michali

We will be applying for a spousal visa on the basis of savings which have been in place for some years and have come from my husband's salary since 2000 as a consultant attorney. Our intention was to just include the six months bank statements and a letter staing the source of the savings ie as above. However, I have read on another forum that someone with above the required amount savings being refused as no information was given about the company of which he is CEO. Should we therefore include a letter from my husband's employer saying what his average salary was over the years? We had hoped not to have to do this as we do not really want the employer to know we might leave! If we are not granted the visa, my husband will continue working. Any advice please? We want to do it right, first time!

CDNtoUK

I just got my visa last week with savings. I just indicated that source was "savings from income earned" and had no problem.

michali

Thank you for that! It us encouraging having read of other cases that were refused!

CDNtoUK

It's all so stressful. I didn't even include a letter, just indicated on the area of the form where it said "source of income" as well as in the addendum pages I added for other accounts.

Perth

So you are taking the plunge? Good for you. We are in waiting right now as DD has just been accepted to nursing school to become a nurse practitioner. We will wait the 3 years until she graduates. It is actually a relief to put it all down for a while. I have a new job and things are going well. I will just have to dream of being home for a little bit longer.

Question- I think you may have brought this up earlier: is there an advantage to showing that you actually have more than the required amount of savings if you have it, or is it best not to? What have you decided to do?

michali

Talk about stress! My mind seems to be totally consumed by this whole process! One minute I am hopeful, the next, I doubt it can happen! Still not sure about the amount of savings, but still think it is good to have some extra in case the markets crash! The form does ask if you have other savings and it seems one should not lie! We are not applying yet but I am asking all the questions now so that when we are ready, I will be so knowledgable! Trouble is just when I think I have it all sorted in my head, somebody posts that they were refused when their case seemed so strong. I almost envy you, perthhomeschool, putting it on hold for awhile! CDNtoUK, it seems to depend a lot on who reads your application. Wouldn't it be nice if we could choose our ECO?! I am so glad you got through with yours. Obviously you sent your six months of statements but did you send anything else, like earlier bank statements showing deposits over the years?

Perth

The system is in such chaos right now it actually seems like a good idea to delay moving until things sort themselves out. Glad to have an excuse actually. I seem to be able to soothe myself enough with daily BBC TV to keep the homesickness at bay

CDNtoUK

It is incredibly stressful. I seriously started sobbing when my visa arrived in the mail and I'm not a cryer at all. The entire process is just stressful and I was mostly worried that I missed something. This forum helped me immensely.

I basically sent the 6 months worth of statements which, based on the accounts showed about 20K more than the required. We had more savings in other accounts we could have shown as well but did not, since it's not required. I think it's pretty straight-forward that if you have the required savings in cash, and everything else is in line, it should be fine. We're in our 30's but have had many of the accounts for several years. Some of the statements I dated back to January 1, 2013 since they are only issued quarterly and others were just 6 months. We didn't include a letter from the bank, just had each and every page stamped (the ones we had printed out from home.)

It's easy to say but I would just keep it simple. If you're confident that you have the required savings and have held them over 6 months and everything else is in line, I don't think you should have an issue.

michali

Thanks so much CDNtoUK! I agree we need to keep it as simple as possible at the same as making sure we include everything UKBA wants.

CDNtoUK

I think going the savings route is probably more black and white than others as you either have the money and have had it or you don't and the bank statements are black and white. Luckily for us, we had it all in savings and although we were unhappy to divest it into cash from cashable investments, we can reinvest it easily since we're not planning to tap into those savings at all anyway.
I was just stressed they'd find some other technicality that I hadn't thought of or overlooked but I think I was being overly paranoid.
That stress was nothing compared to the fact we need to get out of our large house in less than 2 weeks, still continue to sell much of what we own (we're shipping a 20' container over but getting rid of a lot), pack, keep 2 toddlers happy, try to remember not to lift anything since I'm 6 months pregnant and oh, yeah, Xmas. As soon as we get on that plane on Dec. 26, I think I'll crash and sleep the entire way (provided that our kids do too, but they're usually pretty good.)

michali

You have so much to do! But it will be worth it! Now you can start the rest of your life! I wish you well!