Cambridgeman

I have spent hours browsing the forums and articles and am very confused. Here is the background information. I am a UK Citizen living in America with my American wife. We both want to move back to the UK. As I understand it my two main options are for my wife to be able to stay are,

1. Have a job in the UK with at least 18,600 a year or
2. Have savings at approx 90,000

Are there any other routes to go if the above two requirements are not met? At this point I cannot meet them, and am looking at other options.Even a temporary i.e two year visa would be great. Thanks for any help.

SanDiegogirl

For your wife to be able to live (and work) in the UK, you have the following options:

- YOU sponsor her by either YOU having a job in the UK paying 18,600 GBP per annum or more. YOU can move to the UK, work in this job for 6 months and then apply for the visa OR, if you have a current job in the US paying this amount or more AND have a job in the UK to go to within 3 months of returning you can apply immediately for the visa.

- You rely on joint savings of 62,500 GBP which you have had for 6 months or more.

-SHE gets her own work visa (usually Tier 2) whereby a UK company sponsors her for the visa (difficult to get unless her job is on the short list)

- SHE gets a student visa for a course for longer than 6 months - you have to have a recognised course and institution and pay international fees and have money to support yourself. From this she could then at a future date apply for a spouse visa using both her and your incomes

- You both go the Surinder Singh route i.e move to a European country for 9 months or more, get yourself jobs/accommodation etc and then you apply for an EEU family permit for her based on you being the European and exercising your treaty rights.

BritInParis

Another possibility would be if your wife had any recent European ancestry. This may entitle her to an EEA/EU passport that would allow her to live in the UK without restriction.