Scotti84

Hi all

Just after some clarity, if anyone can help.

I'm British but living in Germany with my German husband and our 7 month old. We would like to move back to the UK, this was always the plan when our daughter was old enough and Covid had settled a but. Stupidly I hadn't thought it would be as complicated as it is. We are too late for the Surinder Singh route (but have attempted to apply this way anyway, worth a go), but am prepared for a no and have looked at the normal spouse visa.

Problem is, the currently on maternity leave, so only getting 67% of my normal salary. My normal salary was above the minimum required to sponsor my husband but on mat pay isn't, would just the mat pay be used or would my normal wage be used?

With the needing a job to start in 3 months of my return, how can I time this not knowing how long the visa will take? We don't want to be separated, mainly due to neither one of us wanting to be away from our baby and we also can't afford to keep our apartment here on one wage. Is my husband able to come over with me for the 6 months he's allowed without a visa and look after the baby while I work in the uk if the start date is before his visa comes through? Or is there a simple answer to this ive missed in my worry of the possibility of splitting our family up?

any advice massively appreciated.

thank you

christmasoompa

Hi, welcome to BE.

When did you apply for the family permit? The deadline for the Surender Singh route was only 2 weeks ago AFAIK, so if you applied before then you should be eligible?

Scotti84

Only last week. I'm absolutely kicking myself, we literally discussed moving back, decided to do it, looked online at how and saw that the deadline had passed about 5 days previously. I'm not sure if our reasons for being late are good enough but as the application was still open we thought it was worth a shot.

christmasoompa

Oh how frustrating! Fingers crossed you manage to get it through.

I'll let the forum pros answer your questions about a spouse visa then, best of luck to you.

Scotti84

Thank you!

BritInParis

Given the sheer expense and hassle associated with a spouse visa I’d be tempted to give the EUSS Family Permit a go even if there is an off chance of success. Check the section regarding ‘reasonable grounds’ for late applications.

https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu...es/eligibility

christmasoompa

Presumably the OP will have had their application either granted or refused by now given this was back in April and she'd already applied - hopefully she'll come back and let us know whether it was successful or not.

Scotti84

Hi
Thanks for your reply.

We got refused last week. That was for the Family Permit. I had an appt with an immigration solicitor in London who was really helpful. We were looking to appeal because they basically refused us because they dont class our relationship as 'durable'... I wont start on my personal feelings about someone pushing paper deciding whether our relationship is durable or not... but apparently they look at every chance to not give the permit because they see it as people trying to avoid paying the spouse visa fees. As we started living together in March 2020 not Feb, thats over thr deadline apparently. So we are going down the spouse visa route. Its expensive, but at least if we can meet all the requirements it wont be refused.

Just have to work on getting a job offer now! If anyone has any contacts in the York Leeds area that are wiling to wait 8 months for me to start... 🤷‍♀️