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My wife is a UK national, I am not. We have been living abroad for the past 30 years. We are now planning to return to the UK to settle. We don't have a UK income but have cash savings, the amount of which exceeds the requirement of GBP63,000. However, the source of this saving comes from the sale of a property 2 months ago - which does not satisy the 6-month rule of it being in the account for that miimum period. The UKBA guidance notes, rule 11A(c), states that "In respect of cash savings ….... Funds held as cash savings by the applicant, their partner or both jointly at the date of application can have been transferred from investments, stocks, shares, bonds or trust funds within the period of 6 months prior to the date of application." The question is, does the property which we had held for the past 6 years be counted as "investment" as the statement seems to imply that only bonds, stocks, trust funds are the only valid investments? We can produce relevant documents (e.g. conveyancing documents) to support.

Many thanks for any light you can throw on the UKBA defintion of "investments".

I think it would be difficult to broaden the definition of investment to include property not to mention proving thr value, and that you would be better to wait until the 6 month period has lapsed. Moreover, the 'investment' is expected to have been held in a financial institution.

Thank you for the input.

I would have thought the underlying rationale for a minimum prescribed sum (whether annual UK income or cash savings) and the 6 month rule is to ensure that applicants are (1) able to support themselves financially without having to rely on the state for assistance, and (2) the cash in their possession are genuinely their own, and not something which they "engineered" just to satisfy this financial requirement. Thus, if I can prove that this is how I invested my savings and am now have this luquid assets at my disposal, that should meet the basic principle behind this financial requirement. That would be logical, isn't it?

I have actually written to the local UK Counsular office on this but have yet to recieve a reply and would be sharing that in the forum when I do.