Hi all, have not been on for awhile (almost forgot my sign in!!) but read posts regularly...very helpful and uplifting as always. Still in the US and very homesick but going home for the summer with the kids for 2 months. My family in the UK is helping to pay for the $6000+ dollar trip over. Teens are not looking forward to staying for most of the summer, but the little ones can't wait.

Just wanted to find out how did those of you already back home, manage to get back with all those tight restrictions/rules? I mean financially. If it is not too personal to ask. And those of you hoping to move back soon, how are you planning for the move within these rules. Who will be doing the earnings and will it be easy? Especially when the UK citizen has to fork out the breadwinnings and in our case that would be me having to find a job over there for nearly 40,000 pounds p/a to cover a family of 6. I have been a stay at home mum for most of my 17 yrs in the US, childcare costs too high etc, had a few jobs here and there, worked for my hubby for alittle while.
Is it just a matter of saving for the 62,000 pounds and getting over with that, but would the UK citizen then have to be the main breadwinner, once the savings are finished. That's alot of pressure on one person alone, especially if it happens to be a UK citizen who left the UK many years ago and is now not really part of any labour force. Thanks....

Are you sure you'd need that much income? Don't the kids all have UK passports? If so you need the savings or an income over $18k and some change, Going the savings route allows you all to go at the same time and your Dh to get back to earning.
What about him finding a job that will sponsor him a visa, then he'll be on his own visa and you and the kids won't need one, if they have UK passports.

You would not have to have a salary once you had the savings. If your kids are UK citizens you are not required to make an additional sum to support them. You would only need the $18,600 to sponsor your USC spouse. Similarly, you would not need more that 62,500 in savings as that sum is to sponsor your spouse alone. Having non-UK children does require either greater savings or income.

Thanks for replies. My kids are US born, do not have British passports. I thought/read that each dependant was about 2000 on top of the 18000 salary requiremsnts. So the salary would be about 30000+ or we would need the 62500 to get us all in. Then once in the UK, Dh can get a job of any salary. Or, If kids get British passports then I would have to get a job of minimum 18000 no additional dependant money on top. is that right?? This does confuse me alot!

How have others on the moving back forum done this?...thanks

If your children have British passports (and presume that since you are British born and bred, your children would be British by descent i.e born of a Brit but born overseas), then you would need to only show income of 18,600 since its only your US husband you have to sponsor.

So get those British passports for your children!

Ok thanks, I have been hoping to get Brit passports for the kids for a while, so will look into getting it done. And the 18600 salary would have to be me earning in the UK first to get my US husband sponsored and into the UK. Once he is in then obviously he will look for work and the burden will not be for me to continue to work full time for that amount?

The way it works is that if you are currently not working (or making at least 18,600pa) and don't have a job to go to in the UK within 3 months of returning then YOU need to go to the UK, get a job and hold it for 6 months.

See here for all the necessary financial requirements:

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

...... and you already know about the savings you could use.

Thanks for all your replies. Always dreaming of going back and trying to stay in the loop with the latest immigration legalities.