Financial Sponsorship - Uk Family Visit Visa

[MartinL]

I'm in the process of preparing the documents for my wifes second Family V.V. application, her first having been rejected early this year.

In the last application, we said we would be funding the visit jointly, from my bank account & from hers.

One reason for the rejection of the application was that my wife's bank account entries didn't tally with the salary she claimed to earn - there are deductions at source for (among others) her sons' University fees repayment and her mortgage, so the amount credited to her account was far less than claimed. Other reasons for rejection were tied to this so this is the aspect we need to resolve.

We're working on this in that we're trying to get her employer - she's a Government school teacher - to give her a monthly payslip of the type I'd expect in UK, showing deductions, which she doesn't get at the moment. It's a bit of a struggle to get what we need from them so I'm trying another approach, just in case they don't play ball.

So my question is this; if I were to be SOLE SPONSOR for her visit, would we still need to provide details of her income and bank account? My interpretation of the required documents list (maybe incorrectly interpreted) is that they require her financial details even if she is not paying for the visit. Which brings us back to getting information from the school office.

Many thanks for any opinions, experiences or advice you can offer.

Reason for edit - add more info.

Edited July 6, 2010 by MartinL

[theoldgit]

I think they would still want to see the details of her income or at least an indication of how she supports herself in Thailand, I would be providing an explanation of the discrepancy, backed up with evidence, in her covering letter.

As it was for a family visit your wife would have had a right of appeal, did you consider that? that would have been the time to point out the differing figures.

I'm assuming you and your wife live together in Thailand.

[MartinL]

Thanks OG.

Yes, we do live together in Thailand.

We had only a very small window of time in which to go on our visit - the school Songkran holiday period - so appealing the decision would have been pointless since it takes many months. At the time, I considered an ECM review might not be fast enough for us, although I've since learned that these reviews can, in fact, be pretty rapid.

My proposed covering letter will address the original reasons for rejection and I'll attempt to prove her employment status over the past 25+ years using teachers licences, teachers ID card, long-service awards etc. but still fear we'll be tripped-up by lack of information re. her salary.

[ThaiVisaExpress]

You must cover the previous refusal.

[Mercury]

If you say she earns 40k but only 25k goes into her account each month, then you are going to have to address that, with paperwork, not merely words, as not to do so would mean you cannot substantiate your claims and is tantamount to lying.

She must have some documentation as she would have needed this to prove to the bank her earnings to get the mortgage.

[sumrit]

So my question is this; if I were to be SOLE SPONSOR for her visit, would we still need to provide details of her income and bank account? My interpretation of the required documents list (maybe incorrectly interpreted) is that they require her financial details even if she is not paying for the visit. Which brings us back to getting information from the school office.

When we lived in Thailand my wife had three visit visas for the UK. I was sole sponsor each time and only ever supplied bank account details of (some of) my bank accounts to show that I had more than sufficient funds available for each trip. My wife did have money in her own account but as this wasn't needed to fund any part of the trip we never offered, and were never asked, for any information on it.

[Arkady]

A good tip for applying for UK visas is to pay attention to the question asking for "net salary" of the applicant. Previously they just asked for "salary" but now they want the net salary, so they can check that the exact amount stated is going into the bank account every month. Obviously deductions can vary from month to month but if the variance is not much they will probably not query it but, since the form does ask for net salary, they are quite right to query monthly payments that represent a shortfall of more than 40% of the claimed amount. Thai employers are legally obliged to provide payslips showing deductions. If a government employer insists on violating this very basic and easy to comply with legal provision, I would suggest threatening to take them to the Administrative Court. Perhaps being the sole sponsor would be the answer in the OP's case but I suspect it would also have been OK, if the net salary on the application form had been entered correctly the first time.

[Thongkorn]

When I applied for my wife to come to England on a settlement visa ,She had very little in the bank about 3500baht, Also She had been doing casual jobs, She had no pay slips, the only thing she had was a bank book showing her wages had been going in the bank for at least 6 years. she was made redundant, and that's why she took any work available. Its not about how much she had in the Bank its showing a banking history that counts. They know that some Thai people get paid very little and have to live they cannot save a lot.