[langs18]

As many of you have already done, or know exactly what I am talking about, I am in the process of getting the information together and doing all of the fun things required for the UK fiance visa. I am applying in December and hopefully, if all goes well with the expediting World Bridge service, I will have it back in a few weeks!!!!


I just wondered if anyone has been in this situation or knows of someone who has. I understand that on a fiance visa you ARE NOT able to work in the UK for the sixth months (or until you get married, and change to a spousal visa, get residence card, etc.), but do you think there would be an issue if I was working remotely from the United States?


My boss is allowing me at the moment to go and visit my fiance (on a temporary basis for now--just a formality) for the next 3 months and work from home. I will be doing skype calls, still doing everything from the US and getting paid in US dollars. Assuming this goes well, when I come back in December/January, we are going to revisit this and make sure it is going well, then I will make a permanent "working from the main office at home employee." If I am still doing this while on the fiance visa, will it be a problem?

I will have no access to UK public funds, and my fiance makes well over the required minimum (18,600GBP) anyhow. My work operates on a global scale and DOES have branches over in the UK, but they do not want me working there until some time possibly in late 2014/early 2015, at which point I will get paid in GBP then.

Is that a good thing to say on the visa? Should my boss write a note? Or is there a good way to say it? Let me know!!!!! Thanks!!!!!

 

[AmyD]

Yes, there is an issue. You can NOT work from the UK for ANY employer anywhere in the world. You simply can not do it. It is against the terms of both a tourist visa and a fiancé visa.

 

[Joppa]

Be careful about mentioning remote work. The official position is that you cannot work on fiancé visa, paid or unpaid, for UK or overseas employer. Obviously they won't find out if you go online and do some work quietly on your PC, but this should be strictly private. Clearly, if a businessman on a visit to UK updates their work file or sends a few emails, this is ok and no one bats an eyelid, but there is a breach if they start selling directly to the UK public, for example.

 

[langs18]

Mmh. Okay, do you know why this is? Is it to prove that we do not any access to public funds (since that was the point of the visa), or what?

 

[langs18]

Joppa thanks for that! I wasn't sure where this was written, but my job is doing market research. All I do is really send information for projects and do some updates once a month. I could swing it for 6 months where I don't get paid (internship esq) and do private research. I will not be involved in selling anything or even interacting with the UK until after I have my spousal visa.

I realize this is an interesting dilemma, but my job can be done so remote as it is, I was thinking it wouldnt be a problem, and I thought the issue was receiving anything from the UK, not other countries. I know though if I was getting paid for it, they would obviously notice that once I would file for taxes I suppose. So basically, I should just keep that kind of explanation to a minimum when I am sending my fiance visa in??

 

[Joppa]

This is a grey area, but my principle is not to do anything that can be interpreted as work - i.e. being paid for, but it's ok to do things which are incidental to your job, such as sending and replying to a few emails, updating files etc. There isn't a clear line to be drawn, but if it came to the crunch, Home Office would decide on the balance of probabilities whether what you are doing is actually work or not.