brit_abroad

I had no idea of the changes to moving back to the UK until a couple of days ago, so I am absolutely gutted right now. I have been living in the USA for 12 years. I came here because my American husband shared custody of his child from his first marriage and so the plan was for us to see her through school and then we would move to the UK. Well, that time has come, but now it looks impossible.

I am a stay at home mum with a 6 year old child who has Autism. From what I am reading, I need to be making 18k GBP a year, for at least 6 months before my husband can come over to the UK with me. Have I got that right?

I am just wondering... how am I supposed to support my husband if I am caring for a child with a disability and my husband is the main bread winner?

The savings part... 62k GBP in savings? How long do we have to have these savings for in the UK?

Can my husband get a job there? Does his job not count for anything?

If my husband was able to get a work visa, would that make a difference?

Are there any exceptions for people who care for children with disabilities? FYI - my child has (or will have) both a US and UK passport.

I would so appreciate your help. I am sat here in utter disbelief that this has happened and that I cannot go home to be with my UK family. This was always the plan, from the beginning. My husband wants to move to the UK too, not just for me.

quiltman

Others more competent than I will be along with more in depth advice I'm sure.
I do sympathise with your circumstances but the UK has made it so much more difficult for UK citizens with non EU spouses to get in. Partly due to sham marriages, partly due to trying to cut down on nett immigration, and as they cannot do much about EU nationals are hitting all the others.
It can be done though, just takes time and meeting the criteria. As you realise, regretfully it has to be YOU , as your husbands sponsor who has to earn the £18600 unless you can meet the savings criteria.

formula

62.5k. 6 months and you don't have to hold your savings in the UK for those 6 months. If you are selling your house and have equity after the sale of 62.5k, then you don't have to hold that money in savings for 6 months.

Only if he has a UK visa that allows him to work or he holds citizenship of an EEA country.

Yes, but they aren't easy to get unless he has a skill that is in demand in the UK. The numbers for this visa is capped. He would have to find a company that has a sponsorship license and who are willing to sponsor him subject to a resident market labour test. The company would then have to select the appropriate code for his role and pay him the appropriate rate (or higher) for that job, for a visa to be granted.
https://www.gov.uk/tier-2-general/overview

Or if he has worked for a company for at least the last 12 months and they have a UK office and a sponsorship license, he might be able to use that to get a temporary visa to the UK to work in their UK office. For a short-term staff visa of up to 12 months, he will need to earn at least £24,500 or the 'appropriate rate' (whichever is higher). For a long-term visa, he would need to earn at least 41k or the 'appropriate rate' (whichever is higher).
https://www.gov.uk/tier-2-intracompa...sa/eligibility
He can then use his own salary to meet the financial requirements for you to sponsor him for a spouse visa.

Only if you are already living in the UK, were claiming DLA for your child and Carers Allowance for yourself, and wanted to bring a fiance/spouse to the UK to join you. However, there are residency requirements for benefits and for DLA (Disability Living Allowance) it is "have lived in Great Britain for 2 out of the last 3 years if over 3 years old"
https://www.gov.uk/disability-living...en/eligibility

Novocastrian

I'm also no expert, but as I understand it the 2012 rules, resulting from a not-very-well-suppressed neo-fascist tendency in the current UK cabinet, coupled with misogynic and muddle-headed thinking by the same, have resulted in a situation where someone like yourself, a UK citizen stay at home mum with a non EU spouse are just plain screwed if you want to relocate your family back home and you don't have 62K pounds in savings.

JAJ

I'm not sure if I would credit the British government with the ability to specifically work out all of this in advance. But it's clear that in the absence of courage to put quotas on work permits, student visas, etc., or deal with the European immigration rules, or even restore the pre-1997 primary purpose rule, they were looking for soft targets. And this, clearly, is one of them.

It ought to be obvious to anyone that the 2012 rules impact disproportionately on female British citizens, who have a greater chance of being stay at home mothers and therefore without their own earned income. They could easily have set up the rules in such a way as to allow the earnings of the non-British spouse to be taken into account, but (consciously or otherwise) chose not to. And perhaps politicians think that GBP62k in savings isn't a big deal, but in the real world, most people have nothing close to that.

formula

An immigrant on another forum summed it up. He said that the UK opened it's doors wide from 1998 and then hundreds of thousands of immigrants arrived every year. Because of this the UK has had to then slam the door shut and the changes had to be hard, harder than they were pre 1998.

The same with the NHS abuse I suppose. Once the British nationals health service started to be used as an international health service, then these changes had to come in to stop that.

formula

Oh really! Many women earn more that their husband, I always have. Lets not go back to the dark ages of the 50s when the "little wife" stayed at home and reached old age poorer than men; especially if their marriage ended. Or when women were trapped in a bad marriage because they didn't have a wage. Believe it or not, many women have an education. What do you expect the females to do all day while the children are at school?

The UK has an up to 70% state funded childcare scheme with free nursery hours now for 3 year olds. From April, parents will get a tax free lump sum towards childcare. Successful countries provide state funded childcare.

JAJ

Sigh. Merely an observation.
Of course, there are many women who earn more than their husbands/partners, but I would think that the majority do not. Not because of lack of ability/education, but simply as a consequence of a choice to take time out from career/full time employment to look after children.

formula

The family visa in 2012, was the last one they tackled.

In 2010 they sorted:-

work visas - Big changes
They closed down the 2 work visas for those that weren't skilled at anything much; Tier 1 (General) and Tier 1 (PSW).

For the other two work visas:-

They capped Tier 2 (General) Restricted COS to 20,700 per year and made this a visa for graduate jobs now and at set levels of pay. From 2016, they have to earn at least 35k for ILR although many now have to earn more than that just to get this visa.
The maximum they can have this visa for is just 6 years now, so if they don't earn 35k by 6 years or they commit a crime that delays their ILR, then they now have to leave the UK.

For Tier 2 (ICT) they now have to work for that firm abroad for a while, now have to earn at least 24.5 for an up to 1 year visa. They now have a limit to their stay in the UK and this visa no longer leads to settlement. They can't apply for a Tier 2 (General) visa until they have remained outside the UK for 1 year.


Student visas = massive changes.
No more bringing all their dependants with them unless they study at masters and above and only then if they are at a proper university.
No more staying in the UK as a student for 10 years (even if you fail your courses) and then claiming a right to ILR under 10 years legal stay.
Students are now capped at the time they can study for.
Students who don't make academic progress (pass their course and apply for a visa at a higher level) are refused visas.
Rights to work while a student, have been removed for many or reduced to just 10- hours during term time. Those at proper UK universities can still have work rights of 20 hours a week during term time.
Students now have to pass English tests. Recordings kept and software recognition programmes are used to see who get others to take their tests or who takes tests for others. i.e. the recent TOEIC gathering up and deportations. Bans for deception for 10 years.
Hundreds of student colleges that opened over shops, have been closed down.
Those using certificates from colleges now found to be bogus, refused further visas.
New rules for student sponsors to keep checking their international students.
Sponsorship removed from institutions who don't follow UKVI rules.
The end of students being able to stay in the UK to get ILR, if they can't get a sponsor.
Easier ways for the brightest students to get work visas.

ect
The end of '14 years an illegal and keep hidden, have ILR'.
The end of Discretionary Leave to Remain and instant access to all benefits.
New criminality laws that either delay or prevent UK citizenship. This includes driving offences such as no insurance.Cautions now included as these crimes.
The dependants of those who get ILR by being in the UK for 10 years, have to start their 5 years clock to IRL again.

I'm sure there are others that I have forgotten. It wasn't a case of looking for soft targets as the family visa is the last one they tackled and the other visas are now much toughter to get. i.e. those on work visas needing to earn 35k to get ILR.

BritInParis

The OP being a case in point. It is worth pointing out that the rules discriminate against any British parent - male or female - who elects to stay at home to raise their children and wishes to return to the UK as a family. As it stands a non-British mother could earn £100,000 pa but if the British father is a full-time stay-at-home dad then they don't qualify.

That being said since it remains true that is still mostly women rather than men who become full-time stay-at-home parents I do agree with JAJ and Novocastrian that the rules are misogynistic. They are also completely out-of-step with developments in the UK regarding maternity/paternity leave and flexible working arrangements.

NiHao

Is there any kind of organized group working to get the rules changed?

It seems that most of the British population is oblivious of what a hardship the rules are for people like the OP but if they knew I would think there would be a lot of support to get the rules changed.

It really bothers me when I see situations like the ops posted here on BE. If anyone knows if there is some kind of petition or effort to lobby for change I would definitely add my name.

dunroving

At the risk of being accused of sexism, I wholeheartedly agree.

I wonder if there is a legal challenge there on the basis of sex discrimination (not difficult to empirically demonstrate that more women than men are likely to be disadvantaged by the rules, based on data on stay-at-home parents)?

As Novocastrian said, though, it shouldn't have been too complicated and would be perfectly logical to allow a non-EU spouse's salary to be allowed to be taken into account.

brit_abroad

Thank you so much everyone for your input - I appreciate it so much.

I have another question in regards to the savings (I think this is our only option - we'll have to sell our house to raise the money):

So we need the savings 6 months before moving. At what point do we apply for a visa, and what kind of visa would we need?

Once we get to the UK, what then? Are there any requirements financially from that point, or is it simply that we need to show we have the savings and then that's that?

dunroving

Not sure if you have seen it but there is a sticky thread at the top of this part of the forum (link here). This may answer some of these questions (I don't want to attempt answering because I only know what I have read in various threads and would probably tell you the wrong thing!)

ETA: Sorry, I just checked the thread and it's actually fairly brief. There are several BE members affected by these requirements so I am sure someone will be along soon with an answer

brit_abroad

No I didn't see that - thank you!