Combining income and cash savings

[Steve222]

I'm overseas and want to return to the UK with my wife and two children, none are UK citizens or qualify for it. It seems i need an income of 24,800 pounds to get them to qualify.

I have a job offer of 25,300 but it's only for 10 months so i think that works out to 20,000 for the year. So i need to make up the difference somehow. How do i work this out, the equation on the website is confusing to me. My cash savings in pounds is about 22,000.

[Casa]

Assuming the earnings for the 10 months are £20,000 the shortfall is therefore £4,800.

£4.800 x 2.5 (years) = £12,000 savings.

As the first £16,000 of savings are disregarded, you would need to have held £28,000 in available funds for the 6 month period prior to submitting the applications. (£16.000 + £12000)

Bear in mind that your savings will reduce if you need to pay the considerable visa fees and NHS charges (currently amounting to £5385), unless you have these set aside.

[vinny]

See also savings calculator.

[Steve222]

Thanks. It seems though that the job offer of 25300 is sufficient even if it is for only ten months. At least that's what a few people have told me (UK immigration were no help at all)

I do find it somewhat punitive that the very reason so many people probably fail to meet the savings target is because of the insane visa fees. Does it really cost the govt over 5000 pounds to process three visas? Madness.

One thing I have always wondered is...do assets count? So for example, if you have a car that you sell for 3000 pounds are you allowed to use that as your savings as long as you prove the sale, or do you need to be a psychic and sell it 6 months earlier?

[Casa]

You'd need to polish the crystal ball .

Funds obtained through the sale of assets (excluding property) must be held in an accessible account for the full 6 months.

As you've already discovered, the UKVI 'help line' operatives are anything but helpful. Call them 10 times and you're likely to be given 10 different answers. The added touch is that they take no responsibility for any incorrect advice given.

[Steve222]

If it wasn't so serious, it would be almost like a monty python sketch. Their written guidance is better but still vague and unclear in places, some of it just seems open to interpretation to me.

[Casa]

If it wasn't so serious, it would be almost like a monty python sketch. Their written guidance is better but still vague and unclear in places, some of it just seems open to interpretation to me.

...and often something of a Catch 22 situation! Continue to post your queries and between us all we'll do our best to clarify them.

[Obie]

I believe if a person had a property under their possession for over 6 months, but sold the property less than 6 months ago, then the proceeds from that sales, will be treated as if the person had held those funds for a period of 6 months or more.
The proceeds of the asset sales is not required to have been saved for 6 months, unlike in the case of savings, only the asset is requires to have been under the sponsors possession 6 months ago.

That is my understanding of the rules.

[Casa]

I believe if a person had a property under their possession for over 6 months, but sold the property less than 6 months ago, then the proceeds from that sales, will be treated as if the person had held those funds for a period of 6 months or more.
The proceeds of the asset sales is not required to have been saved for 6 months, unlike in the case of savings, only the asset is requires to have been under the sponsors possession 6 months ago.

That is my understanding of the rules.

Obie I agree. That's why I mentioned the exclusion of property in my post as the OP was referring to selling a car.

[Steve222]

The biggest problem for me is accommodation now. It's very hard to get tenancy from offshore. I don't have family and/or friends anywhere near where the job is either.

I know hotels are unacceptable (too expensive anyway) but what about AirBnB?