Hi Guys,

I have been doing lots of research on a settlement visa for my wife so we can move to the UK. Before I go on, I just want to explain that my wife is Cambodian, we have been married for over 10 years, we have 3 kids which all have British citizenship. I am British too.

My question is about meeting the financial threshold, as our kids are British then we need to be earning 18,600 quid per year. I do not have the liquid cash to put in the bank so will go down the earning route.

Anyway, my question is:

If I started to pay tax and NI contributions in the UK for my current and ongoing self employed earnings in Cambodia then would this eventually be able to be used as meeting the financial threshold required? The businesses would still be running in Cambodia while we were living in the UK, and a lot of the work I do is actually online. And, they would be paying us ongoing income.

I am hoping this is possible to avoid going to live in the UK and set up another business in the UK and wait until that business earns money. I also do not want to be away from my wife/kids for a minimum of 15 months.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

I think this might be difficult for you. I'm not sure how you are going to pay UK tax and NI contributions on income that you are earning overseas, unless you have a UK registered business, or a UK - based employer ? Presumably you don't pay UK tax now ?

I think you have a couple of alternatives. As you have mentioned, return to UK and start a business, pay tax, etc. Your wife could be with you in UK for some of the time, if she can qualify for a visit visa.

Return to UK and take a salaried job. You could possibly qualify in 6 months. Again, your wife might qualify for a visit visa, so she could be with you for 6 months. After the getting a settlement visa for your wife, you can then start your own business again.

There is nothing to stop you qualifying as a person in self-employment overseas, as long as you can provide similar evidence to that required by a UK - based self-employed person. Obviously it won't be exactly the same evidence that you would provide if you were in the UK, but if you can provide a "reasonable equivalent" of that evidence, then you couuld qualify ( you must also meet the 18,600 GBP a year threshold, of course), pay tax in Thailand, etc.

Tony M