FLR(M) Meeting Financial Requirement Self Employment Route

[kiwikrystal]

Hi.

I am looking into application for FLR(M) as unmarried partner to a British Citizen.

I am bit stuck at the moment. The situation is that my boyfriend and I have recently moved over to the UK end of March 2017 and I am currently on a Tier 5 Youth Mobility Visa which is due to expire 21st June 2017.

My boyfriend is currently self employed as a Chiropractor in the UK (he has a written contract with the owner of the clinic and has set days during the week that he works and he issues the clinic invoices every week for the amount of patients that he sees). He has been working in the clinic since beginning of April this year and his current earnings to date are at a level that will be atleast 18,600 pounds annually.

Prior to April, he was self employed in Australia (owned his own Chiropractic Clinic which was sold August 2016). From my understanding of the guidance notes regarding meeting the financial requirement, I can use either his income from his last full financial year or the average of the last 2 full financial years within Australia (in Australia FY ends 30th June so this would mean I would have to use FY ending 30th June 2015 and 30th June 2016). His earnings for these financial years were over threshold of 18,600 pounds annually.

Is it possible to use sponsors previous income from overseas to fulfil financial requirement?

And if so, as we have just arrived, does he need to be registered with HRMC yet? (as he still needs to arrange this at some point but unlikely before visa application). And does he need to show proof of NIN contributions?

I’m a little confused about the documents that are required for self employment route. Appreciate any assistance you can provide.

[CR001]

Overseas income would have been possible had you applied for an Unmarried Partner visa from your home country.

Do either of you have high level of savings?

Have you lived together for at least 2 years in a relationship akin to marriage with documentary evidence to prove this?

[kiwikrystal]

Hi,

Thanks for your response. We have lived together for about 6 years and have evidence of this. We meet all the other requirements in the other parts of the application but just not sure if we can meet financial requirement through previous self employment from overseas.

We also have a fair bit of savings too, probably about 62,500 at the moment however looking over last 6 months, i think we may have dipped below this threshold with the move (buying a car, accomodation expenses etc) so dont think we will be able to go thru the cash savings route unfortunately.

I would think with my boyfriends previous self employment income and current earnings at about 6000 pounds over 2 months and this coupled with high savings of about 60K, they could see we would be able to support ourselves.... Im trying to figure out whats the best to do... my head hurts

Do you know if we can put his incorme down as unsalaried employment instead? He has a contract with the owner of the clinic which we could provide to them as evidence and then possibly we can combine that with our cash savings?

[CR001]

Did you travel late to the UK that your Tier 5 expires in June?

[kiwikrystal]

Yes expires 21st June so i am looking to booking a premium service appt in person just in case they need to go through anything with me

[kiwikrystal]

and yes you are correct i came to england very late (only 3 months before my visa was expiring)

[kiwikrystal]

Hello,

Just incase in anyone is interested in what happened - I was approved an unmarried partner visa (switched from Tier 5 YMS).

I provided information to prove 62,500 pounds were held collectively for atleast 6months - its important to note that despite funds being held across 6 different accounts and money being transferred between accounts and being spent here and there etc. we showed that all accounts collectively held the required amount each and every day for the 6month period. As this was a little difficult to show, I provided them with a spreadsheet to spell this out (even supplied them with a USB stick so they could play around with soft copy excel file). Bank statements were provided as evidence.

I also provided evidence that we met the financial requirement through self employment - provided proof of my boyfriends last financial year in Australia and also his current earnings to date.

Our situation was a little bit different and felt fortunate that it was all approved as it wasnt a very straightforward scenario. I wrote up letters and explanations of everything supplied in the application and also included my earnings for the last 4 financial years (tax returns) and my CV to show im employable.

I found the application process a massive pain and trying to work everything out on your own was difficult but have to say i saved myself paying a lawyer 1000 pounds which was awesome! They try to scare you into using their services but you can honestly do it on your own - just requires a bit of research and reading!

Im stoked its over!

[CR001]

Congrats, happy it worked out for you. At least now you have 2.5 years before you have to worry about your next extension.