scrubbedexpat037

I am a British National. I was in full time employment for 5 years (professional jobs) before I had to quit my job due to compassionate circumstances abroad. I am still maintaining my rented accomodation (flat) in the UK (I have lived there for more than 2 years)

While I have been outside the UK for 3 months, I met someone and got married recently :-).

I am thinking to apply for her visa before I go back in few weeks time.Now I have following questions regarding settlement visa of my wife:

1. Can I apply for my wife's visa (spouse visa outside the UK) without having any job in hand? I am optimistic (fingers crossed) that I should be able to find a new job once I am back in the UK. Can anyone explain if the sponsor must be in a paid employment or it is case worker's discretion?

Note: I have available funds of about 25-30k GBP in my UK current account, which have accumulated over time. I don 't know from the ECO perspective if these funds are sufficient to demonstrate that I can provide maintenance for myself and my wife without recourse to the public funds. I think, these funds should be sufficient to support a couple for 12-18 months. Can someone advise if there is a defintion of minimum amount for such funds? e.g. Income support for 2 is around 102 GBP per week.

1a. I can also provide P60s for last 2 years with average income of around 50k.

2. Since I am maintaining my accomodation in the UK, we can live there for our sole use upon return to the UK. Do I need to get a housing inspection/capacity report from the local council?


3. For some reason I can't access www.ukvisas.gov.uk website to read through the application forms/guidances notes. Please share the link for the latest VAF4a form or attach to the post.

4. I understand that I need to submit Sponsorship declaration and a separate sponsoship letter. I believe, there are no home office forms/templates for these letters. Is that right?


It's a bit difficult situation, but I think such things happen when we are least expecting them, so any input is much appreciated.

Based in the information above, what are my chances to get a successful outcome? I really hope that I can apply for her visa while I am here and provide sufficient information to satisfy the requirements.

Thanks,

Tr1boy

I am a British National. I was in full time employment for 5 years (professional jobs) before I had to quit my job due to compassionate circumstances abroad. I am still maintaining my rented accomodation (flat) in the UK (I have lived there for more than 2 years)

While I have been outside the UK for 3 months, I met someone and got married recently :-).

I am thinking to apply for her visa before I go back in few weeks time.Now I have following questions regarding settlement visa of my wife:

1. Can I apply for my wife's visa (spouse visa outside the UK) without having any job in hand? I am optimistic (fingers crossed) that I should be able to find a new job once I am back in the UK. Can anyone explain if the sponsor must be in a paid employment or it is case worker's discretion? Yes you can apply certainly. Not sure if the sponsor has to be in employment. If you've been only out of work for 3mths I wouldn't have thought much of an issue but I'm not making the decision. Longer than that, maybe an issue.

Note: I have available funds of about 25-30k GBP in my UK current account, which have accumulated over time. I don 't know from the ECO perspective if these funds are sufficient to demonstrate that I can provide maintenance for myself and my wife without recourse to the public funds. I think, these funds should be sufficient to support a couple for 12-18 months. Can someone advise if there is a defintion of minimum amount for such funds? e.g. Income support for 2 is around 102 GBP per week. I've never seen it defined and if both employable I'd say it was enough. However your current unemployed status may raise a flag or two looking at your long term prospects. (your wife will have no recourse to PFs anyway)

1a. I can also provide P60s for last 2 years with average income of around 50k. That'll help.

2. Since I am maintaining my accomodation in the UK, we can live there for our sole use upon return to the UK. Do I need to get a housing inspection/capacity report from the local council? I'm not sure why the council would be involved unless it's a HA house, in which case some questions might be asked about why you were not living in your appointed house for 3mths. If it's private you don't need any report. What you do need however is written proof that the house is available for you to use, complete with a description of its size etc. This has to come from the owner of the property but I'm not sure how it applies to rented houses. (lease deeds will need to provided I think)


3. For some reason I can't access www.ukvisas.gov.uk website to read through the application forms/guidances notes. Please share the link for the latest VAF4a form or attach to the post. Look at 'visas4UK'

4. I understand that I need to submit Sponsorship declaration and a separate sponsoship letter. I believe, there are no home office forms/templates for these letters. Is that right? Yep, free text.


It's a bit difficult situation, but I think such things happen when we are least expecting them, so any input is much appreciated.

Based in the information above, what are my chances to get a successful outcome? I really hope that I can apply for her visa while I am here and provide sufficient information to satisfy the requirements. I have no idea what your chances are but good luck.

scrubbedexpat037

Thanks. As for the housing inspection report, I guess it's required to ascertain that the property will not be overcrowded. However, I can't find a reference to any BIA document that requires this report.
I have just looked at couple of other posts from last year when some expats were able to get a spose settlement visa without having a job in hand.
Appreciate reponses from other members. By the way, I am still unable to download any forms from the VISAS4UK website.
.

Cheers,

beatle

Some info.

scrubbedexpat037

Cheers for the form. I will take a look on the immigration document to assess if it answers my questions.