hal3

Hi,

I am a UK citizen and have recently got married abroad. My wife lives in Asia. I want to know whether I meet the financial requirement with my savings alone. I started a job with a new employer only 2 months ago and don't want to wait a further 4 months to start my application process and therefore want to know whether I currently meet the financial requirement with my savings alone.

If I have £50,000 in savings in my bank account with instant access, for over 6 months and a further £20,000 in premium bonds which I have held for over 6 months (which isn't instant access because it takes 14 days to transfer to my bank account) do I still meet the requirement on savings alone as it exceeds £62,500? Providing I transfer the premium bonds of £20,000 and liquidate them to my bank account, do I need to wait another 6 months from the date I transfer the money to my bank account, even if I can prove I have held the amount in premium bonds for 6 months?

Any help will be much appreciated.
Thanks

Biglittleben

Hey there,

I am pretty sure that they wouldn't consider your bonds as they are not instantly accessible.

If you had a long term savings account for example and stopped it mid way which may lose your interest that can count as long as you can get to it the same day, but waiting 2 weeks? i think they'll refuse that.

They are very strict with the financial requirements and anything that doesn't match up with their requirements will be a possible denial of visa.

You can however i believe release the bonds beforehand into an instantly accessible account without having to wait the 6 months as long as you can prove that it came from a bond in your name and that bond plus the time in the new account was over 6 months in your or partners name.

Hope this helps

not2old

OP are you aware of or familiar with this?

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

hal3

Thanks a lot. So the premium bonds I would need to liquidate them into my bank account but don't need to wait a further six months from that date, providing I have held the premium bonds for over 6 months?
SO £50,000 is already in the bank account. The other £12,500 I can transfer from premium bonds into my bank account but don't need to wait 6 months as long as I show evidence that I have held them in premium bonds and my bank account for a period totaling more than 6 months? Just want to ensure I have interpreted the below text correctly from the document.
Also, these are all from my savings from when I worked as I started saving since I was 16. How can I show evidence for the amount?
Lastly, just to confirm, do I meet the entire financial requirement solely on my savings as described above?




This means that, where the cash savings have previously been held as investments
(including where they have been held in an investment account which does not meet the
requirements of paragraphs 11 and 11A(a)), stocks, shares, bonds or trust funds that were
owned by and under the control of the applicant, their partner or both jointly, this ownership
period can be counted towards the 6 month period. So money held as cash savings at the
date of application can have been liquidated or transferred by the same owner(s) from 50
investments and may have been held as investments for the first part of the period of 6
months prior to the date of application and as cash savings for the rest of that 6 month
period (see the table in 7.4.3. for a summary of the cash savings requirements).

not2old

looks like you have it all there & that it has been in its entirety for 6 months or more, based on what you posted. Can you have the statements from the bank as well as the other source of funds as 'proof' & provide & be able to show the proof of funds?

If so, then, it appears that you would have met the financial £62,500 requirements

Biglittleben

For your evidence of savings, you'll require the banks statements etc plus proof of the bonds and then a letter from yourself disclosing the means of how you made your savings.

so for example you can say the funds shown in the bank statement has been saved over the last ?? years working here and there. and mention in the letter that you recently moved some of your bonds into this account as shown here.... and that money came from savings i made in 2013 or whatever.

Try to make it as clear and open as possible, be honest and they shouldnt have to ask any questions.

hal3

Many thanks.

I will try to get a letter from the bank which holds the premium bonds to state I have held the savings for over six months.

I have three further questions.
1) My normal bank account is the one which I will transfer the bonds to and which holds the £50,000. I have the original statements for this bank account which came through the post. Is it a good idea to get these stamped from the bank out of cautiousness?

2) Do you think it is better to show my entire £70,000 savings by transferring all my £20,000 from premium bonds, to be on the safe side or do I only need to transfer £12,500, if I have £50,000 in my bank account already.

3) Lastly, because I have held most of my savings for over 2 years and most of them have come through working, is it sufficient to say these are my savings from previous years, or do I need to show examples such as some or all pay slips from previous years and student maintenance grants etc?

I am worried about how to account for such a large amount of savings.

Biglittleben

You only need to show up to the £62,500 anything above that is irrelevant and not necessary as far as i can tell or heard from others.

you dont need to show evidence from you're entire work history relating to the savings, im pretty sure just a declaration letter would suffice but one or two pay slips wouldnt hurt, or maybe copies of your work contracts to show you were really employed and earning during those periods, this may prove it was derived legally and not from other means deemed unsuitable. but others have just sent a letter and still got a visa without evidence.

are your bank statements from the UK? if from another country they will need to be translated i think, with a letter or official stamps from the bank too. if from a UK bank, ive heard an original bank statement is OK, but im not totally sure if if it needs a stamp, that might only be for printed copies if you are paperless banking.

michali

We sent in originals of bank statements (unstamped) for accounts that were if iced deposit so we asked the bank to write a letter to confirm the funds were instantly accessible. We actually declared more than was required. Others say you should only declare the required amount.

Our savings were from my husband's earnings over the years but were mostly accrued from years ago so we had no supporting documents but just wrote that the money was from earnings and detailed what his position was. If you have something to support your declaration, it certainly might be a good idea to include a few pay slips or statements.

hal3

Thanks Michali, that is a lot of help.
Another scare I am having now is regarding what I just read in the financial requirement doc

"7.4.9
Evidence must be provided showing that:
The value of the investments, stocks, shares, bonds or trust funds at or before the beginning of that 6 month period was at least EQUIVALENT to the amount of the cash savings relied upon in the application;"

The question is, will this suffice in me meeting the financial requirement as I have held the savings for 6 months, albeit part of it in premium bonds. The money from the bonds alone will not be equivalent to the amount of cash savings relied on in the application so I am worried (because of the wording above saying equivalent) that they may only consider my £20k and not the 45k in the bank.

Has anyone applied through cat D savings only route but used part cash and part bonds/trusts etc which were transferred to an instant access account?