Hiya, myself (USA citizen) and my husband (UK citizen) are looking at moving from USA to UK. he is currently here on a green card and we have been married 6 years. we both currently reside in the USA so trying to figure out how to do everything all at once is very tricky. So here are some questions:

how do you satisfy the income requirements when he currently lives here? his family is managing 4 rental houses for him right now but they are not in his name as he does not have a UK bank account for that income to be put into. wondering if anyone has some good tips for satisfying the income requirements for sponsoring me.does he have to fly there first and get work, and THEN we file after 6 months? does this change if we go a different route? like a fiance visa, vs a spouse visa, vs a "hey i am coming there for no reason thanks" visa?

another conundrum is how we will get there as we also have a dog that must come with. i have been poking around various communities about traveling with pets and it seems the queen mary 2 might be the best option, my concern is that itll be a 3-4 hour drive from the port to our new home a bit north of london, and i have never driven in UK before. how hard is it to adjust on the fly, to driving on the "wrong side of the road"? husband does not have a drivers license in either country, but i have a usa license and i can rent a car in the UK with that according to what i have read

any other tips from you lovely people? thank you in advance!

Welcome to the site. I’ll let others comment on the visa issues, income requirements etc.

I will say that you shouldn’t have too much problem driving on the other side of the road. My wife did this in reverse when we moved to the USA, and more recently each of our children had little problem adjusting when they moved from the USA to England never having driven on the left before. Just make sure that the car you hire is an automatic, and do a bit of research ahead of time on how roundabouts work.

With regards to travelling with pets, have you fully investigated using a licensed pet transport service to help you fly your dog to the UK? Much shorter journey overall compared to transatlantic sailing, and more availability (I understand that spaces in kennels book up quickly on QM2.)
Hiring a car: you should be able to book a rental using your US license, as durham_lad said you should make sure you get an automatic (remember they are much less common in the UK, easier to find if you use one of the big rental companies like Hertz, Avis etc.) Roundabouts and junctions can be confusing at first, especially if you are driving while tired after travelling. When I was acclimating to UK driving I found it easier at first to do the vast majority of driving during daylight hours when there was other traffic for me to follow. That way, when I came to a roundabout I knew the direction of travel was whichever way other cars were going (if that makes sense.) I don't know where you're driving to north of London, but just having looked at google maps I'm not sure I would want the drive from Southampton up to the M25 and around the London area to be my first experience of driving in the UK, but I am a self-acknowledged coward!
With regards to everything else, I suggest spending some time reading through older posts on this and other forum, and see what kinds of questions come up that maybe you've not thought about (eg how to maintain accounts with financial institutions in the US, do you need a US phone number, selling property, paperwork to move personal goods, taxes, giving up / maintaining green card, etc etc) as that will give you a long long list from which you can pick and choose what's relevant to your situation. Everything is do-able.

Here is the document which gives ALL information regarding visas and financial requirements:

https://assets.publishing.service.go...equirement.pdf

Basically your husband (your sponsor) has to show a minimum income of 29,000 GBP per annum..
Options are:
- If he currently earns that equivalent in the US AND has a job in the UK to go to, then you can apply for the spouse visa now and when issued travel over together.
- If not the above then he needs to move to UK, get a job earning 29K and after 6 months you apply for your visa. You can visit him in meantime.
- You can use pension, non employment income to fulfill these requirements.
- If no income then 88k savings can be used.

Read the document carefully to see how you qualify.

There are also visa fees to pay for
https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa

With regard the rental properties, if they are not registered in your husband name and he has not been receiving the income from them, then this money cannot be used.

If husband is on Green Card you might like to consider him getting his US citizenship (if able), so that if the return to the UK does not work out then you can just return to the US without having to go through US immigration again.

Hi, are the rentals in the Uk or the US? if he needs a Uk bank just go online to HSBC you can open account from here in US ,if the rents are US just after opening account at HSBC you can transfer the money through Wise to the UK