albert7

Hi I'm new to this site but I was hoping somebody could give me some information.

My daughter has UK passport and is currently living in Durban with her South African husband. They would like to move back to the UK to live. According to the UK Border Agency website it looks as though she would have to return to UK on her own and show that she is earning 18,600 UK pounds a year and then my son in law would have to apply from South Africa under partner sponsorship. Does anyone know how long my daughter would have to work in UK before my son in law could apply for permanent UK visa.

Or even better, has anybody got any personal experience of this situation?
Thanks in advance!

Orangepants

I think if you post in the Moving Back to the UK forum - there is a sub forum for this exact scenario. Believe it is 6 months but read through all the threads there - there are lots of people trying to do the same thing.

Sue

Hi albert7,

As Orangepants mentioned there are a few people going through this now and they all discuss it in our Moving Back to the UK forum. I'm going to move your thread to that section for you now. It might also be a good idea if you point your daughter to this forum so she can participate. As I said we've got lots of members who have experience of this and it really helps to chat with others going through the same thing, and I'm sure your daughter would find it helpful.

albert7

Many thanks for your advice Orangepants and Sue. I will do as you suggest

larrabee

Hi albert7, welcome!

There are several ways of meeting the financial requirement. Your daughter would not have to move ahead of her husband but there are very specific rules that apply.

This link has all the info on the financial requirements and the various ways in which they can be met.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/si...df?view=Binary

AngelaV

Hi Albert. I am in a similar position. I live in the Western Cape. I am Scottish, my husband South African. We looked into spousal visas etc but have decided it is just too restrictive and for us and impossible in our situation as I am the carer for my special needs daughter so don't meet the financial requirements at this end. Also, I do not want to/can't be apart from my husband for a year so that we can meet the restrictions in the UK. We have decided that as disruptive as it is, we are going to go the Surninder Singh route via Ireland as we will be able to be together as a family throughout the process and be living in the UK in the New Year with not the same financial requirements to fulfil as they will take my husband's earnings into account and the main earning responsibility won't be placed solely on me.

Husband has resigned, household items have been sold and we will be leaving SA at the end of June (Eeeek!!).

A word of warning ..... the certificate process with home affairs here is long, tedious and stressful. Please advise your daughter to make sure she has all the correct documents in plenty of time. You need vault copies of everything which takes up to 1 year going through home affairs (2 weeks through Bunny Hop). By far, this has been the most stressful part of the process for us so far.

PM me if your daughter would like to speak/e-mail me about anything and I'll send you my contact details. It is a bit of a shock when you first start to look to going home and realize you can't. Most of us have been through it on this site.

AngelaV

Albert, I just realized that I didn't really answer any of your questions.

In summary, your daughter must have earned R22500 in SA and have secured a job in UK earning GPB 18600 in order to sponsor her husband. From what I understand, it can take quite a bit of time for the visa process to go through so it is unlikely that a company would keep the position open. So, the only other option is for your daughter to go over before her husband, find a job above the financial threshold and her husband can then apply +/- 6 months later. The general consensus is that it will take about 1 year before they will be able to be together in the UK.

I hope your daughter and husband can come up with a solution, it's disgraceful that we can't go home with our loved ones.

larrabee

This is not strictly true.
As I mentioned before, there are several other options.
Savings alone, non employment income such as bank account interest and income from dividends, a combination of the above, etc.etc. These and yet more ways of meeting the financial requirements are documented in Appendix FM which I will link to again.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/si...df?view=Binary

Also notable is that gifts (not loans) of cash are acceptable but must have been in the control of the applicant and/or spouse for 6 months prior to the date of the application.

The OP was not specific regarding his daughter's financial situation and as such he needs to be made aware of all the options which are potentially open to her, as do others who may be reading this.

AngelaV

Beg your pardon, I assumed that if he had gone as far as to learn that his daughter would have to go on ahead of her husband, she did not meet the other financial requirements.

larrabee

This in fact may well be the case.
The reason though, that I was so keen to clarify was that when I was first looking into getting my husband to the UK, I read about the income requirements and had not yet come across the fact that savings can be used to offset some or all of the deficit. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to be able to work and I almost lost all hope there and then.
I learned from the good folks here that I actually could apply using savings and thankfully his application was successful.
I wish you well on your journey via the Surinder Singh route.

AngelaV

You are quite right Larrabee. One cannot take individual posts into consideration as there is so many elements to the process, all of which cannot be discussed in every individual thread/post. It is a bit of a jigsaw puzzle of putting individual experiences and advice together to compile a bigger picture.