Eligible for Family Visitor visa??

Hello

I am am wanting to sponsor my brother in law (wife's brother) to visit us in the UK for a period of 4-6 weeks.
I am unsure if I fall into the eligibility category as I dont fall into any of the categories stated by the UKBA website:

You must be able to show that you’re visiting one of the following family members in the UK:

spouse or civil partner
children
parents or siblings
grandparents or grandchildren
your spouse’s or civil partner’s siblings or parents
your child’s spouse or civil partner
step parents, step children or step siblings
a person you’ve been living with in a long-term relationship, as if you were married or in a civil partnership, for at least 2 years before the day you apply

It seems odd that the applicant (my BIL) is eligible if he is visiting his wife's siblings (i.e. his Brother/sister in law) but there is nothing explicit about the applicant visiting his brothers/sisters spouse!!

A bit of background...I am a British Citizen and my wife (applicant sister) is settled here on a spouse visa. She has been settled in the UK for 5 years but is a homemaker so she cant sponsor her brother directly.

Is anyone able to advise??

Also, when I send evidence of my financial earnings, do I need to send 6 months payslips PLUS a statements of balance from my bank or will the payslips on their own suffice?? How much money is sufficient in my account to show that I am able to sponsor him? I earn £25,000 PA and was thinking of showing additional funds of £2000 in savings to fund his trip.

My BIL has travelled to Europe on two occasions and is a genuine traveller. He is married with 3 children and works as a self employed photographer. I am worried that the entry clearance officers will reject the application as I have heard they are quite strict with lone male travellers applying from Pakistan.

Any advice is much appreciated!!!

Just because you're the sponsor - doesn't mean he is visiting you. He's visiting you and your wife (his sister) right? so he can apply for a family visitor visa.

The £2000 should be sufficient for 4-6 weeks providing you aren't covering flight costs too.

However, keep in mind that a tourist visa is weighed less on who is paying, but more on the applicant's situation. If he has a job, a family, property, money etc all back in Pakistan - it'll weigh much more in favour for him than if he's unemployed, all his family have moved away, he's living in a rented place and he's broke and he is planning a trip.

Given his self employment - he'll need to prove all that income to UKBA - and the best route for him doing that will be tax returns etc - because (of course) he has declared that income right?

Yes he is my wife's brother,thanks for clearing that. I was worried about falling out of the eligibility criterion.

He has all his business tax returns and evidence of links to his home country from the last time he applied for a Schengen visa. He has started to put together his documentation for this application and I am confident that the paperwork is sufficient from his side.

One of his hobbies is transport photography so I am planning on taking him to some heritage railway museums. He is stating this as a reason to visit on his application but do we need to attach evidence of hotel bookings etc?

No - not if he's staying with you - but if he's called for interview it might be sensible for him to know a) which ones, b) where, c) what's there and why it's interesting etc.

Edit: just as a thought - you may need to be prepared for some curiosity around this ... a self employed photographer who is coming to indulge a hobby of photography .... if I was an ECO and it was mentioned to me - I might push a bit on 'and no one's paying you ... and you're not going to sell them in the UK etc'.

But then I don't see why you'd even mention this - just say he's coming to visit you.

Dear all,

I need some advice please.

How does the 180 days rule work for family visitor visa? does it mean not more than 180 days in a calendar year?

If so, can someone stay for 180 days in one year (for example June to November) , go back to home country and come back within a few days at the beginning of new calendar year and again stay here for 180 days?

Or should there be some minimum gap between the two visits?

Please could you advise?
Thank you in advance for your help.
Regards
Madhura

The 180 day rule isn't a rule buta previous piece of guidance for the border agent. We are now left witha very discretionary piece of guidance that says someone should not appear to be living in the UK.

But you should probably continue to use 180 days as a rule of thumb.

There is no minimum gap between visits but we come back to the 'appearing to reside in the UK' and if someone had been here for 6 months, left fora month and then came back for another 6 ... i would say the are living here.