Tier 1 Dependant Visa

Hello everyone,

I have actually been researching this for a while and now it's just doing my head in! I was wondering if someone had any thoughts on this :

I am on a Tier 1 General visa (Valid till December 2015 - I am up for ILR in July 2015). I got married to Cristina, an American citizen in April and she has visited me a couple of times since then on her American passport. I intend to move to the US next year, but in the meantime I would like to apply for her Tier 1 Dependent visa. Now I have been on a Tier 1 visa since July 2011. What is the correct amount of maintenance funds that I need to show for her application? I am assuming that she will need to apply for her visa from the US since she cannot switch her visa categories (that pretty much is tantamount to fraud anyway and I am keen to avoid that).

From the policy guidance I am thinking that she needs to show £630 for herself .. but do I need to show maintenance funds for myself as well? So is it £945 + £630 (£1575 total) or would just £630 suffice since I already have my Tier 1 visa? I have had conflicting advise from my colleagues and I know it's better to err on the side of caution with these things, it's just that I had £1500 in my savings account for the past 3 months and I would have to wait another 3 months to be able to show the required £1575 and I would very much like to apply for her visa as soon as possible. I made the error of presuming £630 would be enough and I would keep the rest for her application fees which is why I fell a bit short ( I had a lot of wedding and post-wedding expenses!).

Any advice would be very much appreciated. I have tried calling the HO but I have always been put on hold and been ignored (atleast the 3 times I attempted to call).

Thank you again

Alex