# Questions about the spouse visa



## Selver (Jun 5, 2011)

Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum and need some help. I apologise for the long post but our situation is a bit unorthodox and I want to make sure I explain it clearly. I'm also not sure this is the correct forum to post my questions, so please forgive me if I made a mistake.

I am a UK citizen aged 38, my wife (who is Serbian and 33) and I were dating for some 3 years and she's been to England and Wales on a Tourist visa 5-6 times (once before she met me). She’s never ever been refused for a visa. 2 years ago, following our 3 years of dating, we got married in Serbia (with the blessings of and all necessary paperwork done in the British Embassy so the marriage would be considered valid in the UK) and are now trying to make an application for a 2-year Settlement (Spouse) visa for her.

The problem we have is that I do not work. I am not actually unemployed but am supported by my mother for whom I do odd jobs here and there, helping her deal with the HMO (House in Multiple Occupation) that she lets out. My mother usually pays me in cash, some £660 a month and provides a free largish ensuite room in the HMO she lets out (with an official Tenancy Contract for the next year). About 8 months ago I persuaded her to sign a permanent Contract of Employment covering my work and wages (I downloaded a Contract of Employment template and did lots of internet research to make the Contract as legally correct as possible) in December last year, but have not registered myself as self-employed yet. My mother did not want to write a letter officially stating it's OK for my wife to live with me in this house, so as a result of that, me and my wife jointly bought a house in Wales last December with a smallish mortgage over 15 years from my father (repayments approx. £270/month over 15 years, about 50% of the purchase price was paid in cash with our savings), where we are planning to move if she gets her Settlement visa. My wife was actually the one who found the house over the internet, while she was in Serbia, but has never actually physically been in the house yet, though it was bought in both of our names.

I have not paid National Insurance for the last couple of years, and can only provide a letter from my mother stating that she is supporting me/paying me the £660 a month, in cash only when I’m in the UK. I have about £1000 savings overall, but my current account is constantly in its overdraft and even often goes over the overdraft limit into an agreed buffer zone of £500. I use a couple of credit cards sometimes, and, strangely enough, my Experian credit rating is 987 which is “Excellent”.

My wife has worked for a decade as a freelance Serbian/English translator solely over the internet. She has savings of some £5-6000 and income of between £600-1000 a month, maybe a bit more, depending on how much she works. She works for a number of translation agencies from all over the world but does not have a “permanent” employment contract. If she gets the Settlement visa she would continue to work over the internet, and it makes no difference to her job whether she is in England, Serbia or on Mars, as long as she has the internet! 

So, the unorthodox situation we have is that even though i am her "Sponsor", her finances are actually far better than mine. So the main question is: 

1) Should I include my finances and/or the letter from my mother and/or my Employment Contract with her? I do not think my mother will give me 3 months of her bank statements so all I will have to go on is her letter that she is and will be supporting me while I'm in the UK and/or my Contract of Employment. The possible problem with that is that she has some long-standing, fairly serious mental issues and therefore if the Embassy or UKBA were to actually contact her to confirm everything, she cannot be relied upon to communicate clearly and cooperate with such a request. (Also, should I include my credit rating report?)

Another thing is that even though me and my wife bought a house in Wales in our joint names in December, I've actually continued living in my mother's HMO, some 130 miles away, as it's been more convenient (hate shopping for furniture and hate moving on my own). Question:

2) Will this be a problem - should I move my official address (Electoral Roll, Bank branch, car insurance etc.) to the Welsh house before we apply? I need to travel to Serbia in a week or so, so I am not sure I'll even have time to change the address.

And another question:

3) I know all the Serbian documents will need to be translated (marriage certificate, bank statements, my Serbian 6 months residence visa and suchlike). Is it OK for my wife to translate this or do we have to pay for a certified translation, with the stamp and seal and all that stuff? Will certified translation by a Serbian Court Translator be accepted and if not, how do we go on about this?

And one last thing:

4) How do we prove we own the house? Is the Land Registry search printout from them enough on its own? Because the one I’ve already received didn’t have much in the way of seals or watermarks or anything to prove it's a genuine copy?


I'd like to thank anyone who can help me with any of these questions. I'm really struggling and didn’t realise applying for the Settlement visa could be this complicated (though my wife did keep going on and on about the complexities every time she applied for a Tourist visa… but all I ever did for those was write invitation letters for her as she never needed help with finances...).


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Selver said:


> Hello everyone,
> 
> I am new to this forum and need some help. I apologise for the long post but our situation is a bit unorthodox and I want to make sure I explain it clearly. I'm also not sure this is the correct forum to post my questions, so please forgive me if I made a mistake.
> 
> ...


Without going into details of all the points you raise (much of them technical), my take on your situation is, as things stand, there is a high possibility of settlement visa being refused because of inadequate or undocumented funds. The amount you are getting from your mother is quite low, which translates to an annual pre-tax income of less than £10,000, esp as you are paying your father mortgage out of it. Are you declaring your income to HMRC, as it exceeds the personal allowance of £7475 a year? The income level required is in the order of £15 to £20,000 a year gross, minus any savings your wife can transfer to UK.


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## Selver (Jun 5, 2011)

Joppa said:


> Without going into details of all the points you raise (much of them technical), my take on your situation is, as things stand, there is a high possibility of settlement visa being refused because of inadequate or undocumented funds. The amount you are getting from your mother is quite low, which translates to an annual pre-tax income of less than £10,000, esp as you are paying your father mortgage out of it. Are you declaring your income to HMRC, as it exceeds the personal allowance of £7475 a year? The income level required is in the order of £15 to £20,000 a year gross, minus any savings your wife can transfer to UK.


Please read the post carefully before replying. My wife also has a job, as I clearly stated, and she will continue doing that job if she moves to the UK. She has emails from her clients, contracts with them, bank statements etc so her funds and income are not undocumented. The contract with my mother has only been going on for some 6 months so I have not done the HMRC thing yet, and there is no point doing it if my wife gets refused for the settlement visa as I'm not planning on returning to the UK without her.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Selver said:


> Please read the post carefully before replying. My wife also has a job, as I clearly stated, and she will continue doing that job if she moves to the UK. She has emails from her clients, contracts with them, bank statements etc so her funds and income are not undocumented. The contract with my mother has only been going on for some 6 months so I have not done the HMRC thing yet, and there is no point doing it if my wife gets refused for the settlement visa as I'm not planning on returning to the UK without her.


I have read your post and I know your wife has a job, but you are her visa sponsor, and you need to have income of your own irrespective of your wife's, as you can work in UK now without visa. One of the main reasons people get refused a visa is when the British partner has no or little income and savings of their own and is reliant on their foreign partner for support. While she can work online anywhere, it's preferable to have preliminary understanding/contract with British-based agencies so that there is a reasonable chance of continuing employment and income after settling. As for your employment in UK, UKBA may well decide it isn't a proper job but support from your parent towards your living expenses, which has a lower status than bona-fide employment with a registered (with HMRC for PAYE) employer. They will demand pay slips with tax, NI and other deductions clearly set out.


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## Selver (Jun 5, 2011)

Joppa said:


> I have read your post and I know your wife has a job, but you are her visa sponsor, and you need to have income of your own irrespective of your wife's, as you can work in UK now without visa. One of the main reasons people get refused a visa is when the British partner has no or little income and savings of their own and is reliant on their foreign partner for support. While she can work online anywhere, it's preferable to have preliminary understanding/contract with British-based agencies so that there is a reasonable chance of continuing employment and income after settling. As for your employment in UK, UKBA may well decide it isn't a proper job but support from your parent towards your living expenses, which has a lower status than bona-fide employment with a registered (with HMRC for PAYE) employer. They will demand pay slips with tax, NI and other deductions clearly set out.


Right, thanks a lot for your reply. Yes, my wife does work with a number of British agencies, as well as with the American, Taiwanese and numerous other clients. We were planning on her supplying emails from at least a couple of British agencies, as we expect those are easily checked.

Regarding my "job" yes, in effect it is really more of a "support" as I have no working hours and basically get the money regardless of the amount of work I do. I am aware that this is not really good and will count against us, but will it actually be something that should stop us from applying for the settlement visa? Can that on its own prevent us from getting the visa as I think that's the only real weakness in the application?


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Selver said:


> Right, thanks a lot for your reply. Yes, my wife does work with a number of British agencies, as well as with the American, Taiwanese and numerous other clients. We were planning on her supplying emails from at least a couple of British agencies, as we expect those are easily checked.
> 
> Regarding my "job" yes, in effect it is really more of a "support" as I have no working hours and basically get the money regardless of the amount of work I do. I am aware that this is not really good and will count against us, but will it actually be something that should stop us from applying for the settlement visa? Can that on its own prevent us from getting the visa as I think that's the only real weakness in the application?


Yes, do enclose documentary evidence of work she does with British translation agencies, correspondence, payment record etc.

As you rightly realise, your own resources is the weak area in your application and can create difficulties, but you never know until you apply. It would help I think if your 'support' can be earmarked specifically towards mortgage, council tax and other bills. In that case you need to supply a letter from your mother undertaking to support you both on that basis for the foreseeable future in your new home in Wales. But without documentary evidence, UKBA may rule it inadmissable as being casual earnings with no guarantee of continuity. They do place emphasis on UK partner being in a position to support financially.


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## Selver (Jun 5, 2011)

Joppa said:


> Yes, do enclose documentary evidence of work she does with British translation agencies, correspondence, payment record etc.
> 
> As you rightly realise, your own resources is the weak area in your application and can create difficulties, but you never know until you apply. It would help I think if your 'support' can be earmarked specifically towards mortgage, council tax and other bills. In that case you need to supply a letter from your mother undertaking to support you both on that basis for the foreseeable future in your new home in Wales. But without documentary evidence, UKBA may rule it inadmissable as being casual earnings with no guarantee of continuity. They do place emphasis on UK partner being in a position to support financially.



Thanks again, Joppa!  I have to mention that my mother won't agree to anything like supplying a breakdown/earmarking of the support she's giving me (she's spent 6 years trying to ignore the fact I've had a serious girlfriend (who is an awesome person!) and then got married to her! :O  ) and refuses to countenance any direct support of, or even communication with, my wife! She would only provide a letter saying she supports me, and very possibly she'd refuse to mention our new house in Wales. But, I do understand why you suggested those things, and I'll do my best to get as close as I can. My father will probably provide his bank statements and a letter saying he'll act as a financial guarantor and would allow a freeze on our mortgage payments to him if necessary, all of which may at least help a bit. In the end, we'll probably have to just apply and cross our fingers!


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Selver said:


> Thanks again, Joppa!  I have to mention that my mother won't agree to anything like supplying a breakdown/earmarking of the support she's giving me (she's spent 6 years trying to ignore the fact I've had a serious girlfriend (who is an awesome person!) and then got married to her! :O  ) and refuses to countenance any direct support of, or even communication with, my wife! She would only provide a letter saying she supports me, and very possibly she'd refuse to mention our new house in Wales. But, I do understand why you suggested those things, and I'll do my best to get as close as I can. My father will probably provide his bank statements and a letter saying he'll act as a financial guarantor and would allow a freeze on our mortgage payments to him if necessary, all of which may at least help a bit. In the end, we'll probably have to just apply and cross our fingers!


Put all your available resources together - incomes, savings, financial support etc, and see whether you can reach a comfortable level of self-sufficiency. While it's impossible to put an absolute monetary value on it, something around £20,000 a year gross or £16,000 net (or £1330 a month), or equivalent, will give you a fighting chance of success.


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## Selver (Jun 5, 2011)

Joppa said:


> Put all your available resources together - incomes, savings, financial support etc, and see whether you can reach a comfortable level of self-sufficiency. While it's impossible to put an absolute monetary value on it, something around £20,000 a year gross or £16,000 net (or £1330 a month), or equivalent, will give you a fighting chance of success.



Great, thanks  We've just now worked out my wife's finances in full since January this year, and because she foresightedly worked her a*se off in the last 8 months or so, she can show she's on almost exactly £8,000 net for the last 6 months, plus we have combined savings of around £7,000. With my letters of financial support from my parents (such as they are), we'll probably go ahead.... (My wife is soooo going to be getting the nice holiday she very politely and pleasantly requested (...albeit at gunpoint! :behindsofa:  )  ).


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