On the road again

Been reading through the many posts on a trailing spouse moving to the UK with a british citizen... But I couldn't find anything detailing my query below.

I'm the british citizen and my wife is the trailing spouse. I don't have a job back in the UK (or in Aus) so we don't meet the £18600/year income requirement. However I have a bank account with more than enough to meet the £62500 requirement.

But! It's what we have transferred into the savings side of the mortgage account (there is a mortgage side and an offset side). We have chosen to transfer a large portion of the money available for us to use back into the offset side. It is ours to do as we please but if we spend it the mortgage goes up accordingly.

If I apply for the spouse visa and provide bank statements as proof they will indicate there is a mortgage as well as a bank balance. So the question is: Will this money qualify for the £62500 savings requirement?

I guess the other question is: is it one or the other... I.e. you make £18600/year or you have £62500 in the bank? I've been assuming it's either or...

Thx in advance

ncoomber

hi ontheroad,
I cant answer the first part. But as I understand it, you can have a mix of income and savings....there is a formula in the wiki linked above
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Spouse_Immigration-UK
Cheers
Nigel

SanDiegogirl

So the money in the offset side is money which was loaned to you as part of the mortgage - and you took some of that money and transferred it to a bank account. You can "spend" this money, but in doing so the amount spent gets added back to the mortgage. Rather like a home equity loan. The money in this offset bank account is NOT money you have saved yourself.

Have I got his correct?

If so, and if used it just increases the mortgage, then this is not money which you can use to support yourself and family in the UK ie. accommodation costs/food/utilities/transport etc (which is what the money is needed for if you don't have an income).

I don't believe it would be eligible to be used as savings for the financial requirements.

...... and if it is attached to a mortgage in Australia how would it be available to yourselves in the UK?

If you have an income of 18,600 you don't need to have savings.

On the road again

No it was originally saved by us but when we bought the house we put it on the mortgage. We didn't need to put so much on the mortgage, we did it because in aus if you have any sort of set back (i.e. medical) they make you go broke first before you can ask for assistance. Taking our savings and putting it on the mortgage stops the government demanding you go broke first. The money is still available to us once its transferred back to the saving side of the account to spend anyway we like, e.g. financing our trip back to the UK.



It's not a loan, loans have conditions as what the money is spent on, excluding CCs. There are no conditions at all. I simply have a large balance now in my saving account because I took back what I put on the mortgage in the past. I am well within my rights to transfer the entire amount to another account that isn't associated with the offset/mortgage account - but if I do so my mortgage payments increase. I could transfer it overseas if I wanted. I would prefer to leave it where it is for the meantime because I don't want to wait the 6 months to verify it's validity.

SanDiegogirl

Thanks for explaining how this offset account is linked to a mortgage. Must admit I had never, personally, heard of this type of account.

If, as you say, this money is totally at your disposal (you could spend the lot tomorrow and the only penalty you would have would be to see the interest rate on your mortgage increase) then, since it comprises of savings you yourself accumulated, I don't see why it could not be used as savings to qualify under the financial requirements.

Presumable upon leaving Australia you would have sold your property and paid off the mortgage so there would be no link at all.

englishguygoinghome

I have a nasty suspicion that this situation is unlikely to be covered fairly by the current rules.
On a related note and to set the background: Originally the rules would have required you to leave any cash obtained from the sale of your house in a bank account for 6 months before using it to cover the requirements - since last September it can be used immediately. This change came about due to a number of failed applications and lobbying/complaints by legal groups and MPs.

In your case I'd personally agree the money is clearly yours, it can be spent immediately from the account it is currently in (by simply transfering it across to the savings account) and if you had proof of value of and the equity in the property, and the minimum and maximum borrowings which showed this then that should be acceptable. I don't think it wold be though. That's just my personal, pessimistic opinion but I would expect an ECO to class it as a loan (even if you move it out of the account now and wait 6 months) and invalidate the application. On lobbying through an MP and lawyers in the UK you may see the rules changed 9-12 months down the line, but that wouldn't help you very much.

If, however, you were to sell the house then the monies left over after paying off the mortgage and all fees and taxes can be used immediately for the savings requirement. You're best bet may very well be to sell up.

Does anyone have a more optimisitc view of how to avoid selling the house?

alfista1

Sorry to intrude on this discussion.
Maybe I am misunderstanding the six months rule.

Do you only need to sit on the cash savings if you can't prove you're not in control of the money?
If we have our savings from our own sources, severance pay, savings over years etc do we still need to wait the six months after we reach the 62500 ?

Thanks

michali

My understanding is that the $62,500 has to have been in your possession for at least six months either in a savings account which has remained untouched(no dip in the amount for six months) or in investment funds and then cashed in within the last six months. Or you could own a property which you sell and the money is then placed in a savings account. As long as you can show you owned the property six months ago, the actual cash can have been sitting there for less than six months. The bottom line is that the amount of $62,500 has to have been under your control for the past six months in some form or other. You must show too that the money can be withdrawn at any time, with or without penalty for early withdrawal. Please correct me if I am wrong on this.

On the road again

Well I bit the bullet and phoned the premium line that allows you to talk to an immigration "expert" with the UK Boarder agency.

Explained the money situation to them and how it has been held in the mortgage account and then transferred to the offset account...

Conclusion: We came to the decision that it would be ok if I were to obtain a letter from the bank that out line how long that money had been in the mortgage account and explained that I was free to withdraw in and use it anyway I chose. Technically there is no penalty as the money was deposited by myself months after we had taken the mortgage out. It was a tactic to simply protect it from an unforeseen problems that would have had the government here demand we go bankrupt before they would offer any sort of assistance (something we witnessed but were in no situation ourselves but decided to take the action just incase knowing we had full access to the money if we wanted it). So the letter has been obtained and I will also put together a trail of bank statements that show the money was originally put on the mortgage voluntarily by us and then moved to the offset to demonstrate it was ours... And if we provide the letter from the bank that says by all means its ours to do as we please. I suspect that would be enough.

Question now is, is there a way of submitting documents for the UK boarder agency to scrutinise and then give their approval before an application and fees paid is submitted.

englishguygoinghome

I would also provide details of the phone call (date, time, name of person you spoke to, reference number of the payment they took etc.) and a summary of what you were told in one of the supporting letters you include in the application. (Include one from the applicant and another from the sponsor; between the two letters make sure you explain everything very clearly and spell out in simple terms how you fulfil each of the criteria they are checking. Go so far as to mention each criterion in each letter and use the phrase "as explained in my husband/wife's letter of sponsorship" or "as explained in my wife/husband's letter of application")

michali

Wouldn't that be great if we could! We would all do it!

glemo

Some great info.
Many thx.

dunroving

I have an offset mortgage. It consists of the outstanding mortgage balance (a negative balance "loan" account, that shows online as an account).

That is the ONLY "mortgage" account.

I also have a couple of bank accounts with the same bank (Barclays/Woolwich). I can select which of these I want to "offset" against my mortgage balance. I can change which ones are offset at any time.

If the OP's situation is the same, I can see absolutely no reason why his bank account, which is currently offset against his mortgage balance, wouldn't count as "savings". He can spend it at any time he wants to.

It would only be problematic if he asked the bank to use some of his offset accounts to pay off some of his mortgage.

On the other hand, I also have an account (showing zero) that IS directly linked with my mortgage, which is somewhat similar to an "overdraft" account. The way this works with my offset mortgage arrangement, I could draw on this account (a bit like the same way I could use a credit card), but if I did so, it would be classed as a loan (part of my mortgage), not savings. It's more of a credit facility than a bank account.

To the OP: Which of the above two types of accounts do you have? It sounds like the former (the only difference being that mine has money that I have saved over tine, wheres the balance in yours sounds like money that the bank has quasi-"refunded" to you from a previous overpayment), but I can't tell for sure.

On the road again

Ya I think you have it. It's the former. I have secured a letter from the bank stating all mont in the offset is mine to do as I please and has been available to me for over 2 years.

I think my next step is to find an immigration consultant to look over the docs and give feed back, just to make sure - know of any?

Worst case scenario is my wife goes as a visitor and the money in the savings become legit and or I have a job that pays 18600 for 6 months. I don't think she would complain if she had to wait out an application to go through in Paris if it came down to that. Actually I think she'd go sit an Budapest and wait it out there...

alfista1

I thought about this way with my wife(and son) but was warned against it as the immigration border control may deny her entry even as a visitor as it looks suspicious!!