Quick questions regarding finance requirement

[brightonmike]

Hey

I'm getting married to my girlfriend. She is from Thailand, but she is here legally on a student visa which expires at the end of January. This is regarding an FLR(M) Visa.

My annual salary is £17000. She works part-time and her annual salary is about £2500-3000.

What I am confused about is this. She will have been in her job for less than 6 months but I've been in mine for 2 years.

Category A says "if you and/or your partner has been in salaried employment for at least 12 months" - in other words, because I have been employed for 2 years, does this force us into Category A? If so, we can't use her salary, and we can't pass.

Category B says "if you and/or your partner has been in salaried employment for less than 6 months".

So my question is, can we still combine our incomes to meet the £18600? I know that if applying from inside the UK you can do this.

It just seems, from the wording, that BOTH your jobs have to have either been for less than 6 months or more than 12.

It would seem extremely silly to me that we don't qualify simply because I've been in my job longer than six months?

In all other respects, I'm sure we are fine. Genuine relationship, we have a shared tenancy, shared bank account, and we're getting married in November.

If anyone could clear this up I'd be very grateful. More than anything, it just seems to be the wording that causes so much confusion.

[SoHopeful]

You may have to wait until your partner has been working with her current employer for 6 months.

[brightonmike]

Ok, I've re-read the rules.

This is what I am reading:

"Under Category B, the financial requirement must be evidenced in two parts. First, where the applicant’s partner and/or the applicant (if they are in the UK with permission to work) is in salaried employment at the date of application and has been with the same employer for less than the last 6 months, the applicant can count the gross annual salary at the date of application towards the financial requirement. "

Then:

"Second, the couple must in addition have received in the 12 months prior to the application the level of income required to meet the financial requirement applicable to it, based on: • The gross salaried employment income of the applicant’s partner and/or the applicant (if they are in the UK with permission to work); "


What is confusing me is this.

Do you basically have to meet the financial requirement for both "first" and "second"?

We definitely meet the second part. We both have been working over the last 12 months before the application, and when you add all of our jobs together the annual salary exceeds £18600.

My confusion lies with the first part. Can I include my income in the first part also and combine it with the annual salary of her less than 6 month job to meet the requirement? It says "where the applicant’s partner and/or the applicant" which suggests we can use both incomes to meet part 1.

Yet, it goes on to say "is in salaried employment at the date of application and has been with the same employer for less than the last 6 months". She will have, I won't. Can we still include my salary though? Or, does the fact I have been in my job longer than 6 months mean it cannot be included?

If so, that seems extremely harsh, because what that would basically be saying is if I quit my job tomorrow and got another job with the same salary on Monday, we could count the income of that job because I'd have been in it for less than 6 months.