Income Requirements

[DC1066]

I was told yesterday by a friend who has a Thai wife that when applying for a visa the agency use a specific amount/scale of income that is deemed sufficient to support your application.

For example, if you have 2 kids, you need £230 per week income.

Is this true and if so, does anyone know the requirements, or is this just another one of the many myths and rumours around visa applications ?

[Mossfinn]

AFAIAA, it is a myth.

You just need to fulfil the requirement of having enough money without having to recourse to public funds.

Good Luck

Moss

[Mossfinn]

For example, if you have 2 kids, you need £230 per week income.

What they may be referring to, is a scale of allowances that people are given in state benefits: For example, if you are unemployed and have two children you will get a certain amount of benefits from the Gov't, whether it is £230, I have no idea. However if the Gov't deems this is enough to live on and you can prove you can achieve this figure, it goes hand in hand that you cannot be refused for financial reasons.

However, the rules are suitably ambiguous and there are no set amounts of income laid down.

Good Luck

Moss

[DC1066]

Thanks Moss,

I figured that would be the case. If they start putting specific figures on requirements, it makes the system more open to manipulation rather than to use the merits of a particular case.

It would be nice though to be able to live on £230 per week with a Thai wife and her friends to feed.

On a completely different track, so should start a new thread I guess, but my wife has started a new full time job today and the employer has noticed that her visa runs out next month and has said that they'll need to see her new visa then. The issue is that I don't expect we'll have had a decision back from our ILR application by then.

Is there anything we can do to prevent a problem? I know the easy answer is just to explain the situation and tell them that the visa is automatically extended until a decision is reached, but in case they need anything more specific, is there anything we can do?

[the scouser]

When your wife makes her application, she should receive a letter from the UKBA that states that she can continue working until such a time as her case is decided. However, if the employer decides he doesn't like the look of the letter, there's not much more that can be done.

Scouse.

[DC1066]

Thanks Scouse,

I don't know what the current turnaround time is for an application, but hopefully she can get the right result before the end date of her current visa.

We're putting the application in the post tomorrow!!!