this post,
I think we should sell the farm and get the priority,what does that entail.as we have to give 2 weeks notice for the animals transporter and have no idea where we can go once we get there,
We are going to Poole and rent somowhere for a while,does anyone know of places that will take cat and dog,Any advice welcome as I am so confused