Spouse Visa Rejection Letter Received - Appeals Advice Please!

Yesterday I contacted Medivisas and Laura Devine.  Devine haven't responded yet but Medivisas responded very quickly.  They also confirmed that I will not be able to reapply on the basis of my previous income in the US as I have already entered the UK and started this new job.

Now I feel completely lost and between this forum and now 6 lawyers I've contacted I can't get consensus on a plan going forward.

One thing Medivisas did say was that I can apply on the basis of my new employment as soon as I have earned £18,600 from this job, even if that comes before the 6 month mark.  I am skeptical of this advice though as the guidance seems to be very clear on the UK.gov webpage.  I forwarded this suggestion to a 2nd immigration lawyer and he agreed it is fine for me to apply as soon as I hit £18,600 gross.  I will reach that milestone in January, about 2.5 months after starting the job, so this makes for a very appealing option but I am desperately seeking some assurances here that some of you have seen others take this route and that it is indeed possible?  I am also bemused as to why none of the other 5 lawyers I contacted offered this as a solution.

Another issue the lawyers differ on is whether it would be ok for my wife to join me in the UK for the next few weeks as I continue to earn towards the £18,600 threshold.  One suggested I simply apply for a visitor visa for her (not necessary though as she's from the USA), whilst the other strongly discouraged it as it would jeopardize her 2nd visa application.

This all seems insane given that the route cause is that I failed to tick a single box in her online application.  But I'm trying to get her here as soon as possible and I can't get a word of sense out of anybody that isn't immediately contradicted by the very next lawyer I speak to.

Any thoughts anyone?

Follow Medivisas advice.  They have never EVER steered anyone wrong in my experience.  And yeah, I get how the previous self-employment no longer counts now that you are employed and living in the UK.

Personally I'd visit her in the USA or a third country versus trying to have her visit you.  The risk of refusal is very high and unlikely to be worth it.  Could you imagine if she sat on a flight all night (and I think there is a child too?) only to be held for a few hours and returned on the first flight back.  It would be awful.

Contact Medivisas again and ask if you can apply as soon as you have earned £18,600.  That *might* be a possibility.  But again, I don't think you can combined that with self-employment income.

You still haven't answered if you can meet the requirement through savings - I suspect not as you aren't addressing it.  Remember, savings/retirement/some investments in EITHER of your names counts. 

One thing Medivisas did say was that I can apply on the basis of my new employment as soon as I have earned £18,600 from this job, even if that comes before the 6 month mark.  I am skeptical of this advice though as the guidance seems to be very clear on the UK.gov webpage.  I forwarded this suggestion to a 2nd immigration lawyer and he agreed it is fine for me to apply as soon as I hit £18,600 gross.  I will reach that milestone in January, about 2.5 months after starting the job, so this makes for a very appealing option but I am desperately seeking some assurances here that some of you have seen others take this route and that it is indeed possible?  I am also bemused as to why none of the other 5 lawyers I contacted offered this as a solution.

From what I can tell, I think this advice is correct, because it would mean you could meet the requirements under Category B, for which you must meet the following 2 requirements:
1) You earn a salary of more than £18,600 per year but have been with your current UK employer for LESS THAN 6 months
and
2) You have earned at least £18,600 in the last 12 months from any job(s), in the UK or overseas.

So, if you can show you have earned at least £18,600 in the last 12 months, NOT including your US self-employment income (i.e. you have earned £18,600 or more just from your new UK job), then I believe you can apply under Category B.

Edited to add: I don't think I've seen anyone else actually apply this way though... but that's because almost no one on this forum has secured a job which pays enough that they can earn £18,600 in less than 6 months . In many cases, the sponsor's job only pays a little over £18,600, so they would qualify under Category A before they earned £18,600 total.

Thanks again Ksand24.

It looks like this is certainly our plan A.  I'm now looking to accelerate it slightly by asking my employer for an advance of a couple of week's wages.

One piece I just received today from one of the lawyers I've contacted is this:

"Great! You should be able to qualify on that basis. FYI - it’s not necessary for you to be able to show £18 600 for the employment period to date (less than 6 months), so long as you can show that the annual salary for your job is £18 600 – signed employment contract, pay slips to date etc."

That advice goes against pretty much everything else I've seen (who in their right mind would wait the 6 months then?), but thought I'd share it here nonetheless.

One piece I just received today from one of the lawyers I've contacted is this:

"Great! You should be able to qualify on that basis. FYI - it’s not necessary for you to be able to show £18 600 for the employment period to date (less than 6 months), so long as you can show that the annual salary for your job is £18 600 – signed employment contract, pay slips to date etc."

That advice goes against pretty much everything else I've seen (who in their right mind would wait the 6 months then?), but thought I'd share it here nonetheless.

Yeah, that's only HALF the requirement for Category B... the other half is that you must have earned at least £18,600 in the previous 12 months, to make up for the fact that you haven't been with your employer for 6 months yet.

However, I think they are answering a different question than you think, because yes, there is no requirement to have earned a total of £18,600 with the current job, because for Category A and the first part of Category B, you just need to show an annual salary of £18,600, regardless of how much you have earned so far in that job (i.e. for Category A, you only need to show at least £9,300 earned in the 6 months, and for Category B, it's any amount, as long as you hold the job).

BUT in your case, you DO need to show you have earned £18,600 at your current job, because you are using that income to meet the SECOND part of Category B, due to not being able to use your US earnings.