EandJWatts

Good morning, everyone! First let me say what a wonderful site this is with an absolute wealth of information. I spent hours reading through all the threads yesterday. I'm hoping someone may be able to help me with our personal situation as I'm having difficulty finding an answer.

I am the US citizen, my husband is a British citizen. We spent the early years of our marriage living in England and our 1st child was born there. At the time, I was granted Indefinite Leave to Remain. My passport has since expired and I am in the process of renewing, and will have the original page with my ILR transferred.

Shortly after my son was born, we returned to the US for work, gave birth to a second child and remained here for nearly 13 years. We have now decided that we would like to go back and permanently settle in Kent.

We have applied for the children's British passports but our question is about my status. I wrote to WorldBridge and got the bog standard answer referring me to the returning residents section of the UK in the USA site:

A resident is someone who has been given permission to stay in the UK without any time limit. A returning resident is a resident who left the UK and wants to come back to live here again.

You may return to the UK as a resident if:

you were settled in the UK when you last left; and
you have been away for 2 years or less; and
you are returning to live here permanently; and
you were not given public funds to pay the costs of leaving the UK.


Now, I meet all of the criteria except #2 (13 years away) and that is what I was trying to get the answer to. So I'd like to ask if anyone has any personal experience with this and if so, were you able to go back as a returning resident or did you have to apply for a spouse visa and go through the whole ILR process again? Also, if I do have to begin the process again, does the fact that we've been married for 15 years and have 2 children help speed the process up for us since the implementation of the new laws on July 9th.

Thank you for any help you may be able to offer.

rebeccajo

I don't have personal experience with your situation.

But you are definitely a "returning resident" and need to file for a new visa. There is a couple in the British press trying to return to Scotland after having been in Australia (I believe that's the country). Like you, the wife had ILR. They were gone 4 years. The Home Office says she must file again.

The length of your marriage means nothing to the Home Office. They are only interested in what's in your wallet.

EandJWatts

Thank you, Rebeccajo. I will have to see if I can find some info on their story online. I'd love to read it.

My confusion lies in the fact that my being away for over 2 years seemingly disqualifies me as a returning resident. No matter where I look, I can't seem to find out if there is a way around that part or if it is set in stone. I also forgot to mention in my initial post that I have a National Insurance Number and did work full time when we lived there. Something is telling me that it won't matter, though.

As for the Home Office prying into our wallet, we should be fine. We are selling our shares in our company and should meet the new requirements.

We are very excited at the prospect of returning. Our children are 13 and 9 now and also looking forward to a new adventure.

WEBlue

We've looked into this in the past for one of our children. He was away from the UK for 4 years to attend university in the USA, and possibly could have qualified for a Returning Resident visa if he'd decided to return to the UK permanently after that, on the grounds that being away for education is a temporary thing. But if you've been away for 13 years, I don't think you have much hope of the RR visa being approved.

The UKBA guidance says:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/vi...ing-residents/

The questions asked when considering the Returning Resident visa are usually: Do you (not your husband) have any family living in the UK? Did you & your husband keep a house or any other property in the UK? Do you have business interests there? Have you spent a lot of time back in the UK over those 13 years away? Was the time spent in the foreign country always condidered by you to be "temporary"? These things can be used to prove "enduring" ties to the UK that might (not guaranteed at all, but "might") be judged in your favour.

However, the 13 years is really probably too long even for any of these arguments to convince the Home Office that your absence was temporary . . . . .

nun

Here's the story.

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/106795-c...to-live-apart/

Let's hope the guy makes enough teaching in Orkney to afford to sponsor his wife and the kids. I am assuming the kids aren't his biological kids
otherwise they'd be UK citizens and entitled to stay.

It sounds as if you'll have to apply for a new visa and meet the financial requirements for no-EU spouses

EandJWatts

Thank you for the link, nun. Very interesting to watch. I'm guessing we'll start to hear more and more similar stories.

Thank you for your response, WEBlue. I agree, my case does not sound in the least bit "temporary". My husband's family is entirely in England but I do not personally have any family there, nor any business ties.

All we can hope for at this point is that the Visa process goes smoothly for us. It should be fairly straight forward but it's always daunting.

nun

If you have enough money (62k pounds in savings) or meet the income requirements you'll be fine, if you don't you'll have to live outside the UK.

Bluegrass Lass

From what reading I've done on the 'sister' site of this one, www.talk.uk-yankee.com, it is very rare indeed for a person to obtain the Returning Resident visa. Usually they are told exactly as you - apply for a new visa. Especially, now, after the new guidelines that have just been put into place, which are tougher than ever, you will find it difficult.

You will not be granted ILR status due to the length of your marriage - the UK no longer allows that status to be granted because it gives an incoming immigrant immediate access to public funds. So you will be granted Leave to Remain (which is now for 5 years), then you apply for ILR. As mentioned in the above post, if you have sufficient savings, then you don't have to worry about the financial sponsorship aspect of the visa, only the accommodation part of it.

If, however, you don't have the savings, then you will face a probable separation. Your UKC husband will need to return to the UK, acquire a job that meets the income requirements for your family size, and have that job for 6months before filing for the visa paperwork. I don't think you have to include UKC children in that though - I'm fairly sure only non-UKC children will add to the family size and increase income levels.

Have a look on here for the new visa guidelines. The new income requirements are actually why we are considering moving back to the UK. We left in Dec. 2011, so we are pretty sure we are heading back next year, before the 2yr anniversary of when I left (I'm the USC), and stay there at least long enough for me to gain citizenship and no longer have to worry about visa stuff.

Good luck!

EandJWatts

Thank you, Bluegrass Lass.

I want to update a little. I sent an email to a UK Visa specialist company in NYC this morning and promptly received a phone call from a "senior immigration specialist". She confirmed that yes, I will be starting from scratch with a new Spouse Visa. She confirmed the savings needed as 62,000 Pounds or a job offer equal to 18,600 Pounds as our children are BC's and do not count in the amount. She said there is still a provision that allows my husband to show he has been gainfully employed for at least 6 of the last 12 months here in the US and that income can benefit our application. With that shown, he only needs a job offer in the UK. She did not say anything about him needing to have that job for 6 months.

We are hoping to not have to go that route and we can avoid it if we can sell our company shares at full market value. If we have to sell at a discount, we may come up slightly short. That is worst case scenario for us, though, and obviously we're keeping our fingers crossed for a successful sale.

I should also mention that the company I spoke to offers their full service from start to finish in the Visa process with a 100% money back guarantee. They claim a 100% success rate. Only problem is that they charge $1100 for this service So of course now I'm wondering do I pay an small fortune to have someone hold my hand through the process or do I bite the bullet and do it myself since our case isn't overly complicated. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

Bluegrass Lass

Very interesting E&J. From other accounts I read, it appeared the returning BC would need to hold a UK job for 6months before applying for a visa.

Just to confirm/verify what this visa firm told you, it could be worth posting this info & any other questions on the yankee forum. There are many peeps on there that are very conversant in the new guidelines. I admit, I don't 100% trust law firms, especially if they seem to promise you the world. I like to verify what I'm being told, because I'm going to suffer the consequences of having a visa denied, not them.

Personally, if you're comfortable doing your own visa research, and you have a very straight-forward case, and know how to follow instructions and fill in forms, I'd keep as much money in your pocket as you can. But if you're not that comfy with the forms and whatnot, spending that $1100 may help alleviate some of your stress about the whole move. Lord knows moving countries isn't for the faint of heart!

EandJWatts

Thank you again, Bluegrass...

I am not currently registered on that forum (and only registered for this one yesterday) but I would certainly be happy to register and get some feedback there. This was not a lawyer, but rather a company that only does Visas. It's probably the most widely known but I'm not sure what the rules are on here in regards to naming specific companies, hence the reason I haven't named it. Don't want to get in trouble my second day here.. lol

EandJWatts

Just spent a little time on the Yankee forum and this is what I've found:

If the sponsor and applicant are moving at the same time, then the sponsor must have a job offer or the couple must have a HUGE amount of savings. £62,500 for the initial entry clearance (spouse visa) for a sponsor with no income.
If the sponsor's income is less than £18,600, the deficit can be made up with savings. However, ONLY savings in excess of £16,000 will be considered, and then the sponsor must have 2.5 times the difference between his income and the requirement, IN ADDITION to the £16,000 minimum. So if the sponsor earns £15,000 he must have £25,000 (16,000 + (3,600 x 2.5)) in savings or the application will be refused.

Quote
d. We will not take into account the previous, current or prospective employment and earnings, or any job offer, of the migrant applicant at the entry clearance stage. Employment overseas is no guarantee of finding work in the UK. The family route is not the primary immigration route for a migrant partner coming here with employment: with an appropriate job offer, they can apply under Tier 2 of the Points Based System.

h. they must be in that employment (at the required salary level) at the point of application and either have been so continuously for at least the previous six months (at a salary throughout at the level required) or have earned the required amount through salaried employment in the 12 months prior

j. Where the sponsor has been working overseas and is returning to work in the UK, ... a firm, verifiable job offer or signed contract of employment to start work within three months of their return

147. Where the sponsor is returning with the applicant to the UK to work, the sponsor does not have to be in employment at the point of application.


So I think letter J and #147 give us that answer? It seems that the 6 months rule applied to the applicant, not the sponser. Do you think I'm reading this correctly?

roaringmouse

Under the current rules, it seems that temporary leave to remain is for two and a half years, and then another application is made for the next two and a half years. Makes 4 applications altogether now to get to citizenship - initial settlement from outside the UK, 2nd application in the UK, then ILR in the UK, and finally naturalisation.

rebeccajo

When the sponsor (UK resident) has been abroad, if they have been earning £18600 and can prove it, and have a verifiable job offer to start within 3 months of returning, then this meets the criteria.

So they say.

rebeccajo

Services like this are expensive.

I don't trust the ones that claim 100 percent success rate.

Even if it's true these are new days and no firm knows for sure how cases are going to turn out.

If you are on Facebook, look for Transpondia. They can possibly help you locate a reliable solicitor.