US-based self-employment while living in the UK

Greetings to all! I am relatively new here and I think this is my first post. I am 31, married (no kids), and have always wanted to live in the UK. Having visited five times now, the desire has only grown.

I've been searching back through the threads on jobs and visas, but still have a couple unanswered questions and I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.  (I will post the first question here; the second one is job-related and I'll put that one in the jobs thread.)

Question: My husband and I are both US citizens. He is a computer programmer and is self-employed. As long as we have electricity and an internet connection, he can work from anywhere in the world. His main client is US-based. His pay is in US funds deposited into a US bank account and he pays US taxes. Is there a visa for self-sufficient people who won't need a job in the UK, won't be collecting a UK salary, but will still have an income from the US?

Thanks for your help.
Angela

Hi there - unfortunately there is no such visa and doing that kind of thing on a visitor visa is a big no-no.  However, if he came here as a trailing spouse (for example), I think his visa would allow him to do that.

Well, that's disappointing! If only he were over 60, we could do the "Retired persons of independent means" visa! 

Thanks for the reply.

I'm in similar boat - US citizen, own a consulting practice.  We have a US based client who has a UK division, and we're going to do a project for them, being based out of london for all of 2006 (or so we hope).  The US company will pay my company, and i will then pay myself

any advice on visa and permit?

misterpanda, if you were to come for only 6 months you might be able to do it as a business visitor, otherwise you might want to look at whethery ou would qualify as a businessperson which would involve invresting capital here:

http://www.workingintheuk.gov.uk/working_in_the_uk/en/homepage/schemes_and_programmes/businessman.html?

http://www.workingintheuk.gov.uk/working_in_the_uk/en/homepage/schemes_and_programmes/business_visitors.html?