Will our settlement visa be rejected?

[kayronjm]

Hello all, I'm new to these forums but have been reading around and it seems like a good place to ask.

My wife is American and currently holds a student visa for France. I'm British, born in Gibraltar and living in London. My wife applied for a settlement visa on Friday 5th June from the Worldbridge VAC in Paris.

With the application we submitted lots of documents, including:

- A letter from me, the sponsor, stating information about us and our plans in the UK including that she is first undertaking an MSc at King's College London and then seeking employment in the UK
- Certified copy of my British passport
- Confirmation of my currently studying for an MSc at Imperial College London
- Confirmation of my acceptance to study for a PhD at Imperial College London starting in October of this year
- Confirmation (an e-mail) stating how much I'd be earning per month on my PhD studentship
- Signed tenancy agreement starting 20th June (for my wife and I)
- 600 pages of evidence of communication between my wife and I (Facebook messages)
- Phonebills from my wife showing numerous long phonecalls to me in the UK
- Our original marriage certificate
- Photographs of our wedding with our family and such
- Confirmation of MSc offer for my wife at King's College London (starting this coming September)
- A bank statement from my UK bank account
- A letter from a trust in Gibraltar stating award of a scholarship for my current MSc
- My wife's US passport
- My wife's French student visa
- My wife's birth certificate (officially translated from Spanish to English - my wife was born in Mexico City)
- A letter from my wife's father's bank stating he has well over £30,000 in savings and is able to support my wife's tuition fees for her MSc
- A letter written by my wife stating that her parents are supporting her for the duration of her studies, after which she intends to work in the UK

Anyway, you can gather the story from the above. My wife is starting an MSc at King's College London in September, for a year and then wants to seek employment here as well. I have been a student all my life as well. My worries are the finances - the ECO might think we don't meet the financial requires and thus reject her settlement visa.

We're really worried this might be the case. I mean, as students, we obviously need third-party financial help so at the very least, my wife is supported by her father for the first year that she's here, as she'll be on the MSc. After that she would definitely be seeking employment.

By the way, just in case you want to ask, I'm 22 years old and my wife is 24.

Any insight would be much appreciated. Thank you all.

[kayronjm]

According to paragraph 281 of the spouses and civil partners immigration law, these are two clauses which are relevent to my question of third-party financial support:

(iv) there will be adequate accommodation for the parties and any dependants without recourse to public funds in accommodation which they own or occupy exclusively; and

(v) the parties will be able to maintain themselves and any dependants adequately without recourse to public funds; and

Both very clearly state without recourse to public funds. However, my wife's father's money are not public funds, by definition. Therefore in my point of view, there would be no violation with the immigration law.

I'm still worried however, as some people have stated that third-party financial support is a cause for immediate rejection.

[kayronjm]

Does anyone have any insight as to how they'd treat our application?
We're really worried we'll get a big rejection.

[batleykhan]

Read this and if you have any further questions to ask then post them here,

3rd party financial support is not allowed and will be refused automatically.

Help with accomadation however is allowed

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... iew=Binary

[kayronjm]

Read this and if you have any further questions to ask then post them here,

3rd party financial support is not allowed and will be refused automatically.

Help with accomadation however is allowed

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... iew=Binary

Thanks for your reply. I just wish that if they are going to refuse our application, that they do it now and not keep us 'hanging there'. It's only been 8 days, I understand, but if our application is 'clearly unapprovable' then they should send us on our merry way now and not in 10 days, for example.

I've already assumed refusal in accordence to the rules stated on that document you linked me to. We are going to apply for a student visa anyway, as we should have in the beginning it seems since my wife will be underaking an MSc regardless of settlement visa decision.

[vinny]

See also 3rd Party Support & Accommodation.

[Casa]

Miracles do happen! News from the Op on another forum is that the visa has been granted! Maybe due to the fact that the spouse will be sponsored for study in the UK by her parents.