plvbrazil

Hello,

Thank you in advance for your help.

I'm Brazilian and I'm married to an English woman. We've been living together in Brazil for the last 2 years and want to move to England next year. I have read many pages about visas and immigration, but I still couldn't find any information that would solve my doubts regarding the minimum income.

First of all I have to say that we don't want to be away from each other for 6 months.

My wife is currently an English teacher in Brazil and she's self-employed, making around 12,000GBP per year (that can only be proved by checking her bank balance). I am employed in an IT company, officially earning around 21,000GBP per year. That puts us under category B I guess, right? (Category B: Less than 6 months with current employer or variable income – overseas sponsor returning to the UK)

My wife believes she will NOT find a job very easily that will pay her the current minimum income (18,600GBP), but I believe I can get a job with a salary of at least 35,000GBP.

So my questions are (p.s.: I have read most bits of the Annex FM Section FM 1.7 and still couldn't find clear information considering the UK national does not live in the UK currently):

1 - Regardless of my current or future salaries, can we only go to the UK if she's offered a job with a minimum salary of 18,600GBP?

2 - Considering she finds a job that will pay her the minimum income (solving the problem of question 1) can our current incomes (in Brazilian money) be combined to prove our income in Brazil? (that is, to prove that we met the financial requirement here prior to moving to the UK)

3 - If I get a non-sponsored job offer in the UK does that help me anyhow? I had in mind that if I had a job offer then the English government would issue me a visa based on my marriage. English companies don't really want sponsor anyone's visa, so I thought I would apply for the jobs and once I had the offer I could just ask the government for the visa without having to be sponsored by the company.

Thanks,
Phil

SanDiegogirl

Its your wife's finances that are taken into consideration, not yours.

She has to get the job earning 18,600 per annum and hold it for 6 months, or she has had to have worked at a job earning that amount, plus have a job to go to in the UK within 3 months of arriving there.

OR

Savings/investments can be used.

Research here to see which category you may qualify under:

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

You can't get a non-sponsored job since you would need to obtain a Tier 2 visa from a recognised sponsoring company. Your marriage does not qualify.

mikelincs

Please bear in mind the fact that the Home Office are currently looking at the level of earnings needed due to some adverse criticism by a judge in a recent hearing, so the level MAY change.

SanDiegogirl

Yes, I was aware of that . .... but, the current document is the only info I can go on at the moment so thought that would help for the OP to decide how to qualify.

plvbrazil

Thanks San Diego Girl and Mike,

Yes I am aware that the level of earnings may change and that all current applications which would be refused solely due to the income requirement are on hold.

I heard that the requirement may change to 13,700GBP.

englishguygoinghome

1) yes
2) no - only her brazilian earnings will be taken into account
3) no

plvbrazil

Another potential way of going to the UK would be through savings. I was checking this wiki: http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Spouse_Immigration-UK

My understanding is that if my wife can prove that she's had 62,500GBP in her bank account for the past 6 months (considering we have no children), then we could go to the UK. Does that depend on whether she is currently living on the UK or not?

englishguygoinghome

you can use the savings route from any country as long as you are legally resident there

TrinaJ

Hi, I am in a similar situation. My defacto partner needs an unmarried partner visa to live and work in the UK. Myself and our 2 kids are British Citizens and we are all living in Perth currently.
I have been self-employed in Australia, so understand that we need to prove that I can meet the £18,600 income requirement on average over the past 2 years, but am not clear if I can continue being self-employed in the UK or actually have to have an ordinary job.
I have a family member in the UK who is interested in offering me work, but doesn't want to employ me as such, I.e. I would need to be self-employed. Does anyone know if that is an option? (of course assuming the work meets the income requirement). I have looked through the info, and it mentions that I would need to have salaried or non-salaried employment within 3 months, but I'm not 100% sure whether self-employed means non-salaried employment(?)
Thanks in advance for your help.
Trina

TrinaJ

PS I hope that it is appropriate for me to ask a question within this thread (don't mean to hijack it), but thought our situation quite similar, and perhaps relevant to the original post :-)