Originally Posted by Willgohome (Post 10245258)

OK so I'm a UKC born in London, Lambeth to be exact, 58 years old, although sometimes, well most of the time act and feel like a 30 year old lol :rofl:. I have been married to my wife a USC for 15 years. I'm a self employed home remodeling carpenter in the states. I don't have much in the way of savings but I am furiously changing that and over the course of the next 2/3 years hope to save $30/$50.000 which I'm pretty certain I can do, or win the lottery :nod:.

Here's my question/strategy. Let's say I save the amount I mentioned above, move the money over to the UK into a bank account (I know I'll have to work on opening an account somehow, maybe an offshore account first?) then go to the UK with my wife, (on a regular visa for my wife) I'm thinking book a flight together for a typical holiday, say a couple or 3 weeks, supposedly to visit family, which I will do anyway and I have loads of family there, siblings, son etc.

We get there, I secure accommodation for us, register my self employed business and start work. My wife stays with me for 5 months ish and not overstaying the 6 month visa that usually is stamped in the passport. She then goes back to the states for say a month and stays with her daughter, then returns to the UK for a further 5 months ish, then returns to the states for a 2nd time and stays there and applies for a spouse visa. All the while I keep working until my self employment accounts total a full year and make sure I earn more than 18.600 pounds.

Does this strategy sound ludicrous or does it sound viable? :sneaky:

So does anyone have any sage advise? please tell me it sounds do-able :thumbsup:

Originally Posted by ldollard (Post 10249742)

I know this sounds ageist, but the flaw i see in your plan, mainly is if you dont plan to do any of this until you are 61 years old and then spend the next 1 1/2 messing around with immigration you'll be over 62 thats 4 years away from now before you even settle together.

I'll be honest its highly unlikely you'll have much luck at that age building up a big enough clientele. It would actually make more sense to just go over now, leave your wife in the US, build up a business NOW, and probably in a year, hopefully in a year you'll be in the position to bring her over. Why delay it.

Originally Posted by Willgohome (Post 10250482)

Idollard...What you say would generally be relevent but one thing I can say about myself is that I'm a really young 58 year old, I'm really healthy, not overweight at all, I eat an incredibly healthful way and can outwork anyone I know physically (i have been in business in the US for 28 years).

Having said that, I do know the clock is ticking (you're absolutely right about that) so the other part of my plan is to not just work for clientele but to buy flats/houses at a low rate/price repair/restore them and sell them on, this way I will not do all the work but I will oversee most of it, filling in with some of the work as I see fit. I have already had experience doing this in the UK in the last few years, ( I took a small hiatus a couple of years ago from the US and did this in the UK) so I feel it's viable and I think it'll be more profitable, I don't even mind partnering up with someone responsible on a single project from time to time.

As for going over sooner rather than later, I am 'biting at the bit' so that may very well happen.

Thanx so much for your thoughts, it prompted me to think about returning to the UK sooner, rather than later.