# Spouse Visa: Sponsor self employed overseas, prove ongoing UK self employment?



## ratty89 (Nov 9, 2013)

Hello hello!

Bit of a tricky one maybe but I hope some kind soul out there may be able to help.

My husband was born in the UK, and has dual citizenship in NZ too after moving here when he was 12.

We have been together almost 9 years and married almost 1 year. We plan to move to London in mid February.

We are both self employed, and are looking to apply for a UK Spouse Visa so I can live in the UK too. My husband became self employed in March 2013, and before this worked for 2 years as an employee at a company.

After reading through the UKBA financial requirements document (my eyes!) I have taken away the following (please correct me if any of this is wrong).

- We can meet the financial requirements by combining my husbands self employed income from the last financial year (April 2012- March 2013 is the tax year in NZ) and his salaried income which makes up the rest of that financial year ( April 2012 - February 2013, before he quit).

*9.1.1. Where the applicant‟s partner (and/or the applicant if they are in the UK with permission to 
work) is in self-employment, or is the director of a specified limited company in the UK, at 
the date of application, they can use income from the last full financial year to meet the 
financial requirement.

9.3.5. Income under Category F or Category G can be combined with income from salaried and 
non-salaried employment, non-employment income and pension income in order to meet 
the financial requirement. However, unlike with other Categories, these sources of income 
must fall within the relevant financial year(s) in order to be included. Under Category F or 
Category G, all income must fall within the financial year(s) relied on. For example, to count 
income from property rental the income must have been received during the relevant 
financial year(s), though the property must still be owned by the relevant person at the date 
of application. 
*


- We need to prove that he will have ongoing self employment in the UK.
*
9.5.2. Where the applicant‟s partner is in self-employment overseas and is returning with the 
applicant to the UK to work, they may rely on continuing their self-employment in the UK or 
on a confirmed offer of employment in the UK in order to meet the financial requirement. 
Therefore, if their self-employment income overseas is sufficient to meet the financial 
requirement, they can also provide evidence either: 

 That their self-employment is ongoing and will be continuing in the UK; or 
 Of a confirmed offer of salaried or non-salaried employment in the UK, starting 
within 3 months of their return. (The specified evidence and calculation for this is 
explained in section 5 of this guidance). *

This is where it gets a bit tricky... for a UK based self-employed person they provide evidence of being self employed by providing things like their HRMC registration and proof of Class 2 National Insurance payments. Under 9.6.1 it states that :

*(g) Evidence of ongoing self-employment through evidence of payment of Class 2 National Insurance contributions. *

And then .. *8. In respect of self-employment outside of the UK, evidence should be a reasonable 
equivalent to that set out in paragraph 7.* 

SO for my husband to prove that his self employment is ongoing and will be continuing in the UK, do you think registering with HRMC as self employed and signing up for Class 2 National Insurance payments would be sufficient? ( to clarify he is a freelance website developer). Or will we need to do more stuff too?? He works from home so he wouldn't be renting an office or anything like that.

Sub question - if we register him as self employed with HRMC, you can only do this 28 days before the start of the business formation. Would we say the business starts when we arrive in the UK or when he started it in NZ? If we have to wait 28 days before we get to the UK then we wont have a spouse visa in time for me to enter the country!! (Assuming 2 - 3 month processing time).

Any thoughts would be gratefully received!


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

No you don't need to register as self-employed with HMRC or for income tax before arriving in UK. All that the guidance says is:



> That their self-employment is ongoing and will be continuing in the UK.


without giving any further details of how this can be evidenced.

So what I suggest is that he and his accountant get together and prepare a suitable dossier that shows his self-employment will continue in UK, such as a business plan, readiness to register with HMRC, projected turnover and profit and so on. If his projected profit is less than £18,600 before tax, he needs a confirmed offer of employment in addition (you can't combine savings with self-employment).


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## ratty89 (Nov 9, 2013)

Great - thanks so much!!

I feel a bit apprehensive about this option ( meeting the financial requirements by combining cat A and F) and relying on his ongoing self employment when we move to the UK. Any ideas on whether him having a job offer in the UK would be viewed more favourably?


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

I think that would be much easier to evidence.


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