KKB

Hi.

I am a British citizen married to an Indian and have two young boys. We are currently living in Dubai and are now considering moving to the UK. While I have travelled to the UK many times, I have never lived there for more than 2 weeks. I had a few questions with regards to the conditions for applying for a spouse/family visa.
1. Do I need to be in the UK in order for my husband and children to apply for the spouse/family visa?
2. If I have to be in the UK, incase I do not have a job, how much savings do I need to show for proof of income? I am a bit confused on this as I see the amount as GBP 16k+ on the www.gov.uk website and also read a thread in the forum which mentioned over GBP 60k in savings.

Appreciate any help on the above.

Thank you.

az2014

1. No
2. If applying from abroad you need to have earnt at least £18600 in the past year AND have a job offer in the UK earning at least the same amount starting within 3 months, OR just have savings of £62500, then no job requirements are needed.

All the information is in https://assets.publishing.service.go...ment_Final.pdf

KKB

Thank you for the prompt feedback. I will read up.

KKB

Hello Forum members,

Having spent the last few weeks reading a lot of information online on UK family visa for my husband and two boys, we have definitely got some clarity, yet still have a lot of questions. I'm sorry incase I am repeating any questions which may have been posted earlier... I have been reading a lot of threads on the subject but have not found all the answers.

As we are based in the UAE and I have not been working for over a couple of years, we see our only route to apply for the family visa is by showing cash savings of 78k pounds. Based on the document shared with me earlier in this thread, we have identified multiple sources for the cash savings :
1) Savings from my husband's salary in the UAE which we had lent to a family member in the UAE via a bank transfer, which will now be returned to us the same way i.e via a bank transfer.
Question : will this qualify / be valid to be part of our cash savings kitty if the money is held in our account for 6 months prior to application?
2) Part of the money will be borrowed from family and is to be shown as a gift.
Question : Is there a limit on how much money can be gifted by a family member? How is this (gifting of money to us) done? Is it simply a bank transfer from a family members bank account to ours or do we have to get a gift deed made? What document(s) do we need to submit to declare the source of gifted money?
3) Money from liquidation of investments in equities in another country. We intend to keep the money in an account in my husbands name in that country itself.
Question : Would this qualify as cash savings? Is it ok to have the cash savings in multiple accounts, in different countries?

Also, my mother-in-law is dependent on us for financial support. Does this need to be declared anytime during the application process and does it have any impact on our chances of being given the family visa?

Assuming that it might be a few months (atleast) before my husband gets a job in UK, we do not want to move to UK as soon as we get the visa. How soon after getting the family visa do we need to move to UK? And is there a minimum period of months/days an individual on family visa has to be in the UK in the 2.5 yrs (family visa validity period)? Does not being in the UK throughout the 2.5 years impact your chances of applying for the next 2.5 years visa?

Many thanks in advance for advice / guidance on the above.

BritInParis

Were you born or naturalised in the UK?

KKB

I was not born in the UK. My mother was, and that is how I have got British citizenship. What I understand is that my children do not get British citizenship by birth as I got it through descent.

BritInParis

What year were you born? Have you ever lived in the UK? If so, for how long?

KKB

I was born in 1977. I have only visited the UK on holiday, multiple times over the last 10 years. The longest I would have stayed in the UK would be 2 weeks.

BritInParis

Do you have a registration certificate?

KKB

Yes, I do have a certificate of registration as a British citizen, issued on the direction of the Secretary of State, Home Office London. This was issued in 2007, when I applied for citizenship, after I had been given the Right of Abode a few years earlier.

BritInParis

Does it say Section 4C?

KKB

Yes, it does.

BritInParis

Final question: was your mother born in Northern Ireland?

KKB

No. She was born in Andover.

BritInParis

Okay, so sponsoring your boys for settlement visas appears to be your only option.

For that you’ll need £78,000 in cash savings as you mentioned. This needs to be under the control of you, your husband or jointly for at least six months. Ideally this should be the same account. It doesn’t have to be but it makes it a lot easier. You need to declare the source of any gifts of money from family members. You cannot borrow the money - it must be a gift with no expectation of repayment and it would be advisable to have letters from the relevant family member stating this signed in ink and accompanied by a piece of photo ID with proof of signature like a passport or driving licence. Your dependent mother-in-law isn’t an issue unless she’s coming with you to the UK.