Rent, Buy or Friend's House For Settlement Visa Application

[GeorgeCross]

Hi,

 

i have been living in Thailand for 15 years and have been married to a Thai national for the last 7 years. we have 2 young sons, british by descent, both with UK passports. We are planning to relocate to the UK in the next 6 months and we meet the financial requirements and have all the other documents we need.

 

our problem is we currently do not have anything in the UK to put down under the accommodation section.  Friends of the family have generously offered to sponsor accommodation for us but i am worried it will prejudice our application as i will be sponsoring the financial section whilst they will be sponsoring the accommodation section, plus they are not direct family members and would be living there as well (though they easily have the space). this is just for the application process for as soon as we arrive we will rent a house asap whilst looking for a house to buy.

 

would there actually be problems for us if we used our friends accommodation on the application? reading the Guardian front page today i'm dreading ending up in the 'complicated' application bucket and facing months and months of additional processing time..

 

would it be a better option to go back to the UK and buy (or rent) a house now?

 

if i did rent would a 6 month lease suffice?

 

thanks,

 

George

 

 

[roath]

I presume that by sponsoring accommodation you mean that you can stay with your friends rather than they will pay for accommodation for you?

 

If that assumption is correct, I would suggest that you have them provide you with a letter confirming that you can stay with them for x period of time (and whether free or whether you are renting) and confirm how many rooms they have (the accommodation will need to satisfy local authority rules so you can't all stay in the same room, but children of the same sex can share a room).

 

If you were paying rent, you would presumably be their lodgers (which you would be if living under the same roof and not in separate accommodation) but you should check the guidance rules as to what is required as if there are any restrictions on requirements, then they will invariably be stated in guidance notes

 

You are likely to be required to provide details of the accommodation including how many rooms in the property, how many are available for you and your family, cooking and living arrangements and even sizes of the rooms (to ensure compliance with local authority regulations regarding over-crowding) so be prepared for that (and again, this should all be covered in the guidance notes)

 

Staying with family (typically the parents) is actually very common and there are no problems provided that the space requirements are met (so realistically, you would need two rooms for yourself and your wife and one for your kids). 

 

 

[7by7]

You need to show that there will be adequate accommodation for you once in the UK. Para E-ECP.3.4 of the rules states that you should occupy this accommodation exclusively; but what that means is that you can live in a shared household, provided you have at least one room for your exclusive use.

 

The household can belong to a relative or friend, and the owner should wrote a letter confirming that you can live there together with a brief description of the property and who else lives there to show that there is room for you.

 

For more, see the relevant paragraphs of the guidance.

Quote

10. MAA10 Legally owned or exclusively occupied

The ECO should consider the basis of the availability and security of tenure of the accommodation. Factors to be taken into account will include:

the ownership of the property and/or the duration of a lease

whether any lease enables the tenant to sublet to the couple or take them in as lodgers.

If the accommodation is not owned by the couple (or one of them), the Rules require that there be adequate accommodation which is for their exclusive use. This need not be as elaborate as a self-contained flat. It is acceptable for a couple to live in an existing household, for example, that of a parent, uncle, aunt, sibling or friend, as long as they have at least a bedroom for their exclusive use.

 

 

[GeorgeCross]

awesome responses, thanks for the help & links :)