Uk Spouse Visa

[lucythai]

I came to Thailand to teach in May 2008, like many didn't plan on staying for long but like many I am still here and four years have passed. The reason is I met someone shortly after arriving in Thailand. We have been living together for three years and will get married this year. We want to move to the UK and want to apply for his spouse visa. We just need a bit of advice. I have looked for the requirements and really think we can provide most things. We have enough documents to prove our relationship (photos, facebook messages, skype call and chat history, utility bills at the same address). He will be wanting to work as soon as we arrive in the Uk. So he will look for a job immediately as will I. I just for see we might have some problems with the financial side. Does one of us need to have a job before we go to the UK, we really want to leave Thailand at the same time and i don't really want to go a few months before him. I think we can prove that we are both looking for jobs but we won't have one at the time of applying. As far as the house is concerned we will be staying at my mums house, we will have our own room there, it is a four bedroom house and only my mum and sister living there. My mum is now retired and said she would write a letter of support to say we will stay there and she will support us if we need money and she will provide 6 month of bank statements. Would it be okay for my Mum to be a sponsor as well as me? My husband and I will submit all our bank statements too. My husband and i have separate accounts but I pay all my saved money into his account at the end of the month, we did this to show he has x amount of money when he goes to the uk. Is this okay or do they want to see it in a joint bank account or all our money completely separate. Also would I need to submit bank statements for my British account which I haven't used for four years. We are planning to apply for the visa in January and would really like to move to the Uk in April. By the time of applying we will have 200,000 baht (4000 pounds) in savings and by the time we would leave we aimed to have 350,000 baht. Would this be enough. Or do you think they would deny us on the basis that they don't think we have enough money. We don't really want to spend 900 quid on the application and they are just going to deny it.

So my questions are,

1. Does one of us need to have a job before we go to the UK?

2. Can my Mum be a sponsor as well as me?

3. Should we have a joint bank account?

4. If we need to have single bank accounts is it okay for me to save all the money in his account or do i need to save it under my name?

5.Do i need to submit bank statements from my unused British bank account or is my Thai account okay?

6. Will 200,000 baht be enough money to show that we have enough money so we will not need public funds. Please help.

[bobrussell]

At the moment there are no hard and fast income requirements for a settlement visa to be granted but you will need to show that your spouse can be supported without recourse to public funds.

Rather than go into depth I would suggest you check:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/525924-uk-visa-basics/

This is really helpful and informative. There is a lot of gossip about Teresa May introducing minimum income levels but these are still at the proposal stage and have not been implemented.

I suspect a watered down version may be introduced fairly soon.

A thread was opened on this:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/543241-future-uk-immigration-policy/

I suspect one of you will need a job. Anyone can sponsor, it will be a big problem getting a joint account until you both have a fixed address (and proof) in the UK. my wife had a bit of a struggle at first to get an account. Unused bank account, no problem giving details but would be of little benefit otherwise. Money in the bank helps but it does fly out of the account rapidly and the ECO knows this.

[lucythai]

Thank you very much for your reply. It was very useful. Do you think this new policy if it goes ahead will come in this year or next? I think i read somewhere that it potentially said June. We didnt really want to apply for his visa until December or January. i guess if they bring it in i will just have to go back to the Uk first and get a job.

[AngryParent]

Do pay attention to the housing requirement. That is a big stumbling block for me right now.

No pre-arranged house, that meets all the UKBA specifications, will result in no visa and a loss of 40,000 Baht.