nhgeordie

Hi,
My wife had to retire from Teaching a few years ago, Sadly her health deteriorated and I had to retire early to look after her. She is over 65, I am under that age by a couple of years.
I am Born and Bred English, [Geordie in fact]She is US born and we feel its time for us to move back to my home.
I have questions, I have looked at the UK Gov site but find it unclear to our case, so I thought the wisdom on this site would be the place to go.
1-We live on her Social Security, Retirement, and a payment from her IRA. As I had to end my employment "Voluntarily" I receive no income, bar a very small UK works pension. Added together we should be close or on the Income Level required, am I right in thinking after one year we would be able to ask for Rent and Rate help? We are waiting to make sure her SS and IRA can be paid into a UK Bank, or if we can kep a bank account here and use cards for cash etc.
2- She has health issues, has Medicare for insurance, would that cover her in UK or will she be able to receive Health Care there on NHS?
3- Spousal Visa, would her health Issues stop the Visa and can we apply for Full Status straight away.

If someone can give me some answers Id be grateful, or if I can be pointed in the right direction to a Government Dept that is HELPFUL, [Yeh Right] Id appreciate it.
As I said, on the Gov site it seems to be aimed at job seekers or young folk, not ex pat retirees, I know MAY did a job on us a couple of years ago, which seems to have started the problems.
Maybe I should try Belgium or Holland for easier entry, then enter from there?

ncoomber

Hi Geordie,
Read the wiki here:
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Spouse_Immigration-UK_

I am not sure but don't think it matters where the income comes from BUT you can only include your income (the Brit sponsor) not the foreign spouse income (your US wife). Hopefully you already knew that and your calculations still work? You need an income of 18600 GBPs and have to show you have had that for six months. If not you can use a combination of income and savings (there is a formula somewhere). You also have to have a job offer in the UK for the same rate so I am not sure how this will work for you?

As far as I know she can claim no UK benefits (I think you can without it effecting her visa - not sure) although she WILL be able to use NHS.

I don't think having health issues will effect her visa application. I just applied for my USC wife and don't remember the form asking?

The visa is in a min of three stages - now when you first apply, in 2.5yrs time and in 5yrs time....each stage you have to meet the same requirements and to my knowledge there is no way to jump to the final stage?

Good luck, prepare yourself for a lot of work....getting these visa are not easy.

Can your wife claim citizenship for any other EU country?

Good luck
Cheers
Nigel

nhgeordie

Nigel, Thanks for the quick response.

Sadly its of little help, As I said I have tiny income, she is the one that gets "paid" with her SS IRA and Retirement, so she has the income, Not me, but it does add up to requirement

I will keep trying, and again I thank you, But having to look after her I couldn't even think of looking for work, If anybody would hire me at 63 yrs old.

Ill try writing to the Gov people to see if there is anybody there who can help.
Thanks Again
Jim

WEBlue

NhGeordie, have you looked carefully at the financial requirements, specifically the part dealing with pension/retirement income? It may be that your wife's pension can be used to meet the requirement.

According to the BE Wiki under the "Other Income" section, pension income can be counted from either or both partners:

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Spouse...orms_of_income



So...you will need to look at the finer details in the big GOV.UK financial requirements document "FM 1.7 Financial Requirement" on this page:
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...family-members

scot47

NHS available as soon as you are residents and there are no trick questions about that. If you worked in the UK at an earlier period and paid National Insurance you may have entitlement to a part Retiremenet pension

BritInParis

Does your wife have any British/Irish/European-born parents or grandparents? If she does she may be entitled to a passport which would allow her to bypass the visa requirements altogether.

SanDiegogirl

Since you are 63 how come you do not have a state pension from either the US or UK?

If you lived and worked in the UK for any decent length of time then you probably would have built up some kind of state pension. Similarly for the US.

As stated by others, income from pensions of either party (applicant or sponsor) can be taken into account when applying for spouse visa - (believe we told you that last year). Read the following document:

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...e_20140324.pdf

Section 8. Of course you need to determine that your wife's pension will continue in the UK.

spouse of scouse

I thought a person needed to be 65 years of age to receive the UK state pension?

Is there an exemption from the financial requirements if the sponsor is in receipt of a Carers Allowance? I seem to remember reading that, but am not 100% sure.

spouse of scouse

The below is copied from the Spouse Immigration Wiki - most BE regulars would be able to interpret it far better than I can, but it seems that a UK citizen wishing to sponsor their husband/wife's application for a spouse visa is exempt from the financial requirements if they (the sponsor) is in receipt of one of the payments listed below - it then falls on the applicant to prove that they have adequate funds to support themselves without recourse to public funds.

However, this doesn't seem to be helpful to the OP as it seems that he would need to be in receipt of this UK govt. payment (eg Carers Allowance) at the time of sponsoring his wife's visa application - and he can't apply for this payment as his wife isn't legally permitted to live in the UK until she has that visa????? Catch-22???

Sorry, I've probably made no sense, I just thought that since the OP is his wife's carer, this route may have been possible

Exceptions

There are very few exceptions to these rules, the most notable are:
E-ECP3.3/E-LTRP3.3 where the British citizen must be receiving one or more of the following
disability living allowance
severe disablement allowance
industrial injury disablement benefit
attendance allowance
carer's allowance

formula

As he is a male, then it would be 65. Although soon rising to 68 for state pensions.

Not really a catch 22 as they live in the US.

Plus they changed the rules to stop people arriving in the UK and claiming DLA (now PIP). It would be at least 2 years after she arrived in the UK before she could even apply for a medical to see if she could claim PIP. Who knows what the requirement will be for claiming PIP in 2 years time, as PIP and Carers Allowance are 2 of the benefits that will be subject to the new annual welfare cap.

ncoomber

Hi Geordie,
Sorry, I am no expert on all this and didn't know that pensions from non sponsors can be included in the financials. So that is good news, you might be in with a chance. All the best.
Cheers
Nigel

spouse of scouse

....and good luck and best wishes from me too.

ps thanks for the info formula.

formula

Jobseeker's Allowance is for anyone of working age. As you are a 63 year old male, you could claim JSA but it seems you would have to back in the country for 3 months now before you can claim and I'm not sure that you would get any JSA money anyway as you don't seem to fit the requiements.

There are 2 types of JSA, Contribution Based and Income Based. As you haven't contributed in the last 2 years, then you won't get that. For income based, you may have too much income per week between you.

formula

Won't that 62K+ stop them from getting any income based benefits for years i.e. Housing and council tax, which the OP was asking about claiming? They will be way over the 16k for income based benefits.

nhgeordie

I believe the pension age is 65 to go up to 68, There is no carers allowance in USA, and as a Legal Resident I am told I can claim no SS benefits myself.

Thanks to all for info and best wishes. Its a bit scary to think if we divorced I can walk back in no worries, yet I cannot bring my wife home with me.
Thanks Again