£25,700 Maintenance Requirement from June 2012 according to Leaked Cabinet Letter

[Xarain]

Originally Posted by mark_and_laura

I am concerned as to what happens if we get to 2 years from now (or 5) and my husband and I don't meet the requirements, most especially if we have a child which has been our plan. Also whether my income would even be considered, since he is the sponsor and I am the applicant - I am not sure how that works for ILR, as opposed to the probationary visa that I've had approved under the current rules.

I won't have a job in the US since I'll have been in the UK, so therefore it is unlikely that we would be able to pursue the options of my husband emigrating to the US right away -- I'd have to come back to the US, find a job and get re-established in the States, and then we begin the application process for him to come to the US. One of the many reasons that we originally decided that I should move to the UK (other than both feeling much more at home there, having stronger family ties, etc.) is that it sounds like the immigration process in the US takes longer, and at the heart of it, we just want to be together and thought this would be the best way to do it. I have been really excited about getting over to the UK, working, volunteering, and establishing a life in a place that I love, with someone I love with all my heart.

Not that anyone in the UK government or anyone other than me and my husband cares about our individual situation. It's just something we'll have to figure out. Sorry for venting.

You don't need to apologise for venting, I'm pretty much in the same situation as you right now, as I'm sure many other couples are too sadly. This proposed change is heartbreaking for people like ourselves.

My own story is as follows; Me (a UK citizen) and my wife (a US citizen) have been working towards the goal of settling down together in the UK for quite a while now, we've pretty much spent the past three months gathering up as much documentation as we can, doing as much research as possible, and basically getting as prepared as we possibly can. Up until recently, I was feeling really confident that we'd be living together permanently this year (finally), as we have a fairly strong application to present, but.. we fall short of the new maintenance requirement, as I only earn £21,000 per year.

The more frustrating part is, I'm still missing just a couple of vital documents, and I won't be able to obtain them for another month or so, meaning we won't be able to apply until around mid-May. This means that we likely won't be able to get our application processed in time, and that we'll be caught out by this new ridiculous maintenance requirement.

Right now, I don't know whether we should even attempt to apply for a UK spouse visa, or whether we should just face facts that our dream of settling in the UK together is just not going to happen. I'm half tempted to start work on applying for a US visa instead. At the end of the day.. we just want to finally be able to live together on a permanent basis. While we'd much prefer to settle in the UK, I'd happily take the option of moving to the US over never being able to live together permanently. I really don't know anything about the US visa process though. I've heard stories that it can be quite tough to migrate to the US aswell.

Anyway, fingers crossed for you guys. I know how difficult it is to be apart from someone you love so dearly. Hopefully everything will work out for you.

[AnAmericanInScotland]

Originally Posted by Xarain

You don't need to apologise for venting, I'm pretty much in the same situation as you right now, as I'm sure many other couples are too sadly. This proposed change is heartbreaking for people like ourselves.

My own story is as follows; Me (a UK citizen) and my wife (a US citizen) have been working towards the goal of settling down together in the UK for quite a while now, we've pretty much spent the past three months gathering up as much documentation as we can, doing as much research as possible, and basically getting as prepared as we possibly can. Up until recently, I was feeling really confident that we'd be living together permanently this year (finally), as we have a fairly strong application to present, but.. we fall short of the new maintenance requirement, as I only earn £21,000 per year.

The more frustrating part is, I'm still missing just a couple of vital documents, and I won't be able to obtain them for another month or so, meaning we won't be able to apply until around mid-May. This means that we likely won't be able to get our application processed in time, and that we'll be caught out by this new ridiculous maintenance requirement.

Right now, I don't know whether we should even attempt to apply for a UK spouse visa, or whether we should just face facts that our dream of settling in the UK together is just not going to happen. I'm half tempted to start work on applying for a US visa instead. At the end of the day.. we just want to finally be able to live together on a permanent basis. While we'd much prefer to settle in the UK, I'd happily take the option of moving to the US over never being able to live together permanently. I really don't know anything about the US visa process though. I've heard stories that it can be quite tough to migrate to the US aswell.

Anyway, fingers crossed for you guys. I know how difficult it is to be apart from someone you love so dearly. Hopefully everything will work out for you.

My husband and I are mid-process, I'm here in the UK on the probationary 27 month visa.

When the proposed changes were leaked I felt sick, my husband had me researching the visa requirements for him to go to the US, and I began to think if I'd known how draconian the proposed changes might be I likely wouldn't have applied for the visa.

I've come to think now, however, that I would have gone ahead with my application had I known about the possibility the changes might mean I would be sent back to the US. But it would have been a long and agonising decision making process. I would have considered all of the implications, not the least being:

1- would we be able to afford going through the UK visa process

2-get me and some of my personal belongings to the UK

3-begin our life, settle in

4-only to be sent back to the US if the proposed changes became actual implementations

5-could we afford to go through the entire process again so that my UK citizen husband could join me in the US?

Looking at it that way I decided we would have chosen to go ahead with the UK visa application because in the end, the UK is where we want to spend the rest of our life together. We'll manage somehow if we have to go to the US, but since the UK is where we really want to be, I'm glad we chose to try for the UK visa first.

[AnAmericanInScotland]

Bump.

Nosing around on the UKBA site this afternoon I found this report, published in Nov 2011, with more information on the leaked proposed income requirements for spouse and partner visas; it's a very long pdf file-I'm printing it to a hard copy in the morning because just skimming it in the pdf is making my eyeballs bleed, lol!:

UK Border Agency | MAC publishes report on the family migration route

Would love it if some of you folks would have a look at it too.

[pedalmonkey]

Originally Posted by AnAmericanInScotland

Bump.

Nosing around on the UKBA site this afternoon I found this report, published in Nov 2011, with more information on the leaked proposed income requirements for spouse and partner visas; it's a very long pdf file-I'm printing it to a hard copy in the morning because just skimming it in the pdf is making my eyeballs bleed, lol!:

UK Border Agency | MAC publishes report on the family migration route

Would love it if some of you folks would have a look at it too.

One of the first thing I noticed was they mention doing away with the Permanent stamped visa regardless of being married 4 years before moving to the UK.
They will want everyone to wait the 5 years.

[Joppa]

Originally Posted by AnAmericanInScotland

Bump.

Nosing around on the UKBA site this afternoon I found this report, published in Nov 2011, with more information on the leaked proposed income requirements for spouse and partner visas; it's a very long pdf file-I'm printing it to a hard copy in the morning because just skimming it in the pdf is making my eyeballs bleed, lol!:

UK Border Agency | MAC publishes report on the family migration route

Would love it if some of you folks would have a look at it too.

Yes, that's the report by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) last November setting out the minimum maintenance requirement for UK visa sponsor, and the latest government leak is based on it. In it the government has opted for the top of income range proposed, but we don't know yet what will happen to other recommendations, such as disallowing savings and exertal sponsorship, and about regionalisation of income requirement to take account of varying cost of living across UK. The report does tell you how the figure of £25,700 is arrived at, and makes a useful comparison with current rules as well as what happens in other countries. As you can see, if £25,700 is adopted, the majority of applicants from the Indian subcontinent - where the greatest number comes from - will not qualify.

[AnAmericanInScotland]

Originally Posted by Joppa

Yes, that's the report by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) last November setting out the minimum maintenance requirement for UK visa sponsor, and the latest government leak is based on it. In it the government has opted for the top of income range proposed, but we don't know yet what will happen to other recommendations, such as disallowing savings and exertal sponsorship, and about regionalisation of income requirement to take account of varying cost of living across UK. The report does tell you how the figure of £25,700 is arrived at, and makes a useful comparison with current rules as well as what happens in other countries. As you can see, if £25,700 is adopted, the majority of applicants from the Indian subcontinent - where the greatest number comes from - will not qualify.

Joppa, do you know if recommendations like the ones in this report are usually taken? I'm wondering if there is a precedence.

My husband is printing it out (90 pages) for me now and I am going to read it line by line, with a highlighter, and taking notes. It's a very interesting look into the process.

[Joppa]

Originally Posted by AnAmericanInScotland

Joppa, do you know if recommendations like the ones in this report are usually taken? I'm wondering if there is a precedence.

My husband is printing it out (90 pages) for me now and I am going to read it line by line, with a highlighter, and taking notes. It's a very interesting look into the process.

Yes, an independent body like MAC helps to shape government policy and its recommendations carry a lot of weight, as they are based on solid research and investigations, carried out under the government brief.

[manny.j]

Originally Posted by Joppa

Yes, an independent body like MAC helps to shape government policy and its recommendations carry a lot of weight, as they are based on solid research and investigations, carried out under the government brief.

The solid-research, as you stated, can be considered subjective considering they ignored many, what can be considered, crucial variables when proposing to solve the immigration problem. I noticed that every single person (exluding 1-2) has a PhD. in this independent body but, in my view, did a very poor job as a researcher who is supposed to provide a bias-free "independent" opinion on reducing immigration.

For example, they only focused on a scenario where the UK citizen's salary is to be considered (excluding all other means) but fail to consider the risks involved in this approach where the UK spouse can end up losing their job the very next day after their foreign spouse gets the UK visa. I also felt that the report leaned more towards money factor than proposing smarter means to determine legitimacy of a relationship between a UK citizen and their foreign spouse, that should be the key goal to catch people abusing the system for their personal gain.

On paper they claim the purpose is to reduce scam marriages and reduce burden on tax-payers to prevent foreign spouse getting any kind of benefits but this is a false fact where the settlement visa stamp on the Foreign spouse's passport clearly states "No recourse to Public Funds".

[AnAmericanInScotland]

Originally Posted by manny.j

The solid-research, as you stated, can be considered subjective considering they ignored many, what can be considered, crucial variables when proposing to solve the immigration problem. I noticed that every single person (exluding 1-2) has a PhD. in this independent body but, in my view, did a very poor job as a researcher who is supposed to provide a bias-free "independent" opinion on reducing immigration.

For example, they only focused on a scenario where the UK citizen's salary is to be considered (excluding all other means) but fail to consider the risks involved in this approach where the UK spouse can end up losing their job the very next day after their foreign spouse gets the UK visa. I also felt that the report leaned more towards money factor than proposing smarter means to determine legitimacy of a relationship between a UK citizen and their foreign spouse, that should be the key goal to catch people abusing the system for their personal gain.

On paper they claim the purpose is to reduce scam marriages and reduce burden on tax-payers to prevent foreign spouse getting any kind of benefits but this is a false fact where the settlement visa stamp on the Foreign spouse's passport clearly states "No recourse to Public Funds".

It's been a busy day (prepping for all day guests tomorrow !) so I'm only on page 17 but I did notice those heavyweight credentials, and a couple of other things. For example, what on earth do they mean by:

...access to sufficient maintenance to enable them to participate in everyday life in a way that facilitates their integration.

??? What, does that mean if we don't have, for example, a car, superfast broadband, five credit cards, and cable TV that we can't integrate?

I'm being a little testy, but really, what does this mean?

[manny.j]

Originally Posted by AnAmericanInScotland

It's been a busy day (prepping for all day guests tomorrow !) so I'm only on page 17 but I did notice those heavyweight credentials, and a couple of other things. For example, what on earth do they mean by:

...access to sufficient maintenance to enable them to participate in everyday life in a way that facilitates their integration.

??? What, does that mean if we don't have, for example, a car, superfast broadband, five credit cards, and cable TV that we can't integrate?

I'm being a little testy, but really, what does this mean?

That technogarble, in simple English, means: To target people who although love to come to the UK and live there but refuse to put any efforts in integrating into the British society. And I don't mean drinking (I am joking here! ) but more specifically able to speak and understand English. The goal is to reduce the multiculturalism and encourage them to integrate into British lifestyle. But its confusing to mix sufficient maintenance (i.e have enough funds, I guess) with integration as one does not need money but intentions to integrate