spouse visa help!

Hello all,
This is my first time posting and I am getting a bit confused about getting my husband a spouse visa. If someone could help and save me phoning that extortionate phone line ($12/hr  ) I'd be very grateful.

So, our situation is that I'm a Brit and living with my husband in the US where we're both grad students. I'm finished and got a great job offer in the UK - now just got to get my husband's visa in order.

We did the on-line application, paid the $1,000. The thing is that when we came to set the interview, it chose Newark for us because that's the closest. Fine, but the earliest appointment in Newark is early July. I'm due to go to the UK for a week straight after so we won't get the documents off to New York until mid-July. We HAVE to fly by mid-August because I need to begin my job and we have children as well - my husband's going to be home with them and writing his thesis the first year. What was frustrating was that we saw that there were appointment centres with appointments next week in Philly and Hackensack (both very accessible for us) - but I couldn't go back in to select them. Is that leaving us enough time?

I also don't get where we send the documents to. So, he FIRST goes to the biometric appointment with his passport and copy of the appointment invitation. And THEN we send all the documents to NYC?

Here's the list of documents we thought to send:
1) His CV
2) My offer of employment
3) Letter from my Mum saying we can stay at hers until we sort out a rental + a COPY of her deeds
4) Translated wedding certificate (we were married abroad in a non-English speaking country) - is an official translation OK or do we need an apostille or notary?
5) Children's passports or birth certificates (or both?). One of them has a UK passport, the other one doesn't (we never got around to it) - both were born here.
6) Bank statements last 6 months
7) Both our passports
My job pays 45,000 pounds which is more than enough for us to live on - do I need to provide a budget as well?
9) Do we need a cover letter explaining how we met (although we've been married since 2001 and have a child together, since it shouldn't look like a sham marriage!), what we intend to do (i.e. he's going to stay home with the baby until he gets his thesis done and then seek employment) or is it not their business as long as we have enough to live on?

Thank you!

If you have a letter confirming the job offer when you start, and how much your going to be earning ect that sounds good, the amount looks good, I can't help with the appointments as we did not have to do this bio, there should be an address on the application or site stating where to send the application form, most people have had their visa issued quiet quickly within a few weeks some within a few days, I would get your youngest an English passport asap save on visa expense and possibly easier.

You seem to have all your paper work but you need to put down you will be paying rent and your mom needs to confirm it in a letter as it is now classed as them supporting you 3rd party if you do not pay rent, this is not allowed anymore.

You could see if you can call the other bio centres and see if they can book you to go there instead if this is allowed as I said we did not do this.

Good luck with it all.

Indy

Sorry you might want to put down what the Help means in the title people might not look.

Can you clarify what you mean by 'interview'?  Have they called you for interview or do you mean the biometrics test?

Vicky

I *think* it's the biometrics. I've been looking at the e-mail that they sent rather than the on-line instructions and now it's clearer. My husband's appointment is on the 5th July. I'm away from the 7th to the 11th (i.e. I'll need my passport) and we can then send our forms in on the 13th (Monday). We are planning to fly mid-August (in fact, we HAVE to fly by then). I'm just worried that there'll be a hiccup of sorts, although I can't see why. We've been married for 7 years, 2 kids, good job offer - there's nothing there that should red flag it.

Do we really need all the hassle of paying my Mum rent if we're going to just stay there in the first few days rather than a hotel? We're actually planning not to stay there at all, or only a few days, and move straight into rented accommodation. But it's the sort of thing that you can only arrange weeks rather than months in advance. Surely they are reasonable enough to understand that?

Is it essential to sort out a UK passport for my youngest? She's a British citizen by descent through me, like my older one. I just thought we'd enter the UK on her US passport, just to save one less hassle  ! Can they deny us entry in that case?

Also, does anyone know about the translation thing for our marriage certificate? Is a certified official translation OK, or does it need an apostille or notary's signature?

Thank you!!!

Also, does anyone know about the translation thing for our marriage certificate? Is a certified official translation OK, or does it need an apostille or notary's signature?

Is it a Hague country?

No, we were married in Israel.

Oh, and one more query. Looking through this site, I saw that there are targets for the biometric. Surely, Newark is falling out of this target if we can only get an appointment for July. Why don't they let ME choose the centre?? Do you think that there's any point in going down to Philly that DOES have loads of appointments throughout June. I read that some people successfully did that.

Is it essential to sort out a UK passport for my youngest? She's a British citizen by descent through me, like my older one. I just thought we'd enter the UK on her US passport, just to save one less hassle  ! Can they deny us entry in that case?

Your youngest either will have to get a UK passport or a visa in her US passport.  A UK passport is *probably* easiest & cheapest.

Re:  biometrics.  Book it for as soon as possible, then stroll in when you can on the off chance that they can fit you in.  I don't know how it works in Newark, but several people have been successful doing this elsewhere in the US. 

Re;  your child.  It is best to apply for a passport in advance, and probably won't take that long - others on here may have more info on this than I do.  otherwise, if she has a US passport she almost certainly will be allowed into the UK as a visitor on this, and you can sort a British passport from the UK (assuming she is elgible) but it's a messy way of doing it and may result in a telling off from the immigration officer.  You are breaking no laws by doing this though.

Re: paying your mum rent.  You need to show that you won't be a financial burden on her, so you will need to state some rent and/or share of bills, depending on your situation.  It's not really much hassle to put an amount on a form.  Although, if you have already put 'zero' on the form, it's really too late, so you may want to mention this in the support letter from her that you are sending with the paperwork.

Vicky

Thank you Vicky.

If it's just a question of putting a rent on a form, then that's fine. We have submitted the form already, but I'll write in the cover note an explanation that we are moving into rented accommodation ASAP after arrival.

Guess I'll have to get going on my little one's passport. Ho hum. One more thing to do!! We've had a telling off before when we went to the UK on vacation and she entered on her US passport, not much fun!

Regarding the biometric, we'll probably go down there ASAP rather than waiting a month. Thing is, if we are booked for Newark, can we go to a different centre or MUST we go to Newark?

Nope.  Apostile.  You'll need it anyway for the in-country apps down stream.