UKC sponsor for ILR self-employed

UKC married to USC who is currently resident in the UK on FLR(M). Eligible for ILR in Dec 17 under the 5 year route.

I, the UKC sponsor, am currently employed permanently by a large defence company. I'm considering becoming a freelance contractor and setting up on my own. However, I'm aware that the current guidelines stipulate a requirement for a full financial year's company tax return (CT600 I think) to enable sponsorship for the financial req this way. The only alternative as a self-employed person seems to be to meet the steep cash requirements.

Can anyone confirm my understanding please? And therefore that, due to ILR having to be applied for in Dec 17, I wouldn't be able to meet the sponsorship req with anything but cash (I have no investments or other assets to liquidate)? I'm kinda thinking I'll have to stay permanently employed until ILR is done...

Thanks


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Is your US spouse currently working in the UK? If so, and they can meet the requirement using just their income then you won't need to worry about your employment as you can just use their income instead.

If not though, and you are the only one who can meet the requirement then you'll need to stick with your job (or just not go self-employed) until after you have applied for the ILR.

You do need to show a full tax year for self-employment, so for a Dec 2017 application, they will only consider self-employment income for April 2016 to April 2017. It's also very tricky to meet the requirements with self-employment due to the sheer number of documents required.


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Thanks. I would have to check whether she would meet it on her own. If not, I could make her an employee of my company and pay her the difference plus pay slips etc.

It was straight forward to satisfy the financial req as a permanent employee myself so it might not be worth the risk as you suggest!


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Thinking more and looking at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/525708/Appendix_FM_1_7_Financial_Requirement.pdf

USC makes £15100 permanently employed. If we had, £19500 in the bank (ie £16000 plus £3500 shortfall to the £18600 ILR req), could she self sponsor using cash? Of course contingent upon it being in our joint current account for 6 months prior to application and obeying the other cash rules?


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Luckily, the amount of cash savings required for ILR is less than for the FLR(M), so yes, if you were able to hold  £19,500 in full for 6 months you could combine it with the USC's income of £15,100.

It's not really about sponsoring or self-sponsoring - once the USC is in the UK, their income counts as well... So you can either combine incomes or use whichever one meets the requirement.


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Thanks for your help ksand


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