JJMcC

Hi!

First of, I have been living in Dubai since 1997. Never worked in the UK. I basically grew up in the UAE. And now considering moving back to the UK with my foreign wife and two kids.

Can someone enlighten me as I do not have an idea about all the formalities of this move --- from visas, to NHS stuff, schools, tax, looking for a job in UK...

Looking forward to hearing from you! Any input is highly appreciated.

Thanks.

Gavtek

Depending on the nationality of your wife, she'll need to do an IELTS test before applying for residence visa. Residence visa must be done either from current country of residence or her home country. It's quite an intense and expensive process - even though you may have lived together for several years and have children, they work from the base assumption that you're trying to smuggle a Thai mail-order bride/hooker into the UK. We hired Visalogic to manage our application to reduce the risk of it being rejected (cost was GBP 1k).

Keep in mind that you need to have a property (owned or rented) in your name and you either need to already have a job in the UK or have significant savings to show you can support your wife.

NHS for your wife will be paid for as part of the residence visa.

For your kids NHS, it should just be a case of registering them at your local GP clinic. Your file should still be there hopefully (I hadn't used any NHS services for 20 years but my file was still open with the GP clinic where I used to live).

Schools, no idea. I guess it's a case of finding the school zoned to wherever you end up living and contacting them to find out what the process is.

Finding jobs, good luck. I ended up getting a job offer for Abu Dhabi 2 days after my wife got her UK residence visa (at a total cost exceeding GBP 10k all in) and came back to the UAE. It will depend on a lot on what part of the UK you're going to. London and other large cities, you should be fine. Other parts, you may find that companies will be reluctant to hire people with overseas experience in smaller cities/towns. That may just be my experience though.

Millhouse

for schools... contact the council. They can explain everything as it will be specific to each area.

BritInParis

I presume you were born in the UK? Do you hold a British passport? Which passport(s) does your wife hold?

Clivem

We went through this back in 2015, ny wife is from Malaysia thou she didn't have to do the IELTS because she hada degree from a UK university. There are financial requirements that need to be met for the application to be granted which is to have a job on returning that pays at least £18k per annum or have liquid savings of at least £65k. If either of these conditions aren't satisfied then the application will be declined and an appeal will need to be made citing special circumstances, though I have no experience of this. I am aware of two couple who went through the appeals process one was successful and the other wasn't though I couldn't tell you what the differences were between the two cases and I think some of it will depend on the case officer.

The process itself is very ambiguous and there is very little information available, I think that this is a deliberate decision as much of the process is now run by private companies. It is basically a box ticking exercise and if they don't get the information in the format that they want they will decline the application. My company didn't produce payslips and even though we provided bank statements showing the income being received they didn't want this, once we gave them payslips they accepted the application. We have them family photos and wedding albums at the initial interview in KL this was on the advice of others, though they didn't look at them at all or take them into consideration.

The visa itself cost about £2,000 and we had an NHS levy of around £1,500 to pay as well. The questions on the application border on being rediculous and some of them are frankly insulting. The visa lasts for 2.5 years and then you need to apply again, we started the process about 6 months before my wifes visa was due to expire. Once you reach the 5 year mark then your wife is eligable to take the residency/citizenship test which will provide right to remain.

Hope this has been helpful.

Clive

JJMcC

Yes, I was born in the UK. My wife is from the Philippines.

spouse of scouse

A few clarifications on the above:
If relying solely on income from employment to meet the financial requirement, the job(s) must pay a minimum of £18,600 per annum
If using cash savings only to meet the financial requirement, the amount is £62,500
There are other categories that can be used to meet the financial requirements, either alone or in combination, and applicants are advised to read the detailed guidance carefully
https://assets.publishing.service.go...ment_Final.pdf

The requirement to provide payslips that match the salary payments on bank statements is very clearly stated, so if you had asked your company for these prior to submitting your application you wouldn't have had a problem. The questions asked in the application are to ensure that the applicant and sponsor meet the financial, relationship, accommodation and other requirements that are a condition of the visa being granted. I didn't feel insulted at all when I was completing mine.

Pollyana

Actually I think you will find there is an enormous amount of information available, not least on this very forum

SanDiegogirl

Suggest you read this document to see how you qualify under the financial requirements:

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

and the following gives details as to how to apply for visas:

https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa

BritInParis

First thing to do is get your children British passports, but I guess they already have them?

JJMcC

Yes, both of them have British passports.

JJMcC

Thanks for all your inputs! Really appreciate it.

BritInParis

Carry on.