Spouse visa questions (name change, US marriage, etc.)

Hsbc can be very helpful in setting up accounts with their branches in other countries BUT and it is a big but, my experience is they are only helpful if you are at their premier customer tier, which means a minimum of $100,000 in a combination of banking and investment accounts. If you don't qualify, I wouldn't bother with Hsbc. They just won't move much to help you unless they see you as a cash cow.


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Has anyone here renounced US citizenship to become a UK citizen? I just read this: http://www.bbc.com/news/35383435

One or two people have, but not many.

All keeping your US citizenship really means is that you have to keep filing US taxes each year. However, unless you earn well over $100,000/year in the U.K. you won't need to pay any US taxes because you will be paying U.K. taxes instead... so it's just a case of filing but not owing anything.

And my wife is wondering whether I will have to pay national insurance as a non-citizen. She read something saying that I don't, and now we're wondering whether I can elect to pay it in order to qualify for pensions later on. Does anyone know?

If you will be working in the UK, National Insurance contributions will be taken out of your paycheque automatically anyway, regardless of being a citizen or not, and they go towards not just your pension but income-related benefits that you are allowed to claim (like maternity/paternity pay).

If you do not work in the UK you can choose to make voluntary NI payments so that you can qualify for a pension etc. later on.


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Quick question (just to be obssesive):

If I have a US passport book and a passport card, I need to submit BOTH with my visa application, correct? (Along with any expired ones, of course.)

Does any proof of ID need to be submitted along with the housing owner's letter? (Co-signer on mortgage, in our case) If so, is a regular, uncertified photocopy of passport enough?

Can anyone point me toward a reference/rule where it says exactly what traffic violations need to be declared (and if so, where?). I'm confused whether ordinary fixed-penalty tickets (such as a red light camera ticket) need to be declared, as I have heard both yes and no. Would be really grateful if someone could show me a source for a definitive yes or no.

If a photocopy of a document is acceptable (such as of children's birth certificates), does it matter if it's a good-quality photo printout instead? (printout of a digital photo) Not sure, as everything is so incredibly nitpicky.

Sorry to ask this again, but I still can't decide. If we are tentatively hoping for June 1st as a date for me to go to England, but I could go as early as May 1st, is there a disadvantage to choosing May 1st as my anticipated travel date? As in, if the visa decision is made after May 1st, I get less time of validity on my visa?

I'm worried that my visa will be half used up by the time I get it (say, it doesn't arrive until June 15th but it was valid from June 1st, leaving only two weeks to get to the UK). I know we can get a 30-day extension, but it sounds like that's a hassle with coordinating BRP pickup once I get in-country.

But I also don't want to stay in the US unnecessarily, like if we get a quick decision and then my visa arrives but isn't valid for another month.

Please help? Thank you!

In terms of the dates on here if the date you put on for travel passes they will issue it for the day visa is approved. So for example you put may 1st but if not issued until June 15 then that's the day it will be issued for. You get your passport back within a few days so I wouldn't worry about 2 weeks of validity passing. Put the first date you are free to go!

As for the passport card and passport I'm like 99% that both have to go with the application that's why I didn't get one when I came home from Ireland.

As for your other stuff I'll
Leave it to the elder statesmen here to answer

Depending on how busy things are when you apply you do 'lose' a few days from the validity date when your requested date has passed. They don't usually get posted the same day when it's busy.

There is no exact rule that says specifically what you need to put and what you could leave off. Have you read through the posted guidelines for your visa? They have the guidelines for the applicant and the guidelines for the ECO available online as PDF's. That may put your mind at ease. I'm on my phone so not easy to do. They're easy to find though.

Things are already starting to slow down. People who applied at the tail end of Feb - early March are getting their responses in the last week or still waiting. They may or may not have paid for priority.

If you were going to use a photo as a copy, make sure that it looks as much like a copy as possible. Don't have huge borders around the documents if they are letter size. My copies weren't remotely as good as what my phone would have taken as a photo.

I didn't think there was anything they accepted as a copy other than your SO passport... (I don't have kids)

Can anyone point me toward a reference/rule where it says exactly what traffic violations need to be declared (and if so, where?). I'm confused whether ordinary fixed-penalty tickets (such as a red light camera ticket) need to be declared, as I have heard both yes and no. Would be really grateful if someone could show me a source for a definitive yes or no.

If you look at the guidance at the back of the paper form (VAF4A), it tells you there.
But if in doubt, declare it!

6.9 Do you have any criminal convictions either in the UK or overseas (you must include spent and unspent convictions as well as traffic offences)?

Answer Yes/No. Please give details of the date and place (country) of the offence and what you were convicted of. Please state what sentence you received. To assist your application, you may want to supply documentary evidence of the conviction (e.g. the official record) detailing the crime you were convicted of and the sentence you
received. We will carry out criminal record checks on all applicants and dependants. You must give details of all unspent and spent criminal convictions. This includes road traffic offences but not fixed penalty notices (such as speeding or parking tickets) unless they were part of a sentence of the court. This includes all drink-driving offences.

Bold mine.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/274029/VAF4A.pdf

Yeah, we normally recommend just putting everything down including things like speeding tickets, just to show you are being honest, but it's not mandatory for the speeding tickets.


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Thank you!!

Have NO idea what we would have done if we hadn't found this board. Here's hoping. <3

Oh, and yeah about processing times slowing down. One piece of documentation is out of our hands, and all we can do is wait. We were ready, otherwise, to file as soon as two weeks ago. Frustrating!!

Can anyone recommend a good, reliable, and trustworthy accountant who knows how to do taxes/accounts for a limited company and can do a rush job?

So incredibly upset here. My wife's accountant has blown us off for three months, repeatedly lying that he will have paperwork done by X date. Then, when X date passes, he won't respond to communication.

I've wanted to change accountants long before this, but since it was tax season in the UK my wife thought it would take longer to find someone new.

She's capable of doing most of the accounting herself, but we need a certified accountant to sign off on the documents.

This is literally the ONLY piece of paper we need in order to file our application, and his screwing around is going to cost us hundreds of pounds on April 6th. Not to mention the weeks, if not months, of extra processing time as his delaying pushes our application into the summer rush.

We would have been ready to apply three weeks ago, if not earlier, if we'd had his paperwork!

So incredibly frustrated here. Can someone in the UK help us in any way?

Many thanks in advance.

Can anyone recommend a good, reliable, and trustworthy accountant who knows how to do taxes/accounts for a limited company and can do a rush job?

So incredibly upset here. My wife's accountant has blown us off for three months, repeatedly lying that he will have paperwork done by X date. Then, when X date passes, he won't respond to communication.

I've wanted to change accountants long before this, but since it was tax season in the UK my wife thought it would take longer to find someone new.

She's capable of doing most of the accounting herself, but we need a certified accountant to sign off on the documents.

This is literally the ONLY piece of paper we need in order to file our application, and his screwing around is going to cost us hundreds of pounds on April 6th. Not to mention the weeks, if not months, of extra processing time as his delaying pushes our application into the summer rush.

We would have been ready to apply three weeks ago, if not earlier, if we'd had his paperwork!

So incredibly frustrated here. Can someone in the UK help us in any way?

Many thanks in advance.

AV, I really feel for you, that's beyond a frustrating situation. Wish I could help.

Perhaps you could post again in the tax forum, you'll reach a slightly different audience there.

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?board=11.0

Unfortunately, I agree with your wife.  It'll be hard to find someone this time of year to work as quickly as you need.  But it's certainly worth a try!

Will do, thank you!

Now we are hearing (from one potential new accountant) that it would be possible to submit our visa application with ***2015*** CT600 (corporate annual tax return) instead of 2016?

Is this true?

If so, OMG. Nearly in tears here at the thought we might have been able to file THREE WEEKS ago if we had known, as of course the 2015 CT600 was done last year.

Are you applying under self-employment? If so, that is not correct.

For Category F, you MUST have the 2016 CT600... or the visa will be refused.

For Category G, you must have BOTH the 2015 AND 2016 CT600s... or the visa will be refused.

So, either way you need to have the CT600 from 2016... there is no getting around that.


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Okay, thank you. The new potential accountant is not familiar with UKVI (suggested, for example, that electronic statement printouts would be okay, which we know 100% for sure is not true), so we were a bit skeptical.

And upset that we had maybe lost out on applying before the rush due to not knowing any better.

Yes, Category F. So, phew. Thank you for clarifying.

I really have no idea what we would do without this forum. I'm ready to throw things, burst into tears, and curl up into a ball from the stress and fear and worry. My poor wife is so stressed that she can't sleep at night. We're both so afraid we will never be allowed to reunite. Any tiny shred of remaining sanity is thanks to you kind folks here. Thank you. <3

You will be reunited and just think of the stories you'll get to tell people about how hard you worked to be together. Keep the faith! You've got this!!