UK Visas and British Citizenship

Another commonly asked question in our practice. The short answer is “before tax”, otherwise it would be both unfair and incomparable with the income received abroad, in a country with a different tax system (or absence of tax, as the case may be in some Middle Eastern countries).   With salary it is simple: salary before tax. With income from self-employment, it is profit (income less expenses) for a sole trader. For a company director it is gross salary and/or net dividends, net dividends being ones after the company’s tax but before personal tax). We have extensive experience in working with self-employed visa applicants and their spouses, after all we are the immigration entrepreneurs!     With the property rental income it gets more interesting. Amount of £18,600 (or equivalent in the foreign currency) is the monies paid by the tenant, before an estate agent’s commission and without taking into account mortgage and maintenance expenses. This is different...

“Lucy & Natalia, Thanks so much to you and your team for your support during my wife’s ILR visa process. As with her spouse visa (which we did 2 years ago, it was an extension) , you guided us through everything with patience and professionalism, and we really appreciate the “hand-holding” that you offered throughout the process. We couldn’t have done it without you, or at least we couldn’t have done it without spending lots of extra money on failed attempts, wasting lots of time and sprouting lots of grey hairs. Your service isn’t cheap (as all good things in life – 1 st 4Immigration) but as a repeat customer I am certain that it represents incredible value for money.”   These nice – and fair – words came from Pirran, a British national whose wife was from Tunisia. First we helped to extend a spouse visa 2 years ago and now we helped to secure ILR. Since the 1 st spouse visa was issued before 9 July 2012, these clients were able to extend (there were reasons not ...

We still have places available for this intensive Saturday course at our office in the City of London. 1st 4Immigration Ltd is a practicing OISC-accredited immigration company, OISC, ref   F200800152. We are also a recognised CPD provider and can be found on the OISC list of the training providers. This course has a particular emphasis on Tier 2 General and Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa categories, applying for a Sponsor Licence and using Tier 2 Code of Practice as well as qualifying for an Indefinite Leave in these routes. It also covers (often forgotten in training) rules for family members of PBS migrants. You can earn 7 core CPD hours credit, subject to the successful completion of the test after the course. As a practicing company, we are offering to share our experience to help you deal with the applications of Points-Based System migrants, their family members and ILR applications based on PBS categories. You can read   Testimonials on our immigration cases here. ...

As part of our services we offer advice session, which can be at our office (Monument area in The City of London) or over email. This is available to the migrants as well as to fellow immigrations advisers and solicitors, based in the UK or abroad. Email advice has become very popular because it is available to anyone anywhere in the world, plus answers are written and you can refer to them later without a fear of forgetting or misunderstanding the advice given. You can also show it to your partner or to your employer. We promise to provide answers to your queries by the end of the next working day after receipt of advice fee, which is at the average market price of £150 and is counted towards our service fee if you proceed with an application through us later. Advice fee can be paid online on our website or to our bank account. Examples on the issues we can advise during the session:   How you and your British spouse/partner can meet the Fin...

In the article below it was one of the comments that attracted our attention. It was from a person who had a British wife and said that his British wife was expected to meet the £18,600 Financial Requirement whilst his foreign pension could not be counted. Article link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/expat-money/11713544/Expat-families-torn-apart-by-UK-visa-requirements.html#disqus_thread We wanted to post this because the above opinion is incorrect, according to the UK Immigration Rules (immigration law). There is indeed a requirement that only the British spouse’s income can be counted at the entry clearance stage (application from outside the UK) but it only applies to income from employment or self-employment. This rule does not apply to pension or savings or most of non-employment income, such as rental income. So, if a foreign spouse receives pension in any country, then he/she can use it to meet the Financial Requirement. It does need to be look...

If your visa application is refused, you may be given a right to submit an administrative review. This is not an appeal and it is not an alternative to an appeal. The difference between an appeal and administrative review . An appeal is considered by the court, by an independent judge, ie independent from the Home Office who made a decision to refused your application. An administrative review is considered by the Home Office, i.e. by the same organisation who refused your application, but by a different caseworker. A review is effectively re-consideration, written as a procedure in the Rules, designed to judge whether the original decision was wrong, such as if a visa officer did not follow the Rules correctly. For example, we had a case of a spouse of a UK citizen where Financial Requirement under Category B was not calculated according to the Appendices FM ad FM-SE, it was clearly (to us) a calculation error, resulting from the visa officer applying the method of calcula...

This time we had it in both Romanian and English from our client Felix, who applied for British Citizenship without applying for permanent residency first (as allowed by the Rules and as we often assist with). In Romanian: “Am intrat in contact cu firma 1st 4Immigration Ltd in vederea obtinerii cetateniei Britanice si sunt foarte fericit cu alegerea pe care am facut-o! Mi-a fost recent confirmata aprobarea cererii si urmeaza sa finalizez formalitatile in cel mai scurt timp, odata cu depunerea juramatului. Am fost foarte multumit cu serviciile oferite de 1st 4Immigration, compania are o comunicare excelenta, profesionala si prompta pe e-mail, mi-au fost oferite toate detaliile si explicatiile cerute pentru a putea sa obtin documentele necesare aplicatiei si consultantii lor cunosc foarte bine legislatia relevanta. Anterior avusesem o consultatie cu o alta firma si, nemultumit si surprins de analiza lor (ce ulterior s-a dovedit incorecta), m-am decis sa caut o a doua opinie - ...