[Ninathewizard]

Hello! I am new and this is my first post so please take pity on me. I have a couple of questions so I will dive right in!

1) Is there a limit of time in which you must be married before applying for a spousal visa? In other words if you were married for a few days would it be alright to apply?

2) If the American spouse earned more than enough income to meet the current requirements (And could transfer her business when they moved to the UK. And be able to earn the same income) and the spouse from the United Kingdom was on benefits that did not earn much income... would their combined income be considered to meet the financial requirements? Sort of like taking care of one another.

3) If the spouse who earns the most income has only had their bank account for three months will that be enough to prove their income?

4) If the American spouse worked as an Independent Contractor in the United States and could move their business to the United Kingdom... would statements showing their sales over the last 3-6 months be enough to prove they are able to bring in the required income? And also would the fact they had job offers in the United Kingdom in addition to their current work help?

Thank you for your help.:ranger:

 

[2farapart]

Welcome!

1) Is there a limit of time in which you must be married before applying for a spousal visa? In other words if you were married for a few days would it be alright to apply?

I don't believe there is. Provided you can prove your relationship and marriage is genuine, and you meet the requirements mentioned in the UK Border Agency pages (UK Border Agency | Can you apply?) then you should be fine for applying.

2) If the American spouse earned more than enough income to meet the current requirements (And could transfer her business when they moved to the UK. And be able to earn the same income) and the spouse from the United Kingdom was on benefits that did not earn much income... would their combined income be considered to meet the financial requirements? Sort of like taking care of one another.

I think that might be a problem because although you can demonstrate that your business can make a particular income in the US, you might not be able to prove that it would make that same kind of income in the UK (the UKBA likes to see definite figures rather than potential) so it would help your case to find (if possible) a third-party sponsor with the required amount of income/savings who would be prepared to sign that they'd be willing to support you over the course of the spouse-visa 2-year period until the business is established in the UK.

There's another matter you might need to bear in mind, and unfortunately it's vague because no formal announcement has yet been made. It is rumoured that the UKBA rules will be changing - possibly as early as June/July - and one change speculated is that only the UK spouse's income will be considered (and must be a minimum £25,700 a year unless there are children to support - in which case the amount increases per each child up to around £62,000 for three children). However, we have no idea whether this will be backdated to apply to people who already have their FLR/Spouse visas, and we don't yet know how many of the recommendations the UKBA will press ahead with. So I'm flagging this just so you can have in mind a Plan B if the worst happens. See this thread for more info: http://www.expatforum.com/expats/br...une-2012-according-leaked-cabinet-letter.html

3) If the spouse who earns the most income has only had their bank account for three months will that be enough to prove their income?

For the sponsoring spouse, the absolute minimum is three months, so that might be okay, but for the overseas spouse, again I'm not so sure. It might depend on how easily transferable your partner's business is, and how successful that same business over here would be. If you have a pool of savings or a third-party sponsor you can depend on until your partner's business is fully established here, then that would help considerably under the current rules.

4) If the American spouse worked as an Independent Contractor in the United States and could move their business to the United Kingdom... would statements showing their sales over the last 3-6 months be enough to prove they are able to bring in the required income? And also would the fact they had job offers in the United Kingdom in addition to their current work help?

Statements from an overseas business, like CVs and copies of potential jobs one could apply for all demonstrate *potential* earnings here but don't necessarily demonstrate ACTUAL funds already available to support your spouse from the moment they enter the country. Again, a third-party sponsor or pool of savings will likely help under the current rules.

 

[Ninathewizard]

I believe some things were misunderstood or lost in translation. So, let me clarify and see if it changes anything said.

The American spouse is an independent contractor but does work in conjuncture with a company. That company has said plainly and clearly that the American spouse -can- work with them from the United Kingdom. (It is in writing and easily proven) Thus meaning that the income will be the same in the United Kingdom as it would be in the United States.

In addition to that the American spouse has a few job offers in writing that can and will be added to their documents. Would this not be enough evidence to prove being able to meet the current requirements?

I know about the potential rule changes. I am waiting for real news to come down before I worry myself over it.

Thank you.

 

[2farapart]

The current rules state "You and/or your settled partner must demonstrate that you and/or they can cover your living expenses without recourse to public funds in the UK". On that basis (all those and/or's) and ignoring the potential changes in rules, I imagine that if the UKBA are given enough evidence to demonstrate that your spouse will be able to support you both over the next two years once they've moved to the UK, that might be good enough. However, the records required to support this I don't know about (I've read somewhere that someone self employed needs to provide copies of accounts going back a few years BUT I don't know if that was related to a spouse visa, and if so whether that was for someone acting as sponsor rather than applicant - and now I can't find where I read it.

Therefore, I'm posting purely to bring this thread back to the attention of others here who WILL know more about self-employment and your spouse supporting you both as an independent contractor, and they can hopefully give you a much better answer than I can.