I am not sure of the fees besides the 46 quid charge for their passports, do I have to pay to have them "registered" or naturalized? I think the figure I saw was 749? I know this is a Visa forum, but I had to ask in case anyone else has been in my shoes...
Yes, the fee for a child to register as a British citizen is £749.
Then the fee to apply for a child's passport from overseas (the US) is £53 plus £19.86 in courier fees = £72.86 per passport.
See:
https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports/y/usa/applying/child/usaThe £46 fee you found is only applicable to passport applications made from inside the UK, but you will need to apply for them from the US as they will need their UK passports before they enter the UK.
I think I need a spousal visa and it will cost around 1530 pounds and then a 200 pound health surcharge on top of that, plus 749 to process?
Not quite.
The spousal visa fee is £956.
In the US, this is currently charged in dollars as $1,530
The £956 amount is not likely to change until April 2016, but the US dollar fee of $1,530 may increase or decrease with the exchange rate over the next few months.
On top of the spousal visa fee you have to pay an NHS levy of £600
(£200 per year of the visa validity and as it is valid for 2 years and 9 months, you have to pay for the full 3rd year).
So, the visa fees themselves, in GBP, will be £956 + £600 = £1,556.
There is no extra fee to process the application (the processing fee is the £956 for the visa).
However, there is the option to purchase Settlement Priority Processing for £360 ($576) for your application to be put to the front of the processing line.
On top of that, you're looking at shipping costs of approximately $100-150 each way for the application to be processed in Sheffield.
So,
Visa fee = £956 / $1,530
NHS levy = £600
Optional priority processing = £360 /$576
Shipping = approx $200-300
We are planning to move by March 1, 2016, can I not apply for my Visa until December? We are waiting on hubby's passport to come back then applying for the kids passports and then mine....I think that's the best order to show they all have access to the country ??
The earliest you can apply is 3 months before you wish to move to the UK.
You have to put an intended travel date on the online application, which cannot be more than 3 months ahead of when you apply online.
When the visa has been issued, it will just be a vignette in your passport valid for 30 days... so you will have 30 days to enter the UK and then a further 10 days to pick up a BRP card from a post office in the UK (Biometrics Residence Permit) which will be your actual visa.