anastasia17

I'm from the U.S, my husband is from the UK, and I'm very curious as to how I can move there to reside with him permanently?

He's currently on Benefits, which we know it means he can't support me. I'm pregnant with his soon to be due baby boy, and I'd like some advice as to how I'm supposed to walk through this.

These things are FOR SURE

1. I need a spouse visa.
2. Our child will need a visa.
3. He himself cannot support us off of his benefits income.
4. We want to make this work out.
5. We need help.

QUESTIONS-
1. How much is this spouse visa?

2. How much will our child's visa cost?

3. How soon can a newborn travel on a plane?

4. Can we use a 3rd party sponsor?

5. If the sponsor is on a DWP (department of work and pensions), are they still allowed to sponsor? Would putting my husbands benefits and the 3rd party sponsorships benefits together be a better idea or a realistic idea?

6. Would the UKBA allow something like that?

7. If I looked for a job before applying for the visa, and say got a job offer before I went over, would that help in showing that I don't want to just scam them out?

I need some help and I want to make this as simple as possible, and I need to know my boundaries so I don't waste a grand on a visa, just to have it sent back and rejected and lose that money.

Thank you for any advice.

Sue

Hi anastasia17,

Welcome to BE.

I am going to move this to our Moving Back to the UK forum for you, as I know we have a few US/UK couples that have moved back, and hopefully some of the will be along soon to share some tips and experiences.

In the meantime have a read through this thread, you may find it useful: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=761780

nun

1) The visa will cosy 826 pounds for you.

2) If your baby is a UK citizen by descent (probable if your husband was born in the UK) it will not need a visa.

3) Don't know

4) No you can't be sponsored by a third party for a settlement visa. Your husband must sponsor you.

5) see 4). Your sponsor must have annual income over 18500 pounds to meet the financial requirements or prove savings of 62000 pounds. If he is on certain disability allowances there is an exception.

6) I don't think so.

7) If you looked for a job you would have to get your company to sponsor you. So your UK immigration route would be through the work visa rather than the spousal visa.

Because you are a non-EEA citizen your husband will have to satisfy the financial requirements for you to get a spousal visa. If you can find a job in the UK and qualify for a work visa on your own you could try that too. Otherwise you don't have many options. Ridiculous I know, but this is the UK in the 21st century......it's Orwellian.

SanDiegogirl

Your husband need to sponsor you. No third party is now allowed. You say he is on benefits. There are some benefit receivers who are exempt from the new financial rules.

Read this:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/si...df?view=Binary

If your husband is not exempt from the financial requirements, he needs to have been earning 18,600 UKP minimum for past 6 months. If he does not meet these requirements your application will not pass.

Forget about trying to get a job in the UK from the US. It won't work - especially since you are pregnant or will have a new born.

You won't need a visa for the child as it will be a Brit by descent if the father is a British citizen.

Start here for immigration procedures:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/vi...ners-families/

anastasia17

Fair enough, so our child won't need one, because my husband was born and raised in UK.

The only reason I said anything about the 3rd party sponsoring, is because I found this on the UKBA website, maybe I could have some extra explanation with it?

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/po...g/maa/#header1

MAA8 Maintenance and accommodation: spouse / civil partner / unmarried or same-sex partner
Paragraphs 281 (iv) & (v) and 284 (vii) of the Rules require that both parties must be able to maintain and accommodate themselves and any dependants without recourse to public funds in accommodation which they own or occupy exclusively.

The joint income of the couple should be taken into account when assessing the adequacy of the funds available. When considering applications from a person who was admitted as a fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner it will not normally be necessary to request evidence to show that they can maintain and accommodate themselves without recourse to public funds. An exception would be where there is evidence to suggest that the couple have already had recourse to public funds.

Points to consider:

It is the ability of the couple together to meet the requirements, which the ECO will need to take into account.

The applicant should be able to produce reasonably firm plans for the foreseeable future.

Do they have they some idea of the employment which they will be seeking (if not already arranged) or any other way in which they will be able to maintain themselves?

If members of the couple's families in the UK offer to maintain the couple adequately until they can do so from their own resources are these arrangements adequate. See MAA4

Okayyyy, so this goes into consideration, and I scroll back up to the section MAA4.


MAA4 Maintenance: General requirements
There is no explicit minimum figure for what represents sufficient maintenance. If dependants of the main applicant are going to accompany him / her to the United Kingdom, resources must be available for the whole family unit to be maintained.

The ECO should bear in mind the position taken by the UK Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (UKAIT):

In 2006, the UKAIT in UKAIT 00065 KA and Others (Pakistan), strongly suggested that it would not be appropriate to have immigrant families existing on resources that were less than the Income Support level for a British family of that size.

More information is available on the British & Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) website.

If it is more likely than not that the total amount that the applicant and sponsor will have to live on will be below what the income support level would be for a British family of that size, then it may be appropriate to refuse the application on maintenance and accommodation grounds.

****Maintenance may be provided by either:****

The applicant with their own funds or with funds available to them; or
The sponsor; or
A combination of applicant and sponsor funds; or
Third party support (see below).

A couple or other applicant who is / are unable to produce sufficient evidence to meet the maintenance requirement may provide an undertaking from members of their families that those members will support the couple / applicant until they are able to support themselves from their own resources.

Third party support is not precluded from consideration under the maintenance requirements relating to spouses, civil partners, fiancé(e)s, proposed civil partners, unmarried partners, same-sex partners, children, parents, grandparents and other dependent relatives of sponsors who are settled in the UK.

The Entry Clearance Officer will need to verify and assess an offer of third party support in order to determine whether an applicant satisfies the requirement that he / she can be adequately maintained in the UK without recourse to public funds. The ECO may request evidence (for example, original bank statements over at least three months) of the third party's assets.



Okay. So this being all said, am I missing something that any other common person would be able to assess without misunderstanding?

Out of all of that, what I'm getting is, since his grandmother is willing to let us stay in her residency, she is (as far as I completely understand) on a state pension, and has a 4 bedroom house, which when I looked up how many people the UKBA deems to be "overcrowded" or just right, they said that a 4 bedroom house will accommodate 7.5 people, the .5 saying there's a child under the age of 10-12 (I don't remember exactly).

She only has herself and a grandchild living with her.

Please forgive me if I'm understanding this wrong, I'm trying to understand the website and the information

anastasia17

Thanks for the welcome, and thank you for moving this into a better category Nice to meet you Sue!

SanDiegogirl

The MAA documents you are reading are for internal use by immigration staff and as it says:

This is internal guidance for use by entry clearance staff on the handling of visa applications made outside the United Kingdom (UK) for maintenance and accommodation. It is a live document under constant review and is for information only.

The new immigration rules for British citizens to bring in their dependents came into being in July 2012.

The document I provided for you lays out the financial requirements necessary to obtain a visa under these new laws. Paragraph 2 iv of that document states that financial support from third parties will not be accepted.

You can put in your application that you would be staying with your husband's relatives and it sounds as though his grandmother's home would be sufficient to fulfill the accommodation aspects.

anastasia17

Ahhh, that's what it is. I understand completely now, wasn't up to date with the new standards, sorry about that.

Now, his grandmother is on a state pension, noting that I saw that in the above information, is that going to cause any issues?

Did that change from anything at all, because if we put in the application that his grandmother plans on housing us until we get a foot in the door, is she able to "support us" or is that notion just completely out of the books?

Sorry I'm slow, I just want to cover every angle so I know how to go through with this, with as little complications possible, and see what we have to do to make it happen.

All in all, what do we need to do in order to prepare for this move? Which option would be our best bet to do, because we don't have the finances (quitttteee obviously) to make any mistakes. Also considering I'm about to pop with the baby, and he's on benefits. (Not too happy about that either)

Thanks guys! This is really helping with our curiosity, and questions about how we should do this without losing so much money, which in return makes us lose time being together, and working on our life together with our son. Thanks

nun

Having a place to stay is a positive for your application. However, your sponsor must make at least 18500 pounds year for you to meet the financial requirement. I'm sorry that it seems unlikely that you'd be admitted to stay in the UK in your current circumstances.

If your parents or even grandparents were form an EEA country you might be able to get an EEA passport, then there' be no problem. Failing that your husband needs to find employment paying enough to meet the financial requirements or you could sponsor him for a Green Card.

rebeccajo

£18600.

Not to be pedantic.

nun

.....not to be pedantic, but you are being pedantic but it's good to get the numbers right.

rebeccajo

I read of a recent application being refused for £100 shortage.

So yeah, I think it's good to get the numbers right.

SanDiegogirl

Forget about the grandmother - she is not able to support you.
Its your husband and HIS income that counts.

If HE cannot provide the 18,600 per annum or the equivalent in savings, assets you wont be getting a visa anytime soon, so don't waste your time or money applying.

anastasia17

Okay. That's fair enough then. He did call UKBA today, and asked about his benefits, and whether or not we'd be affected.

******They told him that if he's on DLA, (which he is) he would be exempt from the financial restraint placed on everyone else. Can anyone else confirm this, or is it just a load of BS from immigration? *******

We went through immigration once before in January, and not being educated enough, I was quickly shipped back home 2 days later because we had done our intentions under the wrong category, and I had wasted my precious 2 grand I had to scrabble up together between my passport, the trip to the airport, the 5 hour wait, the 9 hour flight, then another 10 hour detention, 6 hour coach ride for the place I was suspended to by the UKBA, 2 days in the UK, then another 6 hours back to the airport in Heathrow where my passport was returned to me, another 9 hour flight home without my husband, and then another 6 hour drive home with a friend.

It wasn't a very enjoyable experience, besides the 2 days I was allowed to stay in the UK because no other flights were available. Loved the country, loved how everything was set up, just really really despised the Immigration (I'm sure I'm not the only one) But it was all based on education, and I don't want to be shipped home again because I wasn't fully educated on what I was going into.

anastasia17

Was sitting here going through the UKBA website, and was Going through my options, would I be able to possibly go on a student visa perhaps? Or would that cause more strain than what it's worth? Would I be able to, once going through school, come out of college and be able to look for work, and apply for ILR perhaps?

Just wondering about any other viable options!