UK Spouse Visa Application - Advice Needed

[djdigman]

Dear all,

Firstly the obligatory thanks for all the advice & help my partner & I have recieved from this forum over the past few years. It has certainly helped us and hopefully will continue to do so! Many thanks.

I married my Thai partner of over 5 years just a few weeks ago in her native Phang Nga. It was the legal part of the overall wedding process - i.e visiting the Amphur office with my British Consulate affirmation, translation and certification of translation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It all went smoothly and according to plan. My partner also legally changed her surname and obtained a new Thai ID card accordingly..so far so good.

We are having a ceremony in Phang Nga in November while my parents are over on holiday, and will also be joined by friends and hopefully some other family making the trip over from the UK.

A brief history; we met in 2010 when I first came over to Thailand and ended up like so many others, doing a TEFL cert. & teaching English for a few years. For financial and career reasons, I returned to London in 2012 to continue working in the Contruction industry, in a field which I had studied at University. I returned to Thailand in December 2014. During the time I was in England, my partner came over twice (Christmas 2012 & Christmas 2013) for two and four weeks respectively as a general visitor for which we had to go through all the visa application process. The intial application we submitted for the 2012 visit was rejected (which at that time was pretty heartbreaking) due to lack of info etc. but we managed to get it right after that. Two successful visits were made, all in accordance with the terms of the visa etc. Hopefully this stands us in good stead.

I came back to Thailand in December 2014 as I couldn't face being away from my girlfriend any longer. We also knew we planned to get married this year. Shortly after, we made the decision that we would like to move permantently to England in 2015. We've weighed up the pro's and con's and I think we will both benefit from this decision in the long run.

We will be submitting a Spouse Visa Application at the beginning of 2016 with the view for my wife to come over in the middle part of the year. Having submitted applications previously and being a bit of an internet research geek, I'm confident we can put together the necessary information as part of the application. With the cost of it, I certainly really don't want to be doing it twice!

The problem I have is with regards effectively presenting the paper trail of finances:

I'm currently living in Thailand unemployed. I know that I will have to go back to the UK in advance of my wife to get a job, so that I can present the minimum financial requirements. I'm very confident I can get a job reasonably quickly when I get back, significantly in excess of the minimum amount required per year. The question however is; How many months of working (pay slips, bank statements etc) will I need before we submit the application. The more I read, the more I suspect it is going to have to be around 6 months - for obvious reasons we don't really want to be seperate for that long. I wonder if anyone else has been in the situation? How best to approach it?

With regards to a place to stay, my parents will be offering up a letter of invitation should that be required although another reason for returning is to buy a place to call home. I will be looking almost imediately for somewhere to live, but again, I guess a mortgage will be dependent on the same kind of financial guarantee.

Any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated.

I know exactly how it feels to experience an application rejection and it is not at all nice - would dearly love to avoid it again.

Thank you in advance.

[7by7]

Accommodation can be in your own home, rented or owned, or with relatives or friends.

If you have bought or rented your own home by the time your wife applies then provide evidence of this; a mortgage statement or rental agreement should suffice.

If you will be staying with your parents, even if only until you have your own property, then they should write a letter of invitation in which they briefly describe the property and who else lives there to show that there is at least one room available for the exclusive use of you and your wife. Proof of ownership, such as a mortgage statement or copy of the deeds, or if they rent a letter from their landlord agreeing to you living there whilst not essential can help.

The financial requirement is not so easy!.

Basically, as you are currently living in Thailand and unemployed you will need to return to the UK and take up employment with a gross salary of at least £18,600 p.a. and be in that job for at least 6 months before your wife can apply for settlement (well, she can apply, but it will be refused!).

Unless you have at least £62,500 in cash savings and can meet the requirement using that.

Your wife can, of course, apply for a visit visa to be in the UK with you during that time, but will have to return to Thailand to submit her settlement application. That she has previously had UK visit visas and complied with the terms of same will help here, but you and she will need to satisfy the ECO in this application that she will return to Thailand to apply for settlement and does not intend to try and use this visit visa to by pass the settlement rules and live in the UK illegally.

For more information, including the required evidence, see:

Apply to join family living permanently in the UK

Appendix FM Section 1.7 Financial Requirement

Appendix FM-SE Family members - specified evidence