# UK Spouse Visa help - financial



## robin_walden (Apr 1, 2010)

Hey people, hope someone can help me here. If this is covered elsewhere (I can't seem to find similar circumstances) then please direct me there.

I am a UK citizen and I am marrying my American girlfriend this August in the United States. We are both students, currently, and have been going out for over 4 years. She will graduate in May, me in December. This is when we intend to move back to the UK. 

I am confident with most of the visa application process, and think we should be okay in fulfilling most of the requirements. All except the financial side. Obviously, as a student in the U.S. right now, I (the brit) will not have a job lined up when I return to the UK, and neither will she. We will both have undergraduate degrees when we (hope to) go the UK, and I will also have an M.A. We both have jobs as well as being students (I have an F1 student visa and follow all the rules) in the United States and probably earn $2300 cumulatively per month (we live in New Mexico, so its nice and cheap  ). My parents have agreed to put us up for as long as needed while we settle back in. They own the property out right and can provide Land Reg. details.

So as far as I can see we are good, except for the financial requirements. I have 2000 pounds in savings, and she has 2000 dollars. I appreciate that there seems to be no strict rules as to how much, exactly, is needed for the application to succeed, but I wondered if anyone could share any similar experiences, or had any advice as to what the general guidelines seem to be. It seems that not having a job does not mean your application will fail, but I was just looking for some idea of what might work.

We are in a very loving relationship - the whole family is coming out from the UK for a low key wedding this summer - so obviously want the whole process to be smooth sailing.

I hope someone can help, thanks for reading. Any questions, just ask.

Robin W


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## peppera-ann- (Feb 4, 2008)

robin_walden said:


> Hey people, hope someone can help me here. If this is covered elsewhere (I can't seem to find similar circumstances) then please direct me there.
> 
> I am a UK citizen and I am marrying my American girlfriend this August in the United States. We are both students, currently, and have been going out for over 4 years. She will graduate in May, me in December. This is when we intend to move back to the UK.
> 
> ...


I have asked the same question, there for I will give you what I was told-
There is no correct answer. You have what you have. I definately would recomomend more money. I am filing for the uk spousal visa tonight, as we speak. And what we did was get help with adding 7000 pounds to hubby in uk's account. I will have less than 2000 usd here in texas. He does have a job, only for 2 months and a week. so we felt that since we dont have the required 3 months of bank statemens, that the extra money in the bank would help. Just make sure, that you have loads of support letters saying that your family or friends will not let you starve or go with out a home.
That is what I did, coz I am defo nervous about the less than 3 months pay slips.
If I can be of any help let me know. and good luck!

cheers
Pepper Ann


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## threeandme (Jan 25, 2010)

My husband and I are going back to the UK also unemployed. He plans to gain employment once we arrive.
We did have some savings and accomodation arranged. His visa was granted.


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## robin_walden (Apr 1, 2010)

threeandme said:


> My husband and I are going back to the UK also unemployed. He plans to gain employment once we arrive.
> We did have some savings and accomodation arranged. His visa was granted.


That is nice to know! We have accommodation arranged also. We have 2000 pounds and 2000 dollars respectively saved. If you were willing to divulge roughly how much savings you had, that would certainly give me peace of mind. If not, I understand!

And peppera-ann-, good luck with everything and I hope the pay stubs are no big deal. Unfortunately I can be of no help there!


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## threeandme (Jan 25, 2010)

robin_walden said:


> That is nice to know! We have accommodation arranged also. We have 2000 pounds and 2000 dollars respectively saved. If you were willing to divulge roughly how much savings you had, that would certainly give me peace of mind. If not, I understand!
> 
> And peppera-ann-, good luck with everything and I hope the pay stubs are no big deal. Unfortunately I can be of no help there!


We have about 25,000 dollars in the US and 7000 pounds in the UK. But we also have a family of 5. There is no difinitive guidline as to how much is required. I would try to have 3 to 6 months living expenses. You could also start applying for jobs, my husband sent in his CV and proof that he was indeed job searching.

We sent two months bank statements and pay stubs. Because we will not be in the US anyway.
Best of Luck to you!


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

With most visa applications, you are expected to have enough money in bank accounts to pay for your upkeep for at least a month, and preferably longer, until you find a job and get established. This is to show you will not become dependent on welfare payments ('no recourse to public funds'). With a couple with no children, I would say at least £2000-3000 per month, or around £6000-9000 for the first few months. Even a single young person on Youth Mobility visa (new name for working holiday) needs at least £1600. It can be less if your in-laws, for example, are providing suitable accommodation - self-contained with your own front door, not living under the same roof. Also if your British spouse is already in full-time employment in UK and earns enough to support the two of you.


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## mandi311 (Apr 7, 2010)

I am also in a similar situation, as I am American and going to marry my British boyfriend May 1st. We have been living in Turkey as English teachers for about 1 1/2 years, and we've been living on pretty much a cash basis. We are going to be moving to Glasgow where he will be doing his Masters degree. Since he will be studying he won't be working, but he has around 2000 pounds in his savings and will be getting around 6000 as a loan. I wonder if we can use someone else who has more money and a job such as a family member as the sponsor since he will be studying and unemployed?


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

mandi311 said:


> I am also in a similar situation, as I am American and going to marry my British boyfriend May 1st. We have been living in Turkey as English teachers for about 1 1/2 years, and we've been living on pretty much a cash basis. We are going to be moving to Glasgow where he will be doing his Masters degree. Since he will be studying he won't be working, but he has around 2000 pounds in his savings and will be getting around 6000 as a loan. I wonder if we can use someone else who has more money and a job such as a family member as the sponsor since he will be studying and unemployed?


Other sponsors are possible, but it will all have to be documented with their signed letters, bank statements, payslips, passports etc.


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## arthurfl99 (May 7, 2011)

*investments*

Hi all. This forum is really useful. I am in process of moving to the UK on a spouse visa. I am going to have a job lined up before I go. I do have some savings (less than $10,000) and my spouse in UK does not have any savings. She is unemployed and on public funds but we would indicate in the letter that I would support her on my salary (showing the job offer and my savings) when i got there so she would NOT be on public funds when I arrive. is that alone enough? I have IRA and 401k investments that total about $50,000. Would they factor that in to the visa application? I would include their statements as well. 

Any information would be great.

thanks!!


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## Beastie (Mar 16, 2010)

I've also just submitted my spouse visa application. We showed that we have about 20,000 pounds in savings and access to additional funds (i.e. advance payments made on our mortgage which we can withdraw and also our superannuation funds). We will be staying with my in-laws and provided a letter my mother-in-law wrote to support my application and that they are delighted to have us live with them for as long as we need to. In addition, we also have a letter from their bank saying that the house is now fully paid for and also photos of the property.

I was also worried whether the funds that we have and the living arrangements would hinder our application but I think that we'll be fine. I've yet to hear about my application so fingers crossed ! Wishing you the very best of luck too !


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## arthurfl99 (May 7, 2011)

good luck!!!


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## tinateqy (Jul 4, 2012)

*Spouse Settlement Visa - Refusal but not all paperwork viewed!*

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone can help. 

My husband has just applied for a spouse visa which has been refused due to lack of funds in savings/ISA accounts and my consistent use of my overdraft (just £500 more than my mthly salary).

I am employed full-time and have always been employed (never claimed benefits). Prior to the paperwork appointment, I cashed in some shares (Quite a few thousand) and ensured these showed on my accounts. I usually get standard monthly statements from my bank, but as I didn't want to chance not receiving my next monthly set of statements, I requested more up-to-date statements (that look slightly differently and appear on A4 paper) to indicate these new balances. 

Our predicament is that the refusal letter states that our balances are low, ie, as per the standard statements, indicating to me that they've not viewed the more up-to-date (A4) statements. 

I have called the Embassy who have suggested I E-Mail them with the problem, which I have done this morning, but I was wondering if anyone knew of anything similar happening to them as I'm hoping this can be resolved without having to make an appeal as why should we spend a further £1,000 for solicitors when we've just spent almost that for the application, when clearly they haven't done what they should've done and considered all the relevant paperwork we gave them. 

Pls help, anyone?


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