Please help!

I am a UK citizen currently living in Southern California with my American wife of 9 years and my 8 year old son. My son was born here in the US and holds both a UK and US passport. Can anyone advise me if he needs a visa to live in the UK? I spent a small fortune calling Worldbridge and one of their operators told me he doesn't need a visa to travel or reside there but I am concerned that this may not be true.
 
I am also applying for a settlement visa for my wife. On the application form under the accomodation section, it asks for us to provide an address where we will be staying in the UK on our arrival. We are in contact with several letting agents in the UK to find somewhere to rent, but this has been a real problem as none will rent us a property any more than 4 weeks in advance. So we cannot submit the visa application until we secure a property. Would it be ok to book a hotel for a short time while we look for somewhere to live? Will immigration allow this? Has anyone else had this problem?

Savings: We have over $20,000. Is this going to be enough?
 

Hi, you should find more extensive answers to your questions on the site, but in short:

No, your son does not need a visa as he holds a UK passport and is a UK citizen.

Your savings will be plenty.

I think the answer to your accommodation question is that it's fine, but I'm not 100%, so I think I'll let someone else answer that more definitively.

Yes, I just joined the site this morning and have already found some answers to our questions. I really appreciate your prompt reply.

It's frustrating as hell - we have more than enough money to rent a place for 6 months outright and these letting agents are telling us they can't secure a place until 4 weeks before we plan to arrive...so the visa application is on hold. We want to go home end of June to take advantage of my son's schooling and well the lease is up on our current rental then so it's perfect. The one thing I'm worried about is the timescale for approving my wife's visa. Any ideas on the turnaround time?
 

You can do a hotel and put that address on the app.  I did this and it was fine.

You REALLY do not want to rent a place sight unseen in the UK.  The standards are all over the place.  And if you think about it logically, people normally have 4  - 8 week notices (4 being more common).  Agents can't let out a property if they don't know it is coming on the market. 

Yeah, it seems easier to me too just to rent a hotel room for a few weeks and find somewhere once we are on British soil. We've seen some lovely places from Doncaster to Cornwall and the rents are pretty good. How did it work for you? Did you find a place pretty quickly?

Definitely don't rent a place sight unseen. I moved in with someone who had a room for rent in his home until I found my own place which took a little over a month. I had cats though, which is why it took a little longer.

And if your wife uses an expediter for her application the turn around time can be just a few days, if it's a straightforward application.

By using an expediter, I take it you mean one of the many visa service providers here in California? When I came out in 2000, I spent a small fortune using a lawyer and found out later I could have done the work myself. It sure would help put our minds at rest though if we could get the visa taken care of asap.

It is straightforward, well we think so. We've been married 9 years, living together for the same period, our 8 year old son has a UK passport and we have plenty of money to rent and support ourselves. Finding a job won't be a problem for either of us..can it get any more straightforward? Does anyone see any potential problems that I've missed?

You can see here for an explanation of expediters:

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=53694.0

And here for reviews of some of them:

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=54897.0

Wow, I just called AllStarPassports and spoke to one of their staff and they told me our application should be pretty easy to get approved....

I'm in shock right now...thank you UKY thank you.

Great news! Best of luck with everything!

Just a follow up - Wifes visa was approved in 24 hours, we leave for the UK April 30th! Busy packing everything and counting the days!

So bloody glad I found this site!

Thanks again for everything!

Thanks for the update-- it is always good to hear! Very glad everything has gone smoothly for you

Congratulations!

Great news!!  Good luck with all the packing!