Hi everyone —

I hope I’m posting in the right place.

I’m a US citizen married to a Brit. We went through the entire Visa process with the USCIS, which was finally approved and finalized in 2013. He’s lived here with me in The States for the past five years (Feb 2013 - current), and we’ve recently decided that a move to the UK was in our best interest. If anyone has any advice on this process, I would greatly appreciate your help and direction on filing. I have multiple questions, but to start off:

* Does he need to fill out a Returning Resident form, or file anything with the US to notify them of his move? As for the Returning Resident filing, I read that it’s only for UK citizens who haven’t been home in over two years... We’ve made at least 1-2 trips back to England every year, but where he’ll be surrendering his Permanent Residency in the States, I assume something will need to be filed either way.

I have many more inquiries if anyone out there has been in the same boat and can help. I just don’t want to overload you at the moment.

Any help is appreciated — thank you.

Thank you all for the responses! My husband has opted against becoming a US Citizen, after much thought and research. We’re not planning on coming back to the States anytime soon, and he’s not interested in complicating his life every year by paying both US and UK taxes. We may regret not doing this at some point, but we’ll cross that bridge when it comes. Again, any input here is still appreciated, as we may not be considering it from all aspects.

We have already begun to fill out the settlement Visa and acquire the necessary documents, which is where more questions come in.

1. Since we’ve actually been living together in The States for the past five years, I find it difficult to answer some of the questions on the VAF 4A form, such as “When did you last see your sponsor?”, “How often do you meet?”, “How do you keep in touch with your sponsor?” Do I literally just put today’s date (as in the date I’ll be applying) for when I last saw him? Do I just write “daily” for how often we meet? And that “we live together”, for how we keep in touch? Just want to get that right.

2. As for relationship evidence, we’ve decided to provide joint tax returns, housing leases and travel information over the past five years. Will this suffice? And should I include all tax returns and leases in their entirety? Or solely the first 1 or 2 pages? I’ll also include a few photographs, but not sure if I should ensure they’re from that entire 5-year span or just throw in a few.

3. He’s also self-employed, and we’ve decided to go through the cash savings route. We’ll have a full 6-month span of bank statements for both his personal and business accounts to provide evidence of our savings. However, where his business is currently set up in the U.S., we’re wondering if this will suffice, as he’ll eventually need to set up his business in the UK.

4. All income in his accounts are through the business, except for one payment of about $9,000 which was “gifted” to him from myself. I was involved in a homeowners insurance claim, due to being attacked by a neighbor’s dog, and I transferred the money into his account, to contribute to Visa costs. Do I need to address this in the financial section and explain where it came from, or would that only complicate/confuse?

5. Housing: My husband still has a permanent address in England, which is a rented council house where his Mom lives. He’s continued to receive post at this address, even whilst living abroad, and it’s where we stay every time we visit. However, he now has 3 siblings that have recently moved back home, and now there’s not necessarily any room for us to stay. We would only be there temporarily, until we can find housing of our own, but after putting down the house dimensions on paper, it would look uninhabitable for so many people. Is it advisable to still use this address on the application, or is it in our best interest to seek elsewhere? (We have some friends who have offered their address, if needed.)

Again, THANK YOU for your help and input.

Bree

Thanks, BritInParis! I really appreciate all your help. A few follow-up questions regarding your responses:

1. I am filling out the Spouse Settlement application online, but on the gov.uk website, under how to apply outside the UK, it says the following:

Outside the UK

You must apply online from outside the UK. You must also complete Appendix 2.

“Appendix 2” being Form VAF 4A. Which, thus, means I additionally send this along with the online application — correct? Which may bring up another point. Would it be better for us to fly over first and just apply from the UK? Or would that just open a whole other can of worms?

2. We’ve only been able to obtain 4/6 prior apartment leases over the past 5 years, which is why I thought consistent annual tax returns would help support our relationship. Should I still disregard/omit them?

3. My husband is a freelance graphic designer and is set up as an S-Corp. He is the sole owner of the business (has no employees/staff) and has full access of the account. All income has been fully taxed since 2013, when it was initially set up. Can he really still not use it as savings? We’ll be able to obtain validation from our bank, as well, that he owns and has full access of both accounts (business and personal). Would this still not suffice?

4. Thank you for this response!

5. Thank you for answering this as well. It sounds like we’ll have to go with the staying-with-a-friend route. However, where he only rents the property, do I understand correctly that we’ll need to obtain written permission from both him and his landlord for us to stay there? And how much more in depth do we need to go, as far as documentation/proof? Would the landlord also need to provide documented ownership of the property? Do we need to send copies of passports? Etc? (I’ve seen this on that VAF 4A form. You got me all excited over the possibility of not having to fill it out, but I’m thinking we’ll have to.)

Thanks again for your help. We really appreciate it!

BritInParis — You saved us a lot of hassle last year when we were initially preparing to apply. We were going to use both personal and business accounts as cash savings, until you kindly informed me that the business account would not fly.

We then transferred a large sum from the business to the personal account and once again waited out the required six months of saving — which brings us to today.

Would it suffice to provide the six months of statements after the money was transferred? Or should we include the previous statement that shows when the money was transferred?

Thanks in advance.

Thank you for the clarification BritInParis I’ve also seen some people suggest obtaining an accountant letter, confirming all funds have been fully taxed and that the money is ours. Is this worth getting, or is it considered unnecessary paperwork?

Thanks so much for your help!