manny1980

Hello:

Me (UK and US citizenship) and my wife (US citizen) and I have been married now for nearly 8 years.

I wrote back in May 2012 and our plans keep on getting postponed for moving to the UK but we are still adamant and will make our move, hopefully in March 2012.

This is how things stand for us:

a) My wife (US citizen) and myself (US and UK citizen) have been married for nearly 8 years.

b) We are planning to apply for her settlement visa in the next few months and believe we have all the requirements fulfilled including financial and accommodation.

c) The only requirement we have unable to fulfill is the "Life in the UK Test", (LITUK) which we will do so once we are in the UK.

d) The Settlement visa we are applying costs about $1400, which I believe will give my wife a 27 month visa to live in the UK.

Our frustration is that we will be spending so much money to get settlement visa and been married for 8 years will still not give her Infinite Leave to Remain visa in the UK as the request for LITUK is not fulfilled

Question 1: Does anyone knows how much it costs for "Indefinite leave to remain" visa in the UK after she sits this LITUK test once we are there?

Question 2: Also, when we do apply for this Indefinite Leave to Remain visa, do we have to furnish all our finances and accommodation papers again or they simply seek for us to complete the LITUK test to obtain this Indefinite Leave to Remain visa?

Question 3: Tricky one...if we apply for her settlement visa now, because we have been married for over 4 years its reasonable to assume that even though the visa given to my wife will be for 27 months, we can leave even after 6-8 months from now than within 3 months of when the visa is granted? How I understand from previous conversations, my wife can sit the LITUK test right after landing in the UK and not have to fulfill the 2 year clause before applying for LITUK test...is this correct? Any official link to confirm this will really help me as so far I have unable to find information on this

Thank you!

Manny

roaringmouse

I believe it's currently £972 by post, or £1,350 in person (as of April 2011). Will likely increase again in April 2012.
Yes to providing the information.
Should be able to do that.

manny1980

Thank you for your message!

If it will cost £972 when we are in the UK, this implies in total the cost is approx. £2000 for settlement visa + Indefinite Leave to Remain...wow that is very expensive considering we have been married well over the requirement for permanent residence.

However, it does not make sense to me why we have to resubmit the paper work if she was granted settlement visa in the US? i.e If there was a problem, shouldn't that be clarified before she is granted the settlement visa in the USA?

roaringmouse

The 2nd visa would be applied for at a later date (by your plan close to a year later). Evidence supplied when applying for the 1st visa wouldn't cover that period, would it?

mayhemuk

You can do the LITUK test as soon as you like.
At least we did about this time last year about a month after landing and getting the ILR paper together.
We then applied for the ILR on the premise that we didn't want to just wait for the sake of it and have the prices go up further.

One of the bypasses that people have discussed is if you are in the UK (on a visit) to do the test and get it out the way and segue straight to ILR but I think that particular loophole has been closed by needing the Visa application references in order to book the test!

It costs! It sucks! But we're glad we moved.

pennylessinindia

Just Life in UK test cert as you have met all the other requirements

manny1980

Thank you for this information but I assume this implies that we can simply resubmit the same papers we did for the "Entrance Clearance" visa in the US as soon as my wife sits the LITUK test, which we are planning for her to as soon as we get there.

Although we have the financial means to pay for the ILR visa but just seems unfair rule as this test cannot be sit outside the UK and we already have fulfilled the important 4 year marriage rule and would have got her ILR had it not been for this LITUK test, which I assume for introduced recently as that can cost people twice as much to obtain the ILR.

roaringmouse

It may or may not be fair, however you've been aware of this for almost a year through these forums and was advised that your wife could have taken a trip to the UK as a tourist to take the test (only she needed to go, which could have kept those costs down) before applying for the visa back in the US. Back then it was still possible to do that without the proof of UK address that is required now to take the test.
The requirement of the Life in the UK Test for the ILR stage was introduced around 2006/7 I believe (and a couple of years before that for citizenship). Certainly my wife took it in 2007 for the ILR stage, but in the end we moved to Australia rather than applying for her ILR.

manny1980

I was aware of this LITUK test before but there was a good reason why my wife (and/ or I) did not go as my wife has fear of flying hence it would cost us a lot more to go via cruise. We are not rich by any means but we try to spend our money carefully. Hence, for us it wouldn't have been a cost-effective idea for her to visit UK for this test. As far as address goes, I am planning to give my parents address as they are fine to accommodate us until I or my wife gets a job; hence this has never been a problem for us.

Reason of my frustration with LITUK test is that its a catch-22 where a married couple, of 7+ years, living outside the UK can lawfully apply for ILR visa BUT the clause requires, at the same time, to pass LITUK test which can only be taken in the UK. I mean why even bother having the 4+ year marriage rule if one must also sit the LITUK exam which can only be taken in the UK.

Bluegrass Lass

It's an additional catch-22 that now the foreign spouse must provide proof of UK address in order to take the exam. They just started that this past July. They have basically made it damn near impossible to obtain ILE from outside the UK with the new rules, so I don't get why they even still have this visa available.

Although in saying this, I was able to apply for and receive an ILE visa this past week. My Brit husband moved back to the UK ahead of me to get employment, and then the letting agency allowed me to sign the tenancy agreement. So I went over, and signed the agreement, then stayed in the UK long enough to receive our council tax bill. The bill was addressed to Mr & Mrs XXX, so I used that to book and take the KOL exam. However, this did require me to stay in the UK for around 4 weeks before I took the exam. Not everyone will have the flexibility to do that.

manny1980

Both my wife and I are still living in the USA. I am working but my wife isn't. We are planning to use my mother's apartment for UK address as she is willing to accommodate us there until I get a job there after we both move there together. We are currently in process of collecting our bank-statements which has our name together in our US home address. I assume that the requirements in the visa application in the US will be similar to one in the UK i.e. evidences of living together, our finances etc.

Bluegrass Lass

We included our joint bank statements, the last 5 years of our Federal taxes and a couple of pieces of joint evidence (utility bill, credit card statements, homeowner's insurance, car insurance, etc) covering the last 5 years.

Make sure you get a letter from your mom inviting you to stay there, which should include a description of the property, as well as docs proving that she owns, rents or if its council housing; if she rents or its council owned, she needs to get a letter from the landlord/letting agency or the council saying you can stay there.

manny1980

Should the letter from my mother of invitation for us to stay there should be addressed to me or the immigration officer?

Our situation, I guess, can be considered unique in a sense we have lived with my wife's parents house (they were happy to accommodate us here for past 6 years) hence we don't really have many or any bills to show with our names together except for our taxes.

Bluegrass Lass

Your taxes are the main thing you need. Do you have any car loans, or car titles that have both your names on them? How about any memberships, like AAA or a gym/club membership? What about personal letters addressed to both of you?

Some peeps on the UK-Yankee site have said that the only thing you do need are the taxes (for couples in our unique situation), but we decided to include more. I have no idea if they even looked at that evidence, but I felt the better for including it. Maybe you should just send what you do have; it couldn't hurt. It doesn't necessarily have to have both your names on the item, but it is considered stronger evidence to have both names.

I do believe the letter from your mom needs to be addressed to the ECO.

manny1980

Thank you Bluegrass Lass for clarifying about letter of invitation to be addressed to the ECO, we shall do that

Weirdly enough we don't have any car loans or titles (its in my mother-in-law's name), and no membership of any kind. Taxes for last 3-4 years is all we have got. We do have joint bank accounts but when we receive it in the mail, its always addressed to my wife although the statement inside mentions both of our names together, which I guess I will highlight it using a pen to ensure they notice our names together. And we have many personal cards addressed to us from our families from as far back as 2004-05.