voyageur

I’m looking into the process of retiring with my wife in the UK. I haven't lived in the UK for about 40 years.
I am British she is Norwegian.
As we are retiring so we wont have pay slips or letters for employers but I assume a pension statement from Norway would be sufficient? these would exceed the £18,600 required.
I have also checked my records and I have 15 years NI contributions so not much will be coming from that source.
so just a couple of questions:
It looks like she will have to apply for a family visa first. How long is this valid for ?
It seems that she will have to live in the UK for 5 years on a family visa before she can apply for ILR is that correct?

Thanks for any answers,

SanDiegogirl

You will apply for a 'spouse visa'. The initial visa is for 2.5 years, this is then renewed, and a further visa is issued for 2.5years. At the end of this 2.5 years a visa for Indefinite leave to remain can be applied for.

You should read the following document to see what options you have to meet the financial requirements:

https://assets.publishing.service.go...equirement.pdf

Savings can be used in addition to pensions etc.

voyageur

Thanks for the quick reply.
Going slightly off topic, I understand that my wife would be able to apply for citizenship after 3 years living in the UK
I suppose the fact the Family visa is valid for 2.5 years is no coincidence, ie she would have to apply for another family visa to allow her to live in Uk for the required 3 years?

christmasoompa

She'd need ILR before being eligible for citizenship.

HTH.

voyageur

Ok , thanks, so just to clarify, she needs to stay 5 years on a family visa, after which she can then apply for ILR which would allow her to the apply for citizenship.
Or does she need to live on UK for 3 years on an ILR before applying .
Basically the rule that you need to live 3 years in the UK before you can apy for citizenship is ambiguous as it takes 5 years to get an ILR.

SanDiegogirl

She has a spouse visa for 5 years, she then applies for ILR, as soon as she has ILR she applies for citizenship.