India to UK desperate to be wife

We desperately need some advice on visa's. Tom and I have been living together in India for the last five months and will be getting married this month. Tom's a UK citizen and I am an Indian, and we need to know how I can go and live with him in the UK.

Issues :
Visa requires 6 months payslips, rental agreement and bank statements -

* Tom has been living in India for the last six months and will have to start up again when he goes to the UK in November. Has no supporting evidence for income or accomodation until he returns.
* Tom hasn't been working for the past year in the UK, will it affect the visa?
* Tom will be starting a new rental agreement when he returns to the UK. How will that affect the application?

Please provide some suggestions.

Alternatively, the questions we're asking ourselves now are:

* Will an offer or a job contract be sufficient evidence for income, or will I need X amount of payslips?
* Is it possible for a family/friend to sponsor me in addition to my husband?
* Is it possible to make the application and then join him on something like a tourist visa while we await the lengthy decision making process?
* Is it possible for me to join Tom initially on a different visa so we are not apart for too long, build the needed history to support settlement application, leave the country, and then apply for settlement with this foundational history?

Our criteria for solutions is that we're not apart for too long and naturally that we don't need lots of money.

Dee and Tom

No third party support allowed apart from accom., and a visit visa is unlikely to be granted with a husband in the UK.

Best if he establishes himself in the UK again first and you follow when he can sponsor you.

I agree with Wanderer that it would not be a good idea for you to apply for a visitor visa. If you are denied one, it might hurt your chances of a fiancé/spouse visa later on.

Best option would be for Tom to return to the UK, get himself established, build that 6 month paper trail and then apply for a visa. It would also help your case (and I know this from personal experience), if you (Dee) have an employment history in India during this time. Even though you might be Tom's dependent in the UK, it would help your case in India if you have your own source of income in India. So, to reply to your questions [replies in bold]

* Tom has been living in India for the last six months and will have to start up again when he goes to the UK in November. Has no supporting evidence for income or accomodation until he returns. - Return asap
* Tom hasn't been working for the past year in the UK, will it affect the visa? - Yes, 6 month worth of Paper trail needed
* Tom will be starting a new rental agreement when he returns to the UK. How will that affect the application? Yes, Contributing towards the 6 month paper trail
* Will an offer or a job contract be sufficient evidence for income, or will I need X amount of payslips? - Payslips are more important than job contract. Job contract alone will Not suffice
* Is it possible for a family/friend to sponsor me in addition to my husband? - No
* Is it possible to make the application and then join him on something like a tourist visa while we await the lengthy decision making process? - Read above
* Is it possible for me to join Tom initially on a different visa so we are not apart for too long, build the needed history to support settlement application, leave the country, and then apply for settlement with this foundational history? Read above

[quote="krazydude"]
* Will an offer or a job contract be sufficient evidence for income, or will I need X amount of payslips? - Payslips are more important than job contract. Job contract alone will Not suffice
quote]

That advice is misleading.
See this from the guidance to Entry Clearance Officers:-

"Under the Rules a person being admitted as a spouse / civil partner / unmarried or same-sex partner must have adequate maintenance and accommodation for both parties and any dependants without recourse to public funds in accommodation which they own or occupy exclusively

Points to consider:


It is the ability of the couple together to meet the requirements, which the ECO will need to take into account.
The applicant should be able to produce reasonably firm plans for the foreseeable future.
Have they some idea of the employment which they will be seeking (if not already arranged) or any other way in which they will be able to maintain themselves?If members of the couple’s families in the UK offer to maintain the couple adequately until they can do so from their own resources, such an arrangement would not satisfy the Rules, which require the couple to maintain themselves. Nevertheless, it may be appropriate in certain circumstances to exercise discretion where it is clear that such an arrangement will be for a limited period and that the couple will be in a position to maintain themselves shortly after the applicant’s arrival in the UK.
Have adequate arrangements for the couple’s accommodation for the foreseeable future been made?"

A firm job offer with a specified salary would undoubtedly meet the criterion highlighted above, and if the applicant herself can also show that she has some plan for seeking employment when she gets there, this could also be taken into account.
If the husband has a rental agreement, there shouldn't be any dispute about accommodation either.

The advice that I have given is based on my personal experience and also those experienced by some friends. Along with this, when I went for my spouse visa at VFS Mumbai there was a couple there who had to explain why the husband could not produce any payslips and this was taken down by the VFS representative on the notes sheet that was being sent. I do not know if the couple got the visa or not, so I really cannot say that they were denied the visa. As far as I am concerned, Payslips and corresponding Bank Statements leave little to interpretation and IMHO cases where things are up for discretionary evaluation, its much better to have documents which are not open to further interpretation.