HolCarWake

This may be a long post- my apologies in advance.

I'm from the UK and married to a US citizen. We are pregnant and we recently had a bout of major setbacks; lost our home, our income sources and family. With such little time (11 wks) til our baby is due, our only real option for being safe (hosp access) and supported (family help) is to move to the UK.

With some savings we can leave for an estimated $4000, including passport for my spouse and expedited Visa. I found a site who claim to be able to expedite the Visa to recieve a decision by 2 weeks from application. The trouble is, since i am here I cannot sponsor them so it will have to be a family member and I cannot figure out which Visa application we would need to file.

We need a Visa which allows my husband to work ASAP due to mandatory expenses. He already has a job lined up for when he gets clearance to work. It is also our first child and it would absolutely break our hearts if he wasn't there for the birth; normal visa without being expedited would likely make him miss it.

1) has anyone expedited a Visa before? Is it a scam? Were there hidden costs?
2) Which Visa does it seem we would need? An advisor said spousal with income support. I thought family. I'm confused.
3) Any suggestions or general advice?

Thanks

christmasoompa

Hi, and welcome to BE.

STOP! No third party site can expedite your visa, no matter what they claim. You can pay extra to have the visa processed quicker (priority processing), but you don't need somebody else to do that for you.

Only you can sponsor him. Trouble is that you don't have the required savings from what you've said, so you'll have to do it based on earnings.

The forum pros will be along to help you shortly, but your savings and employment are vital, so can you give more details of those? Are you working at all at the moment?

Edit: you mention your husband has a job lined up, if you can give details of that as well it may be pertinent - possibly an employment based visa may be possible, again the forum pros will be able to advise if you can give info on what kind of job is it.

HolCarWake

This is where the situation is tricky. I haven't worked here at all aside from 4 online projects which did not amass anywhere near the income threshold. Before that, I had a brief office job after leaving Sixth Form. So, at 21, I don't have work history or proof of income anywhere near what's necessary. A Visa advisor did tell me that anyone can sponsor him - friend or family. But i think that was in the context of me applying and stating support would come from friends/ family.

christmasoompa

Hmmm. Is that the same 'visa advisor' that told you they could get your visa sorted quicker if you paid them?!? I've never heard of that being possible - it is for spousal visas for the US, to have a joint sponsor, but not the UK that I'm aware of. But the forum pros will be along shortly to advise if that is an option at all.

HolCarWake

Oh darn! It was a different person; I called various different agencies to ask advice (and obviously still am none the wiser).
That said, my 2nd cousin married a Turkish man and her mother sponsored him since the cousin had no work history or savings. I can't contact them at the moment to ask how exactly they did it.

scrubbedexpat099

What do you mean by visa adviisor? A Lawyer specialising in UK Immigration?

HolCarWake

Yes. Numerous different ones were contacted and all said about the same thing with minor variations.

christmasoompa

All very odd, I've never heard of another family member being able to sponsor the spouse of a UKC. But I'm hoping that BritinParis/Spouse of Scouse/SanDiegoGirl/other forum pros will see your thread and be able to advise, they will know for sure if there is any way around it.

Best of luck to you.

Pulaski

There have been numerous discussions about the current UK spouse visa rules, and whether they are "fair" or not, but suffice to say, to sponsor a spouse visa to live in the UK, you either need [1] savings or [2] a job, or a combination of the two, or [3] under certain circumstances (but not yours, from what you have said) an offer of a job. Otherwise you cannot sponsor your spouse for a visa to live in the UK. Full stop.
It used to be possible, but that was abolished several years ago. The closest thing to a loophole in the current spouse visa regs is that a loan (to meet the savings requirement) is not permitted, but a gift is permitted. It appears that some "gifts" are less permanent than others. ..... But in any case you are required to have held the savings for six months, and have bank statements to prove that, so that won't help under the circumstances described by HolCarWake.

HolCarWake

What about a different type of visa? Relative visa (sorry forgot the technical name). We have family who would be willing to sponsor him entirely without any input from me.

Pulaski

The UK does not have "relative" visas - you cannot sponsor a sibling or adult son/ daughter, nor your son/daughter-in-law or brother/ sister-in-law. US rules are very different, with multiple family sponsorship visas.

HolCarWake

oh boy. Looks like we're in for a tough ride, then.

christmasoompa

Just a thought - maybe these 'agencies' (I really hope they were proper immigration lawyers!) were meaning a visitor visa? Rather than anything more permanent? For a visitor visa a family member could show that they will house/support your husband, maybe that's what they are referring to?

Pulaski

It looks like it - and per my comment about "fairness" above, it is quite possible to get "trapped" overseas, unable to sponsor your non-British spouse for a year or more. and as it is the British citizen who is required to have the income* to sponsor their non-British spouse, a job offer in the UK for the non-British spouse is useless, as only the income for the British citizen counts .... unless the non-British spouse is already in the UK and working. So when you have the baby, you then either need to work in the US for at least six months in a job earning at least the equivalent of £18,600pa, then get an offer in the UK for at least the same income, or you need to come to the UK and work for six months earning at least £18,600pa, and obviously neither of these are going to be easy when you have a new-born baby.

This situation has been especially difficult for stay-at-home mums who want to return to the UK, as not only do they not have a job, they may have been out of the workplace for a number of years, making get well-paid work even more difficult.

* Savings are joint savings for a married couple, so the question of whether they are the savings of the UK citizen or the non-British spouse is irrelevant.

Pulaski

Well firstly, USCs don't need a visa to visit the UK under most circumstances, but in any case a visitor's visa wouldn't help at all if the non-British husband is expecting to work to support his family - that is every bit as illegal in the UK as it is in the US, and just as in the US, if you show up at the immigration desk and sound like you have come to set up home, yo are likely to find yourself straight back on the first plane back to where you came from.

And you can't apply for a spouse visa from within the UK, so even if he came and was allowed in as a visitor, and then some way to sponsor a spouse visa was discovered (e.g. wife works for six months to prove income), he would still have to return from whence he came to apply for the visa, and be unable to work for the six months while he was visiting the UK.