Help! Need clarification on bringing American wife to UK.

[DeanDana]

Hi, I'm new to this forum, but it seems to be the place to go for clarification on some of the ambiguities regarding UK visa applications. Apologies if any of this ground has been covered before, but I've searched this forum and others and can't find answers to all my questions, so hopefully people with first-hand experience will be able to help me out

My fiance and I met whilst teaching English in South Korea, and after a year of living together there we got engaged, and are now planning to start our married life in England. We're hoping to get married in the States in September, and then get her over to England asap after that. Between now and our marriage I plan to find a new job in the UK in order to provide us the requisite stability/place to live etc, while she stays on the other side of the atlantic and saves money.

However, I worry that we might be being a little naive about how easy the process will be, as we are both looking into entry-level media production jobs, which are notoriously underpaid and unstable. I'm confident in my ability to get a job job between now and our wedding, but she won't be able to find work until she has her visa, which means I'll apparently have to prove I can support her. How much would I need to be earning in order to prove that satisfactorily? (We're both more than prepared to share a cupboard of a flat and survive on beans on toast, as we've done it before, but I worry that they won't take this into account!) I'm also worried that if I do get TV work, most contracts in that industry are short-term, for 3-6 months at a time, and immigration folk might not like that. Does anyone have any experience going through the process as a self-employed freelancer?

Also, what are the real costs of the spouse visa? I saw that it should cost about $1200, which we can cover with our savings from Korea, but are there more costs which I'm not taking into account?

We plan to marry in the States so that more of her family and friends can attend the wedding, and so that we can go straight from there to a British embassy to get an interview and present our application together in person before I have to come back to England. Would this be the fastest, most painless way to do it? Is a US marriage certificate just as good to UK immigration as a British one? How long do the applications generally take?

I apologise for the vast amount of questions, I'm just desperate for some clarity to make sure our plans are as well thought-out as we hope they are. We just want to be able to live together without sacrificing our ambitions, which in spite of the alleged 'special relationship' between our two nations, looks to be much more difficult than we first thought! Anyway, any help or advice that people can give will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Dean

[ElenaW]

Firstly, you can't apply in person at an embassy in the us. Your wife would have to send all of the documents in through the post.

Secondly, the amount of money you will need in maintenance is more than a couple would get in benefits after rent and council tax is paid. So it completely depends on how much your rent will be.

The cost of the visa you have correctly. There's also $300 added to that if you want it expedited in 15 days and the flights to take into consideration but I'm sure you're aware of that.

A marriage certificate from any country will do as long as it's genuine and you were lawfully married in whichever country it is. So USA=UK in terms of this.

The working thing is an issue. 3-6 months is very very short. Since your wife is American, they might let you off the hook since they let a lot of things slide in fast track countries. Can you not find a job that's more permanent? Anything will do for now. Your main aim is to show you won't be using public funds.

[Casa]

The minimum weekly requirement is due to rise to £105.75. This is the amount you will need to meet after rent or mortgage, council tax and any loan/credit repayments have been paid.

[DeanDana]

Thanks for the fast replies, this has already been so helpful!

It's nice to know that we have the right idea about visa costs. Taking those into account alongside flights and the cost our actual marriage I think we can cover all of our lump-sum costs with our existing savings.

My only worry now is the amount I would apparently have to be earning. £105 per week on top of rent and council tax seems an awful lot, especially as we're aiming to be in London so rent will be high. I doubt I'll be earning a huge amount in the sort of job I would ideally like to be doing, although I'd be more than willing to supplement that with longer-term, ongoing work such as bar work or night shifts with my former employer in order to make enough. Would that also solve the problem of having short contracts - if I had one ongoing part-time job as well as a short-term contract that I could reasonably argue would be renewed?

Also, do they pay any attention to my fiance's qualifications and experience when judging us? She would not be in a position to be sponsored for a high-paying job over a more qualified EU resident, but she has a great degree, a solid employment history, and has every intention of finding work the instant that she is allowed to. It is frustrating that she initially has to come over essentially as my dependent, when we intend to live as a hard-working equal partnership. But of course if she tried to live here and find work whilst still my fiance that could get us into trouble later down the line. Is there any chance at all that an immigration official might look at her academic and employment history and allow us some leeway, based on the fact that she is a strong candidate to find a job as soon as she has an equal right to work as anyone else?

Our plan will be to share rent etc equally, which she will initally cover with her savings until she finds a job, which I have every confidence will happen long before we'd ever need to resort to benefits. But is this enough?

Thanks again for all the help, it's very, very much appreciated![/b]

[skyepark]

You should be including her cv and qualifications as standard. In the sponsor and applicant letter you should both write down what type of work you are qualified for (past experience) and what you will be looking for.

I would advise you to read other people's threads and what docs were submitted for the spouse visa.

[Spark]

The working thing is an issue. 3-6 months is very very short. Since your wife is American, they might let you off the hook since they let a lot of things slide in fast track countries. Can you not find a job that's more permanent? Anything will do for now. Your main aim is to show you won't be using public funds.

I would definitely agree with this, my partner is Japalnese and although our circumstances were different, we received her visa in under 1 month when they were originally quoting around 12 weeks and I was working in a temporary contract at the time.

I think it definitely helps when your partner is from a first world country although I think some people will argue that it shouldn't but I suppose that's just the way things are.