My husband rang British High Commision last week about getting his spouse visa to be able to come back with me. He was told that we need to show we have enough money to support ourselves for 1yr, but when he asked how much that was they wouldnt give a definitive answer, but said it depends on individual cases. How daft is that?!!
So, we have no idea how much money we need to have to pass the visa criteria. Has anyone got any idea of how much they deem acceptable?

Seems to me you'd need to make a reasonable case for what your expenses will be during your first year back, and then show you have that much ... ? I'm guessing they want to see that you've thought it through and have come up with reasonable estimates.

Thanks dunroving. I guess so, but its silly really because he will have a job within 2 weeks of arrival!

Another question relating to this subject. At what point do you have to show your finances in the visa process? Is it on the initial application in the form of a bank statement or do we show it on arrival in UK?

HI

We applied for my OH spouses visa back in May online. Sent all the supporting paperwork; bank statements showing money, letter of invitation from myself, letter of invitation from my parents (we will be living with them) plus proof that they own the property we will be staying in, sent this by xpresspost beginning of June. Had an email to say the documents were received on the Friday. My OH received a phonecall at work on the Monday to discuss the case.

It seems they were concerned about the amount of funds that we had available (approx $70,000cdn) but after chatting with him and understanding that he had a number of contacts for work they deemed that in fact the funds would be sufficient and awarded him his visa. We received his passport exactly 1 week after everything was sent by mail to the high commission.

I had called ABTRAN before we applied, they advised that you should show a min of 3 months funds, 6 months would be better, however in your case with your OH already having secured employment this should not be a problem.

I believe it helped in our case that we will be staying with my parents, so perhaps they assumed there would be no rent charges, and therefore the funds would be enough..... who knows with government employees.......

once you have applied online you have to also print the form off. It lists on the bottom of this form all the supporting docs you need and also that you need to include all supporting docs listed on the notes for spouse visa leaflet. Some of these are duplicated but others are not.

My OH also included his birth certificate, both passports, letter from his current employer stating his current position and period of service (we had been told that he needed a letter stating that he was qualified to do his job but his HR department refused to do this - looks like it perhaps was needed though.) If you have supplied any answer online you need to send supporting docs. Perhaps you could start to complete the online application form as a practise, noting what sort of information you may need to collect. You can save the application at any point and retrieve it within one week to finish completing it. Or if you do not retrieve it within the week it is automatically cancelled, no information is stored, you have to start again from scratch next time. They do not record how many times you have started the application. You can basically go right to the end of the form and stop before you enter payment details or click on submit application, save the application, collect information within the week, reactivate the application with the code they email to you. Or choose not to reactivate within the week and start again.

I know I started completing the process for my OH on 3 occasions. Helped me to identify what exactly they wanted.

Hope this has been helpful, although I do not it was a little longwinded in places. It honestly is quite easy if you get everything together in one go.

My OH has a VISA for idefinate entry. He will be taking the knowledge of life test within days of landing and then applying for idefinate leave to remain. We leave on 19th September, which is just over 2 months away, time has flown by.

Good luck. If you want more info, please feel free to PM me.

Nikki

I guess it isn't bad here in the US. My wife is UK citizen while I am US citizen. I have applied and received UK visa twice so far. Both times processing was completed within a week. First time when I applied, they called me within a couple of days and asked me to send in some letters/card etc to show that we had been communicating before marriage etc since we were only married for 9 months.

Second time, I applied via online, printed off all all suppoting documents (I keep them all in electronic format) and sent it to them. Whole thing from start to finish took me less than 3 hours. A week later I received my passport back with visa on it. The documents I sent included, statements from all bank accounts, stock accounts, mortgage accounts, a print out from some website showing current value of my house (Home Equity = Cash), copies of passports (mine, wife’s kids etc), B-Certificate, Marriage Certificate, and who knows what else. I just collect anything that was even remotely connected and sent it to them. Probably way over kill but they didn’t call me to ask for anything. I showed that we will be living with my in-laws initially but didn’t send any supporting documents etc. I did however sent copies of our Resumes showing that we will be getting jobs in UK.

If you own a house, show them you have money from that house you will take with you.

Hello there,

Could I ask why you applied for the visa twice? Was this a settlement visa or a holiday visa?

Can you apply for a settlement visa and then wait till you need it at a later date or do you need to propose a date you'll be going to the UK?

I'm in a situation where I'm an UK citizen and my wife an Indian Citizen but we are living in the US, as I work for a US company. My fear is if I lose my job and have to leave the UK quickly. I would hate to have my wife have to go to India and me to the UK.

We could live with my parents if we moved back. What really worries me is that I wouldn't have a job straight away, difficult to find one while still in the US, and hence would have to show we had enough money to live on. Which is as in this thread, there is no defined amount.

Thanks,

Dave

I applied for settlement visa and we moved to UK. We moved back to the US 9 months after our move to UK. Since I did not live there and renewed my visa, it expired. It was only for one year. After that I went there only as a visitor.

Now that we plan on moving back there again, I got a new visa. This time around they did not give me one year visa but instead 10 year indefinate visa.

I think first time you apply, you will have to travel to UK within first six months. After that you will have to renew it showing that you have been living there etc. Typically it takes less than 10 days to get the visa as long as you have all your paperwork ready.

In your case, I would make sure I have all papers ready to go. I thought you usually have 90 days to get to another job with B1, not 10 days. If you can show that your parent will let you stay with them, it shouldn't be a big deal to get a visa for your wife. Also, you could apply for a 5 year multiple visitor visa which will allow her to enter UK any time as a visitor. If you have to leave in a hurry she could go as a visitor until you get a perm visa for her.

Thanks to you all for the replies.

OMG! We wont have $70,000!! What can we do?
Will we still have to provide a years worth of living expenses if i go back on my own first and get a job?
This is all just ridiculous. My husband will earn near enough double anything i earn when he gets there.
I'm rapidly getting depressed now!

I found out today from immigration that they are happy if you have at least 3 to 400 pounds in the Bank from your last three bank statements which you have to submit, so the best way is for you to be resident in the UK first with a job then apply for your spouse to come over, we have made the choice to do it this way.

You wont need that much dont panic

I believe that they were concerned about the money as we have 3 young kids so there is little chance really of 2 incomes. They thought this would not be enough if we wanted to buy a house immediately aswell.

I've got five kids - three of them under seven and I have always worked full time...why would they assume that there would not be two incomes, that makes no sense in this day and age? I know hardly any stay at home mothers in the UK. Actually thinking about it upon edit - I know none at all. We have all worked full time or a minimum of three days a weeks with an average of three kids each.

The problem is not that you don't want to work, but they have to assume you may not be able to get work straight away, and if you don't, how will you feed the kids.

exactly!

Could you please confirm that immigration is happy if you have 3 to 400 pounds? Or did you mean 3000-4000 pounds.

Thanks,

Dave