UK Fiancé Visa - Cash Savings

Hi there!

American lady here applying to be with my British partner. We met in 2017 through instagram, 2018 in-person and have officially been together since with many visits in-between.
 
Quick backhistory: He holds a salary position that falls short of the financial requirement – we needed to supplement it with £41,700 in cash savings.
Through a  2020 miracle, we came into £30,000 via months of online sales of personal belongings. To help meet our goal, his mother gifted us £10,000. The additional cash required will be coming from my own savings account.

We are now finally filling out our application but have just run into a potential snag.
The £10,000 that his mother gifted us was deposited into a joint savings account that she opened. Both her and my partner's names are on the account. My partner had deposited his additional £30,000 into this account where it has been sitting for the last year.
We have a letter from his mother verifying that the account was opened for solely his use and we were planning on attaching it to the application.

My question is -- will this be an issue? Do we need to take her name off of the account? Or will we still be able to apply with her name jointly on it. I've just hit the application question of "Add cash savings in the same of and solely in control of: me, him, or me and him...."

Thank you!

Hi there!

American lady here applying to be with my British partner. We met in 2017 through instagram, 2018 in-person and have officially been together since with many visits in-between.
 
Quick backhistory: He holds a salary position that falls short of the financial requirement – we needed to supplement it with £41,700 in cash savings.
Through a  2020 miracle, we came into £30,000 via months of online sales of personal belongings. To help meet our goal, his mother gifted us £10,000. The additional cash required will be coming from my own savings account.

We are now finally filling out our application but have just run into a potential snag.
The £10,000 that his mother gifted us was deposited into a joint savings account that she opened. Both her and my partner's names are on the account. My partner had deposited his additional £30,000 into this account where it has been sitting for the last year.
We have a letter from his mother verifying that the account was opened for solely his use and we were planning on attaching it to the application.

My question is -- will this be an issue? Do we need to take her name off of the account? Or will we still be able to apply with her name jointly on it. I've just hit the application question of "Add cash savings in the same of and solely in control of: me, him, or me and him...."

Thank you!

Welcome.

Firstly, what is his salary? For you to need to boost it with £41.7k,  it would only be £8,320 so I'm wondering if you've miscalculated somewhere along the way?

But yes savings must have been held for at least 6 months in an account in the name of only you, him or the two of you jointly.

But yes savings must have been held for at least 6 months in an account in the name of only you, him or the two of you jointly.

To add to this, I believe that if anyone else is named on the account, then the money in it will be considered equally divided between the people named on the account… and only your portion of that money can count for the visa.

So, if you have £40,000 of your savings in there, but if both he and his mother are named on the account, then only 1/2 of that money is considered his and can be used for the visa… which would only be £20,000.

In order to be able to use the whole £40,000, what you’ll need to do is take his mother’s name off the account and then leave the money in there for at least 6 months after that. Or you could move the money into an different account in just his name, or just your name, or both your names jointly, and then wait 6 months.


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Welcome.

Firstly, what is his salary? For you to need to boost it with £41.7k,  it would only be £8,320 so I'm wondering if you've miscalculated somewhere along the way?

But yes savings must have been held for at least 6 months in an account in the name of only you, him or the two of you jointly.

Hi! Yes those numbers are correct. So if tomorrow, we removed his mother from the account, we would need to wait another 6 months?

Hi! Yes those numbers are correct. So if tomorrow, we removed his mother from the account, we would need to wait another 6 months?

Yes, unfortunately you do, because the full amount of £41.7k must have been in an account in his name only (and/or your name) for a minimum of 6 months in order to meet the requirement.


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Yes, unfortunately you do, because the full amount of £41.7k must have been in an account in his name only (and/or your name) for a minimum of 6 months in order to meet the requirement.


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Argh. This is what I was afraid of. Super frustrating as I had paid for guidance and they failed to mention this...The money's been sitting in the account for nearly a year now so totally could have been moved sooner!
Thank you so much for your help! Glad I caught it before submitting anything!

Argh. This is what I was afraid of. Super frustrating as I had paid for guidance and they failed to mention this...The money's been sitting in the account for nearly a year now so totally could have been moved sooner!
Thank you so much for your help! Glad I caught it before submitting anything!

From the official guidance in Appendix FM-SE (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-fm-se-family-members-specified-evidence):

(a) Bank statements must:
(i) be from a financial institution to which Appendix Finance applies.
(ii) DELETED.
(iii) in relation to personal bank statements be only in the name of:
(1) the applicant’s partner, the applicant or both as appropriate; or
(2) if the applicant is a child the applicant parent’s partner, the applicant’s parent or both as appropriate; or
(3) if the applicant is an adult dependent relative, the applicant’s sponsor or the applicant, unless otherwise stated.

And

11. In respect of cash savings the following must be provided:
(a) personal bank statements showing that at least the level of cash savings relied upon in the application has been held in an account(s) in the name of the person or of the person and their partner jointly throughout the period of 6 months prior to the date of application.
(b) A declaration by the account holder(s) of the source(s) of the cash savings.


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