TrickyinOz

Hi Everyone,
First post here - hoping for some advice / guidance.

I'm a Pom living in Australia. Been here 2 years on a permanent residency visa.
In this time I've met my Australian fiance and we have a 9week old daughter now.
Rough plan is to get married in Feb '16 in Oz, but no firm commitments as yet.

We would like to live in the UK to be nearer my family and I'm trying to work out when this can happen.

If we wanted to go now, we don't meet the requirements of a relationship longer than 2 years for a de-facto relationship - at best we have 10 months of documented shared accomodation, bills etc...oh for a crystal ball and knowing I'd need a paper trail :/

If I look at some visa agent websites, they list a UK Spouse visa. Various requirements (that we can meet), but nothing mentioning 2 years of documented relationship.

However, looking on https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration there's no mention of a 'spouse visa', but there is a 'Apply to join family living permanently in the UK'
The important eligibility requirements to me are;
You must be one of the following:
married or civil partners
living together in a relationship for 2 years
engaged to be married or to become civil partners

To me this reads that we don't need the 2 years relationship proof.
We could apply for this as soon as we're married and infact, we could apply for this right now as we are engaged to be married (we have lots of congratulations cards).

I would appreciate others thoughts on this and whether I'm reading the gov.uk website correctly.

Assuming I am, can anyone give me any pointers to information/websites regarding taking our child and getting my fiance and child registered for health care in the UK?

Many thanks in advance,
TrickyinOz

Pollyana

The financial requirements are the thing that stumps most people. Have you looked at those in detail ?

TrickyinOz

Hi,

Pollyanna - thanks for your reply.
I have read the financial requirements 2015 and think I understand them, but would appreciate a second opinion.

My understanding is that my fiance has a financial requirement of £22,400 / year - for her and 1 child for 2.5 years initially.

This could come purely from savings...
Total savings we need to show (that we've had control of for at least 6 months) would need to be (£22,400 * 2.5) + £16,000 = £72,000.
This would be a stretch...so need to make the difference with employment in the UK.

I would be returning to the UK with my partner, so would fall under section 5.4 in the requirements document.
Part 1 - I would need to secure a job earning at least the difference between our savings and the requirement - and need to start this within 3 months.
Part 2 - I meet this requirement as I would be in employment at the time of application earning more than the financial requirement.

I'm reasonably confident that I could secure a job from Australia (I can't see any mention of what happens if I turn up and don't make it through probation?), although logistically tricky I guess as I need to have an offer before my fiance applies for the visa....but if she's unsuccessful, I won't be taking the job! What do people normally do in this situation?

I guess the fallback plan is to keep saving.
We have assets now (2 x cars, 1 x motorbike etc) which would mean it could work from just savings, but I don't thinks these can be used.

Thanks again in advance for any assistance.

formula

As long as you can afford to sponsor him he could:-

Apply as your fiance which will give him a 6 month visa only and to get that visa you must show proof that you are going to marry in the UK. But on that visa he is not allowed to work, not even remotely. Once married you provide all the financial requirements again and pay the fee for a 30 month visa for your spouse. That visa would allow him to work.

Or you can marry in OZ and then he could apply to enter as your spouse on a 33 month visa.

It will take him at least 5 years and 2 spouse visas, before he can apply for Indefinate leave to Remain.

Have you looked at the financial requirements you need to meet to be able to sponsor him? Roughly, you (his sponsor) either need to be earning at least 18.6 per year or have savings of 62.5k. Savings can be joint. If your child is born British through you being born British and born in the UK, then you don't need to sponsor her as she would enter on her British passport.

Becasue of the cost of all these visas in OZ and in the UK, think about getting your Aussie citizenship before you start the visa route to the UK for you partner.

formula

I asssumed the mother was the Brit when I answered your first post without reading your second. Are you the Brit, the father?

If the father is the Brit, I'm not sure of the rules for British citizenship for a child if the father isn't married to the mother at the time of birth. Others on here will know that.

formula

On that catagory to sponsor, the Brit would also need to show proof they have a job in the Uk earning that and starting within 3 months of their return to the UK. When the Brit has that evidence, their partner can apply for a visa.

mikelincs

Are you a Brit citizen otherwise than by descent, if so then your child is already a British Citizen, and you would need no financial requirements for her. The sponsor needs to be earning at least £18,600 for 6 months before coming to the UK and have an offer of a job earning at least £18,600 a year starting within 3 months of the date of the move, You cant get a spouse visa without that job offer.
The only other way is for you to come here on your own, then get the job and then apply for the spouse visa, but you would have had to ahve the job for 6 months.

TrickyinOz

Hi formula,
Thanks for the info...yes I'm the Brit and father.
I've just been looking at British citizenship for our daughter and agree that we wouldn't have to sponsor her.

Yeah it's funny how things work out. So long to get my perm residency for oz, didn't think I'd be contemplating a return to the UK so soon!
Im eligible for citizenship test in Aug next year, which isn't that long really

TrickyinOz

Hi mikelincs,

Thanks for the message.

Just to clarify what you and formula have said regarding the job offer from the uk.
If we were able to cover the cost of sponsorship room savings alone (not having to sponsor daughter helps there), would I still need the job offer?

Many thanks.

formula

You never know if you will "ping pong" between the two countries. i.e. you/your wife might later decide you prefer OZ; your child might return to Oz with your grandchildren. Having citizenship of the countries means the end of paying for visas and havng to meet those visa requirments everytime. You can then ping pong as much as you like.

formula

You have to prove adequate housing on her application so that you won't be asking the UK to house you, but that doesn't alter the financial requirement you must meet for your wife of 18,600 per year that you need to show you can earn without asking the UK to keep her. They are 2 separate parts of the visa application. You just don't add a Brit child to that financial requirement part.

formula

I've noticed on other forums that some who earned the requirement in other countries in the prevous 12 months but couldn't secure a job in the UK while abroad, have come to the UK and got a job within 3 months earning that money. From what they said they then used 'must have earned that in 12 months and have a job within 3 months' catagory for a visa for their spouse, instead of wating the 6 months for another catagory to sponsor.

As long as they still earned the requirment in the other country in the previous 12 months of the application, even that money was only earned over 10 months work as they were in the UK job searching for the other 2, they got the visa.

Am I making sense? I know what I am trying to say but might not be clear enough?

spouse of scouse

sorry, have deleted my post as the savings requirement advice I gave related to a spouse visa only

BritInParis

Apply for your daughter's Australian and British passports. Sit tight and wait until you can obtain your Australian citizenship which should be another two years or so. That way you have an easy way back to Oz if the situation changes at a later date.

Does your fiancée have any recent British, Irish or other European ancestry? It could provide a much easier and cheaper way of moving to the UK than going down the spouse visa route.

ArabellaTurner

My partner has quite a lot of savings (he's the Aussie and I'm the Brit). Would these need to be in joint names in order for them to qualify under the visa rules?