My husband and I are about to apply for a spousal visa but we have a few concerns about the application and we'd really appreciate any opinions you can offer.
The basics of the situation are that I'm a 21 year-old American and he's 24 and British. We've known each other over a year and a half and have been married just over one year.
Our only concern is the financial section. My husband's working as a freelance artist and we're currently living with his parents. The bank statements for February, March, and the first week of April are all about £100 in overdraft, though it is an agreed one with the bank. His parents are charging £150 rent while he's living there alone, and £300 for both of us. In February his freelance earned £350, March £400, April £1100, and he's just gotten a contract job that will pay £1500 per month (first payment end of April or early May) as well as smaller monthly jobs he'll continue to do (around £200 a month) as well.
He worked at a company up until February so we have pay slips proving he can get quite a good job at a company if he wishes. I also have a bachelor's degree but no specific job qualifications. We know that overdrafts and low incomes are seriously looked down upon, but we don't know what to think about our situation. We would explain that since he only left his job in February, we were expecting the freelance to take a few months to get started and had planned to use the overdraft as part of that. Our expenses are only about £400 a month plus the £96 a week, which would easily be covered from April onwards because of the contract job. But would the fact of the overdraft and low income for February and March count too much against us?
As far as we can tell the rest of our application is perfect. We've lived together over a year, have close friends and family writing support statements, and have plenty of chats and photos backing us up. I've also researched it quite a bit and know everything to include and will make sure it's organized.
We'd originally planned to apply in early May, and I already have a plane ticket back to the UK booked for the end of May. I've been in the US for a couple of months so we both really hope we can stick to our original plan and apply in May and have the visa granted so we can be together again. But if there's a significant chance it'll be denied because of this situation, we would wait an extra two months to apply so we'd just have the week-long overdraft in the beginning of April, but consistently have over £1500 for April, May, and June, then apply for the visa in July.
My main questions are: Do we have any chance of receiving the visa in May or should we definitely apply in July? If we apply in May and it's denied, can we just apply again in July (after we pay the £515 a second time). Would we have to appeal instead of just applying again, or would our second application be harder because of a failed first one?
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Any comments would be very much appreciated.