US citizen married to UK citizen who hasn't lived in the UK for 20 years

Great to know! You are a wealth of knowledge.   I am still considering hiring a lawyer to help with it just because I dont want to take any chances of screwing it up or leaving something out. haha But I'm starting to assemble all of this now.

I would NOT advise using a lawyer - most of them don’t know what they are talking about and end up giving even more incorrect advice than the link above (the misinformation in the link is typical of the advice that lawyers who don’t know what they are talking about give to people). I’ve lost count of the number of people
who have found this forum after being given very bad advice by lawyers, which could have or did result in a visa refusal. Many of them have said they regret using the lawyer and wish they had found UK-Y first as they got much better information and advice from here and it was all free.

I mean, how many spousal visa applicants specifically from the US do you think one single run-of-the-mill immigration lawyer would have dealt with in their career? Maybe a handful at most? In the last decade, we’ve helped well over 1,000 people successfully apply for their fiancé and spousal visas.

How long after you get your Visa do you have to enter the UK? I feel like I remember reading its something like a month or two?

You have 30 days from the start date to enter the UK. The online application asks for your Intended Travel Date, and this is the date your 30 days is supposed to start. However, lately they have been making them valid from 7 days before that date.

You should put down the earliest possible date you know you would be able to travel to the UK. If this date passes before the visa has been issued, it will just be made valid starting around the date of the visa decision.

They are supposed to honour the date you put, but last week, someone had requested a date in June and when they got their visa they found it was valid for 30 days starting in March instead... so that means they’re having to travel in March to pick up their BRP card (the actual visa) and then go back to the US until June!



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Ahhhh I see. So, in theory if we put the start date for a year out, we could technically get all this taken care of far in advance and then just wait until that move date? That would make it nice to get it taken care of really early (and know that it’s done) to give yourself time to deal with other things like packing up your house, selling things off, etc etc.

I had initially thought that once they approved you, you had to be ready to move right away but that’s good to know that you get to chose the start date.

Ahhhh I see. So, in theory if we put the start date for a year out, we could technically get all this taken care of far in advance and then just wait until that move date? That would make it nice to get it taken care of really early (and know that it’s done) to give yourself time to deal with other things like packing up your house, selling things off, etc etc.

Not quite - you can only apply for the visa a maximum of 3 months before you want to travel, although the online application has been letting people request dates for between 3 and 6 months out.

I had initially thought that once they approved you, you had to be ready to move right away but that’s good to know that you get to chose the start date.

Although they are supposed to honour the travel date, they don’t always... so you do have to be careful. Don’t assume they will definitely give you the date you ask for. If you really have to travel on that particular date, you can emphasise it clearly in a cover letter (I.e. bold and underlined), but they still may not honour it.


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Great to know! You are a wealth of knowledge.   I am still considering hiring a lawyer to help with it just because I dont want to take any chances of screwing it up or leaving something out. haha But I'm starting to assemble all of this now.

How long after you get your Visa do you have to enter the UK? I feel like I remember reading its something like a month or two?

You don't need a lawyer -- the application should be pretty straightforward and almost any questions you have will have been asked and answered on this forum already. The people here are incredible!

My husband and I are in a similar situation to you guys, except that I'm a UK citizen by descent and have only ever lived there for a couple of years as a child. Although it's not really made clear in any of the paperwork or accompanying instructions, your application will be exactly the same as if your husband was living there, so don't be thrown off by it all being written with the assumption that you're in different countries.

If you can, I'd really recommend going the savings route. That's what we did and it was pretty simple and allowed us to set our own timeline. I didn't want to have to move over first to try to get a job, and have heard that trying to get an offer without actually living there or being transferred by your current company is extremely difficult. I'm very lucky, though, because I can keep working remotely for my current employer (though only as a freelancer), so we don't actually have to rely on those savings to support us both job searching.

Whatever you decide, someone here will have been through it and can help you out!

Oh, and to actually answer your last question, you have 30 days to arrive once your visa is approved. We've got just 13 days left until we leave the US! Eek!

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If you can, I'd really recommend going the savings route. That's what we did and it was pretty simple and allowed us to set our own timeline. I didn't want to have to move over first to try to get a job, and have heard that trying to get an offer without actually living there or being transferred by your current company is extremely difficult.

I'll be transferring with my company when we do but I was planning on going the spouse route since we plan on staying over there.

I was going to ask about the savings part. The government website appendix (https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa/proof-income) says:

8. Give proof of your income

You and your partner must have a combined income of at least £18,600 a year if:

    you’re applying as a partner
    you want to settle in the UK (get ‘indefinite leave to remain’) within 5 years


Further down it says:

Example
You’ve worked with the same employer earning £18,600 or more for 6 months or longer.

My understanding is that means he is currently in the UK earning that amount or either of us have a job offer in the UK for that amount or more. I'll be applying for a transfer within our company before we move so we know we could go that route if needed.


Option 2 is if we have £62,500 ($87,138) in cash in the savings account for 6 months.  Wow. A lot of money but possible in a couple years.

However, it appears there is Option 3 "Cash savings of the applicant’s partner and/or the applicant, above £16,000, held by the partner and/or the applicant for at least 6 months and under their control. " 

So Cliff Notes version:
Option 1 is related to current job income or job offer.
Option 2 is based on MY or our combined savings account.
Option 3 is based on my UK spouses savings account? So if I deposit £16,000 in his savings account now, in 6 months from now as long as his savings account never dipped below that amount, that would satisfy the financial requirements? Am I understanding that correctly?

I also saw in the Non-Employment Income section they talk about stock. I've read all through it and some sections seem to indicate I can declare the vested stock I have (ie: stock available to sell immediately for cash if needed) can be used the same as if I had cash currently sitting in a bank account.

Other areas I read seem to sound like they require the stock to be sold so that cash is in hand (in a savings account). I am sure I'm just being confused by the wording but just wanted someone to provide it in laymans terms. haha

As of right now (based on the stocks value) I have $11,000 worth we could sell and have cash in hand within a week. By the end of the year I'll have another $35,000 in stock vesting which means I'll have $46,000 (£32,900) worth of stock available to be sold if needed. Twice a year as long as I'm still employed with the company, I get stock that vests.

So, does that mean they consider stock the same as cash in savings or would they need me to sell the stock and have that money in a savings account? I'd prefer NOT to have to sell it unless I needed it (ie: save it for retirement).

I'll be transferring with my company when we do but I was planning on going the spouse route since we plan on staying over there.

That's probably the easiest thing to do, if you can meet the financial requirement - that way, your visa won't be tied to your employer .

So Cliff Notes version:
Option 1 is related to current job income or job offer.
Option 2 is based on MY or our combined savings account.
Option 3 is based on my UK spouses savings account? So if I deposit £16,000 in his savings account now, in 6 months from now as long as his savings account never dipped below that amount, that would satisfy the financial requirements? Am I understanding that correctly?

Option 3 doesn't exist, since it's part of option 2. However, the first £16,000 of savings don't count and then you need 2.5 years x £18,600 in savings on top of that. So you need £16,000 + (2.5 x £18,600) = £62,500 in total in order to qualify for the visa using savings.

For cash savings (option 2), the money can be held in any or all of the following:
- entirely in your account
- entirely in your UK sponsor's account
- entirely in a joint account in both your names
- in a combination of accounts in either your names individually or jointly (i.e. you could have £20,000 in your account, £30,000 in his account, and £12,500 in your joint account, which combined equals £62,500).

So for Option 1:
Category A
- the UK sponsor has a guaranteed job offer in the UK, paying at least £18,600 and starting within 3 months of moving home
AND
- the UK sponsor is currently employed in the US on the date of application, and has been with his US company for at least 6 months, earning at least £18,600 for the entire time

OR

Category B
- the UK sponsor has a guaranteed job offer in the UK, paying at least £18,600 and starting within 3 months of moving home
AND
- the UK sponsor has earned at least £18,600 in total before tax in the last 12 months

The US applicant's employment income cannot be considered at all unless they already have a visa that allows work in the UK.

For Option 2, cash savings:
Category D:
- between you, you have at least £62,500 in cash savings, held in bank account(s) in either your name, his name, or joint names, for at least 6 months... but no one else can be listed on the account.

You CAN use money held in 401Ks as long as it is immediately accessible and has been held for at least 6 months. You can also use proceeds from the sale of property. If you owned the property at the beginning of the most recent 6 months, you don't have to wait for the money to be in your account for 6 months before applying. You can also use investments that you have cashed out as long as you have held them for 6 months

I also saw in the Non-Employment Income section they talk about stock. I've read all through it and some sections seem to indicate I can declare the vested stock I have (ie: stock available to sell immediately for cash if needed) can be used the same as if I had cash currently sitting in a bank account.

For non-employment income, you would need to show annual interest (income) of at least £18,600 on your investments.

You CAN use money held in 401Ks as long as it is immediately accessible and has been held for at least 6 months.

Did you mean mean or 401K?   I do have a 401K but what I was talking about is my stock that I can sell. Just wanted to clarify.

Did you mean mean or 401K?   I do have a 401K but what I was talking about is my stock that I can sell. Just wanted to clarify.

I was talking about money in a pension savings account (for example, a 401K) that can be used to meet the financial requirement without needing to cash it out.

Cash Savings is the easiest requirement to meet, so if you can meet it, it'll make your application much simpler than using one of the other categories.

For cash savings you can use:
- money held in cash in your bank account(s) for 6 months
or
- money held in a pension account (such as a 401K), as long as it can be immediately withdrawn (with or without penalty). It does NOT have to have been cashed out when you apply, you just have to show it can be accessed immediately.
or
- cash savings that have been transferred from investments into your bank account (including a liquidated pension pot) such as stocks, shares, bonds or trust funds.
or
- proceeds from the sale of property you own

Have you read through the Cash Savings section of Appendix FM 1.7? This is all outlined in there.

Got it. OK perfect thank you for explaining.

Did you mean mean or 401K?   I do have a 401K but what I was talking about is my stock that I can sell. Just wanted to clarify.

I don't know if it was strictly necessary, but we had our brokerage convert our investments to cash about a month before we applied, and just hold that money until after our application was approved, then immediately reinvest it. We didn't transfer it into a savings account or anything -- we just wanted to show that it was liquid.

As I said, I don't even know if that was entirely necessary, since it only takes a couple of days to convert the investments to cash, but we didn't want to take any chances.

We've also just been saving aggressively for about a year and a half, since we'll still need money to live on. It may have taken longer than trying to get a job in the UK, but it may not have -- we preferred having a set timeline that we could control (and I didn't want to leave my current job). Despite moving halfway around the world, my husband and I are cautious and methodical people!

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Once you get approved, you dont need to prove that money any longer, correct?

If we show we have the £62,500 in savings and get our Visa, once we have it we can either reinvest that money or use a portion of that for the move, buying a car when we get there, paying rent up front, etc. correct? We don't have to hold that £62,500 for any time period AFTER we get our Visa do we?

Once you get approved, you dont need to prove that money any longer, correct?

If we show we have the £62,500 in savings and get our Visa, once we have it we can either reinvest that money or use a portion of that for the move, buying a car when we get there, paying rent up front, etc. correct? We don't have to hold that £62,500 for any time period AFTER we get our Visa do we?

As far as I know, that's correct.

You'll need to prove your income again when/if you renew in 2.5 years, but by then you'll hopefully both have been employed in the UK for at least 6 months.

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I don't know if it was strictly necessary, but we had our brokerage convert our investments to cash about a month before we applied, and just hold that money until after our application was approved, then immediately reinvest it. We didn't transfer it into a savings account or anything -- we just wanted to show that it was liquid.

As I said, I don't even know if that was entirely necessary, since it only takes a couple of days to convert the investments to cash, but we didn't want to take any chances.

If you're using investments for cash savings, it MUST be liquidated when you apply for the visa.

Once you get approved, you dont need to prove that money any longer, correct? If we show we have the £62,500 in savings and get our Visa, once we have it we can either reinvest that money or use a portion of that for the move, buying a car when we get there, paying rent up front, etc. correct? We don't have to hold that £62,500 for any time period AFTER we get our Visa do we?

You will need to prove you meet the same financial requirement for the next visa in 2.5 years, so it depends on whether you will need to use £62,500 in savings again, or if you will be able to meet the requirements under a different category.

Once you have the spousal visa, your UK income can count for the visa extension in 2.5 years.

We did have one person a few months ago who was in the situation that they had used cash savings to meet the requirements for the initial spousal visa, but then they used it to buy property... unfortunately, their hopes for steady employment didn't quite pan out and 2 years later, they were facing the possibility that they might not be able to qualify to stay in the UK. They were desperately trying to find a job that would be able to meet the requirements.

Just something to consider, since you never know what life will bring and what financial/employment situation you'll be in a couple of years later.

Just to add, you should hold it at least until you have entered the country on the visa.

Very good points, all of you. Thank you.