rasg

When do you plan on applying? I think you will find if It's after 30th May 2019 you will need the 2018/2019 accounts.

5 hours ago, FracturedRabbit said:

The difference is that the documents are now scanned (for transmission to India), and VFS have decided to group them for scanning in a manner that bears no relationship to the checklist categories included in the UK government visa application online form. Omnishambles!

So the criteria haven’t changed for the visa itself then?

I'd be interested in seeing the new checklist.

As far as I am aware nothing much has changed with a visit visa. What were the differences?

Have you checked your figures for your salary for 2019? You will need the latest accounts which from what you have said would be May 2019 and not 2018?

I'm not familiar with the workings of a limited company in the way I am with being self employed but I do know to use your wife's salary, her money as part of the finances for the visa, it does need to be banked into an account controlled by her or you and her as a joint account. I found about that one a few weeks ago when my wife applied for FLR. If she is paid in cash and doesn’t bank it, it can be major problem.

It took me a while to find out that these guidelines exist at all as nothing is mentioned on the new Internet application form. My recommendation is that you take a look at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-fm-se-family-members-specified-evidence

I originally sent the guidelines to my accountant and asked him to sort it out for my wife's settlement visa and her first FLR.

I have always supplied photos apart from my wife's recent second FLR application. It seemed crazy that photos weren't needed around the time my wife applied for her settlement visa and we’d just got married. A wedding photo of 50+ people seemed like a good thing to add imho. I just put 9 images up on 3 or 4 A4 sheets with the location and date under each photo.

3 minutes ago, brent c said:

So you gentleman do not think I should contact the embassy and attempt to discuss the case of getting a visa ?

I am thinking my previous background and history with the Department of the Treasury might help them see the light.

And I know she must meet the merits on her own.

I honestly think using the agency is what did her in.  But I am unsure since no feedback is ever given.

I don't suppose it can do any harm if you can get to speak to the right person or department.

11 hours ago, darren1971 said:

Rasg in one statement is saying people on less than 18.6k cant afford to meet and bring Thai wifes here and then he's saying he is on less than 18.6k but still lives here with his wife.... and then on other forums he's asking how to add her wages to his ILR because he doesn't meet the requirement on his own. By his own admission, he can't afford to live here with his wife

My wife is not on ILR and I wasn't specifically asking about my wife. Just remember you probably wouldn’t have got that first visa for your then girlfriend without my help. I spent a long time helping you on that, rewriting your sponsor letter that started as a total mess. You also upset many of the good people on this forum and elsewhere after asking for their help for your next visa and then telling them they were wrong.

2 hours ago, darren1971 said:

Because you are basing your assumptions on your own experience, do you know what it costs to live in Manchester? (£635/month excluding rent). Nurses in Manchester are broke then and how about Cardiff, what about Birmingham... You would certainly struggle in Bath but not in Bristol 10 miles away. What if its a young person still living at home, most people are staying in their parents house longer now, and what about people who have paid off their mortgage and have opted to work part time now. You may well be broke on £18.6K but that is not a very scientific approach

No I'm not. I have family all over the place. I am not broke nor am I on £18.6k and my mortgage is less than £200 a month. As Duffman pointed out, 40 hours on the new minimum wage of £8.21 an hour is over £17k. I didn't factor a car into my list of things to pay for each month. I couldn’t be without one. The 18.6k is about right imho opinion and I wouldn't be surprised to see that figure go up.

18 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

Well that's strange RASG isn't it? You made a hobby out of disagreeing with me on T-UK, I wouldn't expect anything less from you here.

Why would I change my view from one forum to another? I have no idea who you are. Why would I when you must be using a different name on here? We will simply have to agree to disagree. Simples.

25 minutes ago, 7by7 said:

Sorry, but if her first FLR is dated as beginning on 25th October 2016 then that is the date her 60 months starts. 

 

I assume that you are still waiting for the decision on the second one, but provided she submitted the application no earlier than 28 days before 26th April 2019 that should run for 30 months from that date*.

 

Which means, if my calculations are correct, that the earliest she can apply for ILR is 29th September 2021; i.e. 28 days before 25th October 2021.

 

*Please let us know when she receives her FLR if I'm correct, as I'm sure it will be very helpful for others.

Yes. We only went last Thursday so sometime to wait.

I'm happy to update when we have a decision etc.

14 minutes ago, darren1971 said:

ummm so how do 47% of the working population living on salaries/wages less than £18,600 survive

You tell me. I simply have no idea. One thing I do know is that they wouldn’t be bringing a Thai girlfriend back to the UK as a wife.

https://www.ukmarriagevisa.com/new-ways-to-meet-the-financial-requirements-as-of-10-august-2017.html

2 minutes ago, 7by7 said:

But if someone does have an income below £18600 pa and can afford all that; why should that person be denied the right to live in the UK with their partner?

 

There are ways and means. I was earning less that the equivalent amount in 2000, but thanks to my father's support, not least in providing accommodation for us for a very low rent, we met the adequate maintenance test.

 

Since 2012, that is no longer an option

I'm not suggesting that there are not.

I found this when I was putting my wife's FLR together a couple of weeks ago. I can't find a Government source but it's on this link below:

https://www.ukmarriagevisa.com/new-ways-to-meet-the-financial-requirements-as-of-10-august-2017.html

25 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

That I don't agree with.

 

Income, inclusive of benefits should be counted.

 

Expenses should be evidenced and deducted, UKVI should undertake credit checks etc.

 

The net figure should then satisfy the minimum requirement set by UKVI.

A single man on a salary of exactly £18,600 pa will take home around £312 a week or £1348 a month.

Most will be paying 50% or more of that in rent or mortgage. Less council tax. Food, gas, electric, water, mobile, internet etc etc. The list goes on and on. Out of that, flights to Thailand/holidays.

How on earth does somebody in this position afford upwards of £10k over five years (more with travel to and from BKK, translations, passports etc) to bring their girlfriend back to the UK to live?

If you did an outgoings/incomings check, nobody would be getting visas at all!

If anything £18,600 is far too low.

16 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

And under the minimum income rules directors of limited companies are treated much the same as the self employed so there's no benefit in having a limited company.

 

One of the main problems with the minimum income requirement is that it takes no account of living costs or disposable income. A person on £18,600 per year (the requirement with no kids) might very well have lower living costs and a higher disposable income than someone on say £25,000 per year.

 

The income minimum requirement was brought in purely to make the government look as if it was doing something about the UK's immigration problems - populism. There was no evidence that Non EU migrants were costing the country money by claiming benefits or otherwise - it was simply propaganda.  The fact is that EU migrants are the ones more likley to cost taxpayer's money and in any case, non EU migration has actually increased since the introduction of the minimum income requirement.

 

Under the old system you simply had to show that you had sufficient funds/income to support your partner when they came to live in the UK. Granted, there wasn't a lot of checking done but it did at least go some way towards identifying whether or not you could actually afford to support your partner rather than simply stipulating a minimum income which may mean nothing. It is perfectly possible that someone earning £18,600 is spending £18,599 already but there is no check on that.

I don't agree with you.

There hasn't been much benefit in having a limited company for a long time. If you want to lease a property nowadays, a landlord will generally want the lease in the directors names not the company.

I think they have the £18,600 about right and even then, with the cost of the visas, it's a very tight squeeze for anybody if that is their sole income. You've said yourself, pre 2012, that there wasn't a lot of checking done. How many are working for cash only? I know quite a few. Contributing a minimal amount to the government coffers so the taxpayer has to foot the bill.

Have you taken flights and stayed in hotels together? If you have the bookings they should be included too.

2 hours ago, globalThailand said:

Would defer to 7by7 but seems to me as she was lawfully residing in the UK the fiance visa would count.... I would be surprised if they require 2 x 30 month FLR visas to get you to 5 years and you had to apply on the very last day of the second visa 

I am pretty certain that the fiancée doesn't count. It's the seven weeks that each visa takes that I'm no clear on.

A question please, 7by7.

My wife's Settlement (fiancée) visa ran from 8th March 2016 to 8th September 2016. She entered the UK on the 12th March 2016. Her first FLR ran from 25th October 2016 to the 26th April 2019. Does the time from 8th September to 25th October 2016 count towards her 60 months for ILR please? 

It doesn’t work like that. You need to apply for FLR a day or so before the current visa expires. My wife's expired on the 26th April and I paid the IHS fee and application on the 25th. You can apply up to 28 days before it expires but you need to be careful that your wife has lived in the UK for more than 60 months when she gets to ILR.

It typically takes around 7 weeks.

All of the application is digital now and all information is entered online. After paying the visas and submitting the application you book an appointment and attend one of the UKVCAS centres dotted around the country for your wife to supply biometrics and have the centre scan your documents. You can scan them and upload yourself before attending the UKVCAS centre. All they then do is double check that you have uploaded the required documents. Then sit back and wait. I did the scanning myself as I already had quite a bit of the documentation scanned already and I don't trust stack scanners. I had the opportunity to check, check and check again to make sure that everything had been done correctly. For the princely sum of £800 extra you can have the decision in 24 hours and they have a host of extras that you can pay for to relieve you of even more cash.

That is true. The private companies are way overcharging for many of the extras but they have a captive audience.

Not what I was saying at all. I've said this before but if you spent the same amount of time and energy just getting on with your girlfriend's visas instead of whining about the system, maybe you would have submitted her settlement visa correctly?

Nobody said the system is perfect. A lot of it sucks but it's the system we have.

5 minutes ago, Tony M said:

VFS informed me that they are currently (or until recently) scanning settlement applications at no charge, but visit application scanning is 460 THB.

Yes, you can do it yourself, but the system is not good. It is slow, and there is a limit on the size of files that you can upload. Large pdf files sometimes have to be reduced to smaller files to be uploaded. Again, VFS seem to be steering applicants towards paying for their scanning services.

Thank you for that. There is a limit of 6 MB on file sizes to UKVCAS. Probably something similar for VFS. A few of my files were quite a bit bigger. I have a very old version of Adobe Acrobat which would have done the job but downloaded a 7 day trial of the latest version from the Adobe website and optimised the file sizes in the app. It's not difficult.  

We are considering it in a few years time. Or possibly 6 months here and 6 months in Thailand. I was merely pointing out that Thailand is not easy for a farang to settle in Thailand in the way that she thinks it might be despite being married. Most countries have rules. Some more onerous than others. 

As I mentioned elsewhere, do it yourself and it's free.

15 minutes ago, darren1971 said:

Regardless you can't justify a bad system on the fact there are other bad systems.

No system is perfect. When my wife was questioning the visa fees a few weeks ago, she genuinely thought that we could move to Thailand and that would be it. Similar to most people in the UK who have no idea of the costs or the hoops we have to jump through, she had no idea that me moving to Thailand with her would not be simple.

10 hours ago, laislica said:

You mention that the elderly may be exempt but very difficult and expensive to get the necessary permission.

I find this to be discriminating and far from just.

It might be but the elderly are unlikely to be working or paying into the system and health wise they are also likely to need treatment that youngsters won't need. I understand your sentiments but I can see it from a government point of view too.

https://edmansco.com/ukvi-new-online-application-ukvcas/