Application part 7- Your life in the UK

Does anyone know if owning a ONE bedroom property would have a negative impact on a settlement visa being granted to my wife and her child?
I am not the biological father of the child and am worried that the authorities would decline the visa's on the basis of my property being too small.

How old is the child?  Unless the child is under the age of 1, then it would be overcrowding. Can you expand or convert a room into a proper bedroom?

ETA linkage:
http://www.londonelegance.com/transpondia/spouse/acconotes.shtml

The child has just turned one. I am actively seeking to move to a larger family home but that then opens the doors to other issues like addresses on the application not  matching to the new address if it goes through whilst the application is being considered.

I don't know if the addresses matching matters at all, and the visa would be delivered to your wife's address abroad anyway. However, I think you need to provide proof before your wife applies.  Someone might correct me if I am wrong, but you may need to delay your application until you find adequate accommodation.

ETA: You're talking about leave to enter (spousal visa) and not further leave to remain or ILR, right?

Yes. a Settlement visa. She is in the US just now as we only got married last month.

Her visa would be sent to her US address.  However, I don't think the ECO would give you credit for looking for a place with enough bedrooms, and the child is over a year now, I think you'd need to find a place with two bedrooms before you apply or risk being rejected on the basis of inadequate accommodation.

Just because it's only a 1 bedroom is not enough to refuse based on accommodation as the rules are 2 or more people age 10 & over not living together as husband & wife. The rules also provide that any other room (such a living room/lounge) can be counted as a room for visa purposes as long as it is 50 sq ft or larger.

So it may not be necessary for the OP to have a 2 bedroom.

Official Guidance:

A house is considered to be overcrowded if 2 persons aged 10 years or more of opposite sexes, who are not living together as husband and wife, must sleep in the same room. The Act also details the maximum number of people allowed for a given number of rooms or a given room floor area.

Account is taken only of rooms with a floor area larger than 50 square feet and rooms of a type used either as a living room or bedroom.

Given that the child is not over the age of 10 then I don't seen an issue with accomodation here.

Well, that's good to know.  I will have to pass that information onto my BiL who is in an almost mirror situation to this poster's, down to the unknown father bit (different country of origin for the wife though). 

What if we fixed up our sitting room into a "bedroom"? Would that help?
What if our home gets sold in the middle of all this? If we can get away w/ the one bedroom place,  should we hold off on selling it and getting something bigger until I get them here with their visas? Gosh it can all be so overwhelming!
We really appreciate everyone's help