Finance requirements for unmarried partner visa

[sarahb]

My partner has British citizenship as his parents were born in the UK. We have been living together for 9 years and have 2 children together. We do not want to get married. We are cuurently living in New Zealand and want to emigrate to the UK as a family. We want to travel together and find a job once there. I am a stay at home mum so have no income. My partner earns $120,000 nzd + bonus which is about $60,000 GBP. If we don't have a UK job on application, do they take current income into account or is it all on savings? How much do you need in savings?

[sarahb]

Sorry, phone was playing up. Any info anyone has on this would be of huge help. Thank you in advance!

[MPH80]

If he doesn't have a job offer - then he doesn't fall into any of the categories allowing employment income to be used as the one that would allow him to use his overseas income is headed like this in the immigration rules:

(c) Where the person is the applicant's partner, is in salaried employment outside of the UK at the date of application, has been employed by their current employer for at least 6 months, and is returning to the UK to take up salaried employment in the UK starting within 3 months of their return, the person's gross annual income will be calculated:

(My bolding)

The 'within 3 months' requires proof - which would be a job offer.

So - as a result - I think you, therefore, have to rely on savings. (others may correct me).

The amount you require will depend on the nationality of your children, which, in turn, depends on how your husband got his british citizenship. If he was born on the UK - he can 'just' pass his citizenship on, if not, then he can't.

So - assuming you could register the kids as british citizens - you need £62,500 in savings.

If you can't - then you need £78000.

And that will need to have been in cash savings, in accounts in either your or your partner's name, for 6 months prior to application.

M.

[sarahb]

Thanks so much for that information. It certainly is much more challenging to emigrate than it used to be!

I think we'll have to try to get a job offer from NZ to go to when we arrive as that's an awful lot of NZD to have as savings! That might be easier said than done in the current economic climate! Especially as NZ is so very far away to attend job interviews!

Do you know how I might find out more about the job prospects when applying from outside the UK? Anyone had any success? My partner works in senior management in the telecommunications industry in case anyone knows of specific places to find out more information.

Thanks so so much for your help and information on this.