UK Visas and British Citizenship

#1 Most common - submitting “everything I have’.  Some payslips, a tax return, some savings plus a property deed for good measure. Surely, should work? It may sound logical to provide as much as possible, this is often a nightmare scenario for immigration lawyers and often a direct path to a visa refusal. Financial Requirement is strictly based on the ‘rules’: what income can be used, how various sources can be combined and what documents are needed. We often say there is 75-page office guidance just on the finances: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/636618/Appendix_FM_1_7_Financial_Requirement_Final.pdf  #2 Savings - it’s not £18,600 and not £16,000.  The real amount (for this purpose) is calculated using this formula: threshold you need to meet (such as £18,600) x 2.5 plus £16,000. If you are using savings alone, it would be £18,600 x 2.5 + £16,000 = £62,500!  #3 Employment -  the minimu...

#1 Most common - submitting “everything I have’.  Some payslips, a tax return, some savings plus a property deed for good measure. Surely, should work? It may sound logical to provide as much as possible, this is often a nightmare scenario for immigration lawyers and often a direct path to a visa refusal. Financial Requirement is strictly based on the ‘rules’ : what income can be used, how various sources can be combined and what documents are needed. We often say there is a 75-page office guidance just on the finances: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/636618/Appendix_FM_1_7_Financial_Requirement_Final.pdf  #2 Savings - it’s not £18,600 and not £16,000.  The real amount (for this purpose) is calculated using this formula: threshold you need to meet (such as £18,600) x 2.5 plus £16,000. If you are using savings alone, it would be £18,600 x 2.5 + £16,000 = £62,500!  #3 Employment -  the min...

For some reason, it is Category B that seems to be causing most of the problems we see applicants make. If you changed your job and can’t apply under Category A because you haven’t worked for your new (ie current) employer for 6 months yet, you’d have to use Category B. The 1st part would be your current salary being £18600 per year. The 2nd part is total earnings for the last 12 months in both current and previous jobs.  Or several previous jobs, as you can combine any number of jobs in the 12 months prior to the visa application. The question is: do you actually have to have worked for the whole 12 months before applying? Or to wait for the whole 12 months if you didn’t work that long? The answer is No - if you can meet the total £18600 in earnings in a shorter period than 12 months. Of course, you need a salary much higher than £18600! For example, if you only worked for 5 months for Employer 1 and then for 1 month for the current Employer 2 but your salary has been, ...

It may seem like a straightforward category but there are so many visa refusals out there because if these miscalculations! How to calculate can be found on Appendix FM-SE of the Immigration Rules (although you may need a PhD just to read it 😟) Category B, this is where you haven’t worked for the current UK employer for the past 6 months: here we have 2 Requirements. Firstly, your current job has to be paying you a salary of £18600. Even if this job started only started now. Secondly, the total amount you have actually earned in the 12 months prior to the date of the visa application. The total has to be £18600. Mistake 1: meeting the 2nd requirement but ignoring the 1st one. You will be amazed how many applicants- and immigration advisers too - think it’s only “last 12 months” figure they have to worry about. Particularly if the new job doesn’t pay a fixed salary but wages based on the hours worked. Or if the new job has a lower salary (below £18600) just for the probatio...

Ah, if only it were as easy as that! The visa officers have also thought of that. They don’t want people to secure employment, apply for a Spouse visa and resign the day the visa has been issued. There are 2 ways to “use” employment income from (not counting combinations with other sources), both can be found in Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules . Category A: based on your current employment in the UK. Here you need to have for this employer for the last 6 months before the date of visa application. You can still secure a job just for the Financial Requirement and can still resign the day after the visa has been approved. But you have to work for this company for 6 months! Also, you need to have a salary of £18600 (ie based on £18600 per year) for the whole 6 months. If you had a lower salary during the probationary period (usually 3 months) and then had a rise to £18600, you can’t apply for a visa until you have had 6 months of salary based on £18600 (ie have to wait until 9...

This is one of the most common scenarios in our practice, which leads to one of the most common misunderstandings of the Immigration Rules. A typical situation: both husband and wife are residing outside the UK, let’s say in the USA or Australia or the Philippines (all very common in our work).  At some point, they decide to come back to the UK for good. The foreign partner has to apply for a UK Spouse visa, which means meeting the Financial Requirement and £18600 threshold. There is a lot of confusion on what kind of income can be used and who (which spouse) has to have that income. Getting it wrong leads to many visa refusals. If you are trying to use savings or non-employment income (pension, rent from property etc), such income/savings can be originating from anywhere in the world and can be in the name of either spouse or in their joint names. For example, a husband may have savings in the USA and the wife – in the UK. One may have the pension from the UK, the other fro...

You think it’s not possible? Yet it is. All it takes is a Home Office official making a mistake when applying their own complex UK Immigration Rules. Does it happen? Yes, and fairly often. Is it easy to put right even though it’s the mistake of the authorities’? It can be put right but it won’t be easy and quick. We came across this interesting, very emotional article on Huffington Post: As Meghan Markle Chooses To Become A British Citizen I Just Wait For My Wife To Be Able To Come Home . Written by a Chief Executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), a most prominent organisation that campaigns for the foreign citizens - who come here legally and abide by the UK law - to be treated fairly. His own wife’s entry clearance application was refused by the Home Office, only for the officials to admit later they had made a mistake. Mr Singh, the author, doesn't go into technical details why it was refused but the point is the Home Office later admitted they h...

In this series we will address the common mistakes the applicants make when applying to come or to remind in the UK with their British partner. We will put the most common one - by far - at the end in Week 10. So, the UK Immigration Rules require to have income of £18600 or savings of ... how much? There is so much confusion! The mistake people make here is assuming that they need savings of also £18600.  Then they may spot a requirement of “savings over £16000”. Both amounts are wrong, the correct answer is the whopping amount of £62500! The threshold of £18600 applies to income, not savings. The amount of savings is calculated using a specific formula. The first £16000 aren’t taken into account at all. This part of the calculation is often taken out of context, so many wrongly thing they are OK as long as they have £16000, but it’s only the 1st part. Then the target amount £18600 is multiplied by 2.5 to reflect the Spouse visa length of 2.5 years. We get: £18600 x 2....