Preparing for my fiancee's spousal visa

Hello there. I've been lurking on this forum for a while now.

I'm getting married to my girlfriend this September, and we hope to have her over here in UK on a spousal visa soon after.

Maybe it's a bit too soon for this thread, but I thought it would be prudent to ask some questions now, rather than lack knowledge and make mistakes later! Basically I want to know what our prospects are and if our schedule will work.

Quick facts:

Laura lives in Hayward, CA and is a US citizen. I live in Scotland and am a UK citizen.

She will be 21 after August, I am 21 now*.

We met online about 5 years ago and we have visited each other for months at a time every year since - proving that we have met/are in a genuine relationship should not be a problem. I have been over there twice this year already.

Laura will be finishing her degree this year and currently works part time as a tutor at her uni. She does not have much in terms of savings, but she isn't hideously in debt either. I think her job prospects are arguably better than mine in that she will have a degree already when she comes over.

I currently earn just over £15k gross which roughly equates to over £900 p/m net. I have over £6000 currently in savings, and hopefully will have more by September. I am reasonably certain about my job security and I have payslips to prove I've been working here for over a year.

I currently live with my parents, but I understand that accommodation with parents is no longer accepted for spousal visas, so I'll be getting a lease for a 1 bedroom flat before I fly out in september. Is there a required duration for having a lease before applying? ie: Would I be able to get a flat in August and use the lease in the application? Or would I have to live there for longer? Being able to avoid paying rent for a while would certainly stave off some of the blows my wallet will be taking this year...

Rent seems to be in the range of £450/£500 a month for a decent place in Aberdeen (not really a housing downturn here ) but that should leave over £95 p/m even after electricity etc, surely?

Questions:

We are getting married in the US on the 5th of September. It would have been sooner, perhaps, but we learnt that both parties now have to be over 21. Laura's birthday is in August. Is that cutting it a bit fine? I am 22 in November.

I've decided to send our stuff via courier, since I think the wait would kill me, and it would be great if we could fly back together. With a courier, how long does the application take to process on average from the LA branch?

That leads onto the next question: how many days holiday should I take when I fly over? Would it be smarter to wait for the results of the application before booking Laura's flight?

Last one for now, and it seems like a silly question:
I've lost my NI card - is it essential? 

Thanks very much for any responses. This is a scary process (I'm sure many of you can relate) but hopefully it won't be so bad if we've got our facts in order.


*Young, I know, but we feel we are sufficiently mature for this step.

You can still live with parents to meet the accommodation requirement. You just have to prove you have one bedroom to yourselves and I think you have to pay them a reasonable amount of rent or else it's considered third-party support.

Oh, and they don't need your NI card. In fact, the online application won't even ask for your NI number.

I think it does.  But no, the card is not needed.

Vicky

Thanks for the fast answers!

I wonder why I was so sure that the parents house couldn't be used for accommodation. They have a 3 bedroom house, which leaves us two rooms. I think we will probably try and get a place of our own as soon as possible, but it would be a good fall back plan.

Any comments on the financial side? Or the timing of our application?

If I were you, I'd plan to stay with your parents for a few months until you get settled, that'll give you plenty of time to find an apartment together.  You can budget for paying your parents a small amount of rent, maybe £100-£200, and to contribute to their bills.  That should leave you with enough left over per week to meet the requirements.  As long as you're both 21, it won't matter that she has just turned 21.  You could apply the day after her birthday, if you wanted.  If you're organised and your application is straightforward and there are no unforseen delays (there have been some issues with biometric data recently) and if you use an expediter, you should have your visa within a week.  Don't cut it too close, though, because there are no guarantees, and DON'T buy her plane ticket until you have her visa, unless the ticket is completely refundable or changable without penalties.  Try to have at least two weeks that you can spend in the US.  I don't think California has a waiting period, so ideally you could get married a day or two after you arrive, mail your documents to the expediter, wait a few days, get her visa, then spend some stress-free time together before you go to the UK.    Remember that you can complete the online application form before the wedding, but that the biometrics should be done after it.  Also, make sure that you can get a copy of your marriage certificate asap, you will need to submit it with your documents, and it can sometimes take a week or two to arrive unless you make arrangements to get it sooner. 

That's all I can think of for now.  Good luck!

There's no waiting period in California before a couple can get married.  And no special visa is required for a non-US partner -- as a UK citizen you can simply enter the US as a visitor under the visa waiver program, although that has recently become a little more involved than it used to be.  You will, however, need a marriage license.  You both have to appear in person, with identification and proof of age (passport is ordinarily acceptable) at a County Clerk's office to get it.  Cost is nominal (around $50, I believe), but at many County Clerk's offices in California it is wise or sometimes required to schedule an appointment to get the license.  Ask Laura to check it out for you.

Getting certified copies of the marriage certificate from the County Clerk's office once you are married and supply the signed marriage license back to that office is straightforward, but in my case in San Diego County in January it took over a week.

Note also that the UK spousal visa fee is NOT nominal (well over $800, not counting the fee the expediter will charge!) and needs to be figured into your near-term budget.

NI card is not required, but your NI number must appear in the visa application.  Also it would be wise to have a certified copy of your passport for the visa application (I think all that's needed is the identity/photo pages), which you should obtain from a solicitor in the UK before you come across the pond.

Remember, the "magic" number for maintenance is not 95GBP per MONTH, but rather per WEEK.  It looks like with your salary alone, and the rent you quoted, you will not have enough.

True mirrajay but he's got £6,000 in savings which should be able to make up the difference.

My advice...save...save...save! The bigger your bank account balances the better the chances if your income is low.

The online application does ask for your NI number, it should be printed on one of your payslips.

If you can't afford a solicitor to certify your documents just have a Notary Public do it when you're in California, they're dead cheap. $1 or $2 per page (last time I used one).

True mirrajay but he's got £6,000 in savings which should be able to make up the difference.

Absolutely.  Man, I would have loved to have had £6K in savings when we applied for my visa!

Thanks again for the responses.

£95 p/w seems like more than we would actually spend, but who knows, things always add up.

I should have over £6000 by the time I apply. Hopefully around £8000 before the fee (ouch) and after flights etc. Laura has offered to pay the fee, though. We're not sure how much money she will have by September - probably over $3000. I am hoping that they'll realise that Aberdeen is quite an easy town to get a job in and she'll soon be able to supplement my income...

I'll see how much it costs to get my documents copied.

How recent do my bank statements need to be? I was thinking of getting them printed out the day before leaving the UK.

Given my poorness, would it look better or worse to just state that we'll be staying with my parents and paying them a fee of something like £250 p/m? They would let us stay for free until we could find a new place, but I'd rather make it worth their while.

Oh yeah, and is there any way I can point out the fact that I won't be spending over £2000 a year on flights? 

I think I'll have to get a new NI card anyway, since I don't know my #. I suppose that I could ask my employer for it.

You don't actually have to pay your parents rent, you just have to show that you can.  £250/month sounds reasonable. 

If you're applying in September, try to have bank statements for June, July, and August. 

You won't get a new NI card.  You can look on your payslips or your P60, as your employer, or contact HMRC for a reminder.

Vicky

So, I managed to get my NI number sent to me (you were right - I didn't get a new card) and I have some more questions about documentation:

Would it be a better idea to get documents notarised here, or in the States? I ask this because my fiancee's aunt would be qualified to do this, but would it be seen as a conflict of interest?

Is there much difference between certification and notarisation?

If I understand correctly, is it only documents that have been copied (eg: passport) that need to be certified/notarised? For instance - when I print out my bank statements before I leave the UK at the end of August, do I need to have them certified as well?

I have stamps in my passport showing previous visits - do I need to have a copy of the pages they are on, or just my details page?

I read on another thread that I would only require a regular photocopy of my passport if I were to provide my birth certificate, is this still true?

Employment/finances questions:
If I can provide a year of printed payslips (do I need to notarise these as well?) do I require a letter from my employer assuring my future employment?

I am paid on the 15th every month. Would it be worth attaching a note to either my payslips or bank statement to say that I'll be £1000 better off by the time Laura comes back with me? Might be a bit cheeky, I don't know.

Thanks in advance. We're nearing crunch time and things are getting scary.

In short, anything that you personally print off would need to be stamped and signed in some regard. If you print out your bank statements online, they'll need to be signed and stamped by someone at the bank to verify that your bank information is correct. If you print off payslips, you need your employer to either stamp and sign or provide a letter attesting to the validity of those payslips. You'll need a letter from your employer *anyway* verifying your employment details (my husband's letter just said he was full-time, permanent, had worked at his job since X date, and made Y amount per year).

As for your passport--if you have the 'long' form birth certificate (i.e. it lists your parents names and details, etc), then you'll only need a color photocopy of your passport page, and my husband had copies of his visa stamp pages made as well just in case. Even though we didn't *need* to do it in our case, we went to my bank to get the photocopies notarised since it was free, and it really didn't take much time out of our schedule, and I'm OCD and did it out of an overabundance of caution.

*note: I don't know if her aunt notarising things would be a conflict of interest, but it shouldn't be terribly difficult to find another notary--most banks have them, you might want to try the bank your fiance banks with to find one.

With your bank statements and payslips, the ECO would be aware of when you get paid every month, so they'll take that into consideration at the time of your application. The minimum is 3 months, but most people shoot for 6 to show a consistent, sustainable income. You may also want to include a budget showing incoming versus outgoing, and you can also include bits of your savings as well to help you out until things get more stable.