steve0084

Hi everyone!

I am currently in the Philippines, married to a Filipina, with a baby son who was born here. We are planning to apply for a Spouse visa some time this year and I have a few queries about employment, income and savings.

I am self-employed at the moment, I don't want that to be my source of income because I've heard it's more difficult when it comes to presenting evidence and anyway I currently make less than £18,600 annually. So my plan is to leave my family and go back to the UK and get a job for 6 months so that I meet the income requirements. My question is, will it be viewed as suspicious that I began the job 6 - 8 months before application, and will they view me as likely to leave the job as soon as the visa is granted?

My second question is how long I should stay in employment in the UK? My plan is to go, work for 6 months, then work for around another 2 months so that I can gather the necessary bank statements and bank slips. So I am looking at being away from my family for 8 months, or thereabouts. Ideally I would return to my family once we have applied, but then the complication is that once the application is being processed I would no longer be in employment in the UK. I have read that the process from application to a visa being granted can take 3 months or more, would this mean that I would need to remain in the UK working for this period (so in total about 11 to 12 months)?

My concern is that I might spend 11 to 12 months away from my family, then get the result of our visa application, and if it's rejected it would mean I would have spent a significant amount of time away from my family (doing a job I don't want to do) for no reason, which would obviously be immensely frustrating.

The alternative is to ask my mum if she would be willing to give me a cash gift so that I would have £62,500 in savings. I am cautious about this because I guess it would be viewed with more suspicion and that the chances of a visa being approved would be less than if I was working in the UK.

If anyone can help me with my queries I would be very grateful!

spouse of scouse

Hi Steve, welcome to BE. You only need to have a job in the UK meeting at least the minimum income requirement for 6 months, it won't look suspicious and many expats do that.
I wouldn't return to the Philippines while your wife's visa is being processed, as your ECO may wish to contact your employer to verify your job details. They don't always do this, but they can.

If your mum is willing to sign a letter stating that the £62,500 is a gift and there is no expectation of repayment, then that's fine. You would need to have these funds in your bank account for a minimum of 6 months prior to your wife applying for her visa.

Just checking that you're aware that the financial requirements need to be met again when your wife applies for her Further Leave to Remian at 2.5 years, and again at 5 years when she applies for Indefinite Leave to remain.

steve0084

Thanks for the welcome and for your answers, they're very much appreciated.

Yes, I'm aware that we'd need to reapply after 2.5 years and then apply for indefinite leave to remain after 5 years.