Uk Settlement Visa

[ksachdev]

Hi,

We are intending to apply for a UK settlement visa at the end of this month. We have done our due diligence and have everything that is required by the UK embassy. However, I am unsure about a couple of things.

1). With regards to accomodation, we will be staying at my husband's sister's house until we find our own place. She will provide a letter of invitation, mortgage agreements, etc. However, my main concern is that there were other occupants in her house ie 3 other brothers which does not satisfy the UK housing rules. Do we need proof of the number of occupants in her house? How do we do that? can the embassy check how many occupants are in the house ie find out that there are too many occupants in her house where we will be staying initially? Old electoral rolls show that there are other occupants in her house but she is only paying council tax for one person, that's her. So, does that mean that if the embassy does check, they are not gonna find out how many occupants are in the house?

2) We have both been living in thailand, my husband got a letter from an employer that he will be getting a job when he returns to the uk.we managed to get some money owed to us in the past which will be declared as our savings. but that will only come in two weeks before application? does it matter where the savings are coming from? would they question us? apart from our savings which would be roughly 3000 pounds, what about money for flights? Do they want to see a separate budget for that as well??

[Mercury]

Having gone through both the housing and financial issues myself recently, I can identify a few points.

If your husband's sister is claiming a reduction in her Council Tax as a single occupant, then she is already breaking the law if there are other occupants in that house. That is a serious issue. You need a bedroom solely for your occupation, which there may be, but if you fail to declare that other people live there, then you would be lying and on those grounds alone, your application could be rejected and it may prove impossible for you to get a settlement visa. You may even be barred for a number of years, for lying.

Your husband has no job. The letter from a prospective employer is only that, prospective, not guaranteed. It will carry weight but the wording will be very important.

You have no money. You have no savings. The only money you have or will have will be a mere £3000 of which there is roughly £700 required for a visa application, £100 for a TB certificate and approximately £1000 for airfares. That leaves just a little over £1000. The minimum income you need to prove, though there are no official minimums, is the level of Income Support which a family in your circumstances, not subject to immigration control would receive. If that figure was £100 and you had £1000 then you would only be able to support yourself for 10 weeks. On that basis, I would suggest your application may very well be refused. Of course, a guaranteed job, starting immediately would help but a prospective job offers no guarantee.

You have not explained how you support yourselves in Thailand. The immigration service will need to know what your husband and you earn now and may very well check up on this. You will be required to submit bank statements showing your income and savings. If you have neither, then again, I suspect your application will most probably fail.

Whilst not totally impossible, I think you have an uphill task to convince them to issue you with a visa as I think they will suspect you will have recourse to public funds.

My advice would be for your husband to go back to the UK alone and get this job. After a couple of month's salary payments have gone into his account and he has registered himself on the Electoral Roll, you can make the application. As applications seem to be taking around 8 weeks to reach a decision, you would need to be prepared to support yourselves in Thailand for another 3 months from now at a minimum. Use the £3000 to get him back to the UK and get this or another job and then your application would move from possible or probable failure to a very good chance of success, if all other aspects are in order.

[stament]

Just want to confirm is the OP Thai? I'm presuming so but just wanted to check as English is near perfect!

[7by7]

1) Accommodation with a third party, e.g. your sister-in-law, is perfectly acceptable under the rules. However, she must show that there is at least one room for the exclusive use of you and your husband. If, as you say, the house is already overcrowded then this will not be acceptable under the rules and you will be refused on overcrowding grounds.

Do they check? Sometimes, and if they do and find that you have provided false information in the application you will be refused.

As Mercury says, if you sister-in-law is claiming the single occupant discount on her council tax when in fact 4 people are living there, then she is breaking the law; but that's a separate issue.

2) The letter from your husband's new employer is fine; does it confirm that he will definitely have the job and what his salary will be? Even if not, it does show that he is actively seeking work, and he does not have to have a definite job to return to as long as you show that you can support yourselves until he finds work; or you do, remember that as you will be entering as a spouse you can work too.

Entry Clearance Officers are always suspicious of large amounts suddenly appearing in bank accounts shortly before an application, but if you explain where this money came from you should be fine.

The ECO is mainly concerned about your finances once you are in the UK; but if you do have a very limited budget, then they may wonder where the money for your flights is coming from.

Savings and financial support from a third party are both acceptable, but you will need to provide evidence that the savings exist, and if a third party is providing some financial support they will need to provide evidence of their ability to do so; bank statements, pay slips etc.

I suggest that you read Maintenance and accommodation, especially MAA14 Overcrowding.

[ksachdev]

Just to clarify the situation, I am actually Filipina, I've been living in thailand for many years as my parents own a small international school here. I have been working legally on and off in the past, selling properties. My lifetsyle is such that when I make money with huge commissions, I stop working and travel around. I have been doing this for a while but finally decided to settle down. At the moment, I am unemployed and studying a course ( teaching diploma) in university, with a student visa. I met my husband a few years ago while he was backpacking, after which he decided to stay in Thailand with me. As mentioned, we have both been unemployed, we are using both our savings to survive in Thailand. Some of our funds have been invested in my mum's school as well, although there is no contract on that. So, my mum had been giving us money as well every month as we had some money invested in her school. Bottomline is, we have received loads of money in the past, we have bank statements showing it, but there are no paperworks to prove where they are coming from. Does it matter to them where money is coming from? How can we prepare for applying given our circumstance? MY husband also registered a web design company in his name in the UK about 2 months, which is an online thing. He is planning to make that business work. Can we tell the embassy that my husband is looking to have his own business and give them a proposal or something like that??

Really need your help, need to find out exactly how we can prepare for this. I could get more money as savings, it would not be a problem but showing where it will be coming from is the issue. He does not want to go back to the UK as he wants to stay here with me.

[stament]

Just to clarify the situation, I am actually Filipina, I've been living in thailand for many years as my parents own a small international school here. I have been working legally on and off in the past, selling properties. My lifetsyle is such that when I make money with huge commissions, I stop working and travel around. I have been doing this for a while but finally decided to settle down. At the moment, I am unemployed and studying a course ( teaching diploma) in university, with a student visa. I met my husband a few years ago while he was backpacking, after which he decided to stay in Thailand with me. As mentioned, we have both been unemployed, we are using both our savings to survive in Thailand. Some of our funds have been invested in my mum's school as well, although there is no contract on that. So, my mum had been giving us money as well every month as we had some money invested in her school. Bottomline is, we have received loads of money in the past, we have bank statements showing it, but there are no paperworks to prove where they are coming from. Does it matter to them where money is coming from? How can we prepare for applying given our circumstance? MY husband also registered a web design company in his name in the UK about 2 months, which is an online thing. He is planning to make that business work. Can we tell the embassy that my husband is looking to have his own business and give them a proposal or something like that??

Really need your help, need to find out exactly how we can prepare for this. I could get more money as savings, it would not be a problem but showing where it will be coming from is the issue. He does not want to go back to the UK as he wants to stay here with me.

Ah that explains why you're English is so good!

I don't know much about these things but it could prove a problem for you if you can't prove where all these large amounts of cash come from. Is there not a bank transfer or something or were they purely cash deposits? Surely if you were paid commission it wouldn't have all been cash? Large cash deposits often raise eyebrows as you can imagine.

Don't you have any assets in your name? Where are the investments - are there any in other things apart from your mother's school that you could show? Looks like you're going to struggle to be perfectly honest. I suggest you do as another poster said - your husband goes back gets a job in the U.K. rents a place and saves some money. He can then show he's got a job with regular income.

See what others think, but I think you might struggle.

[Thongkorn]

It asks on your settlement visa form , how many people stay there.

[bangkockney]

Does your husband have any family members who can act as your sponsor? Someone with fixed deposit savings, any type of investments, regular income?

You do need to submit 3 months bank statements, so lack of regular funds may be a problem. Unless of course those bank statements show a healthy commission earned within the period - I assume there's paperwork for it, as you said you've been working legally on and off.....

[7by7]

Does your husband have any family members who can act as your sponsor?

Your husband will be your sponsor, SET3.2 What is the definition of a sponsor? "The sponsor is the person to whom the applicant is married."

You may find the rest of Settlement; Spouse helpful.

However, as I said to you before, financial support from a third party is acceptable; anyone offering such support must provide evidence of their ability to do so.

You and your husband should, as said, provide at least three months evidence of you finances in the form of bank statements/ bank books. If these show large and/or regular deposits, then you should provide evidence of where this money came from. If you do not have such evidence then you should provide an explanation.

In your first post you said

my husband got a letter from an employer that he will be getting a job when he returns to the uk

yet in your second you say

MY husband also registered a web design company in his name in the UK about 2 months, which is an online thing. He is planning to make that business work. Can we tell the embassy that my husband is looking to have his own business and give them a proposal or something like that??

These two conflict with each other, and inconsistencies in an application are bound to cause problems, even a refusal.

If he has a definite job offer in the UK, I would stick with that.

However, from what you have said your main problem is going to be accommodation. Your sister-in-law's house, from what you have said, is already overcrowded; is there anyone else that can offer you accommodation?