Need Help *Death*

Mariposa-

Thanks for your suggestion. I have the number for Social security but they aren't open until tomorrow. Nothing is open today.....hence why this is even more difficult.

His father worked for well over 10 years, so I am certain my son would be eligible, and I am just hoping they can print or fax me some kind of statement quickly enough. Even if it is just an estimate.

From what I gather, it shouldn't matter that we reside out of the country. I believe.

Jayen,
You are quite welcome.  With all that happens in the event of such a death, this is not always thought about.  I brought it up to a friend, when her ex died and her 3 children needed support.  It did help her with the expenses for which she used to use child support.  

As WebyJ said, "That's what all of us are here for."  I'm glad to have provided that small bit of help.  

Is there a sample online of a sponsor letter?

I am far too whacked out in the head to even begin to think of where I would start. (And Matt is busy trying to make phone calls, etc. on my behalf right now, so I want to just type it and have him sign it)

Thanks again, SO MUCH!

This is Garry's site for the spousal visa. It contains LOADS of good information INCLUDING a sponsor letter about half-way down the page: http://www.londonelegance.com/transpondia/spouse/.

Thanks so much for the link. That is an excellent example.

I was reading over the notes on the page and it says that if our tenancy agreement has less than 6 months, I need a letter from my landlord showing intent to renew our tenancy agreement. Ours has 3 months left, but now that my son is moving in, we would not want to renew our tenancy agreement here. Not that the house is not fit, or not large enough. It is just that we would like something with a Garden, which our house doesn't have. I don't want to lie to my landlord about an intent to say on, if we cannot guarantee we are willing to do so.

How likely is it that we will be rejected based on this?

I don't have any advice to add to the loads others have already posted, but I wanted to say that I'm sorry for your loss (even though he was your ex-husband, his death will have an effect on you/your son), and congrats on getting married!   Hopefully you and your husband can have a real honeymoon in a few months once this is all sorted.

Good luck with everything!

How likely is it that we will be rejected based on this?

I doubt they would refuse it outright on accommodation alone, but they may elect to defer the application to a later date to enable you to make the proper arrangements.  As of last week, they have a mandate to be a whole lot more worried about the movement of children and it's way early to see how this will be interpreted in the field.

And about the 6 month thingie on my site, be careful to note that it's a SPOUSE being talked about and not a child joining a parent who is already here.  The two situations are in two different ball parks.  Obviously there's no need for a sponsor's attestation for their own child. 

To make everything smooth, I suggest focusing hard on the acco at this point in time. 

Garry-

By 'focusing hard' on the accommodation, can you clarify what you mean?

I am just a bit confused as I have a 2 bedroom house. My husband and I are the only people that live in the house at this time. So, I don't understand why it would be a problem to have 3 people living in a 2 bedroom house.

I have the original tenancy agreement and a copy of a declaration from the sale of the house showing that it is a 2 bedroom house. I have a letter from the landlord stating that my son has permission to live in the house.

Is there anything else I can do?

This sounds fine.  You're good to go.

Can you please let me know if the following letter is sufficient?

MXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXX
Colchester
Essex
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
United Kingdom
+44XXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXX@gmail.com

TO:
British Consulate General
Los Angles, California
United States

Regarding:    XXXXXXXXXXX  - DOB: XXXXXXXXX
      XXXXXXXXXXX – DOB: XXXXXXXXX

To: The Entrance Clearance Officer

At this time, I would like to express that I am pleased to offer sponsorship to my wife,
XXXXXXXXXXXx (previously XXXXXXXXX) and my step-son, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.
I am a British citizen by birth and have lived in England continuously throughout my lifetime. I am currently employed at XXXXXXXXXXXX in Colchester, Essex and I work 27 hours a week at £6 per hour.  I have worked there since the 7th of July, 2009. Previous to living with my wife, I was receiving incapacity benefit due to illness, but that ceased in November of 2008 when my wife (then girlfriend) and I began cohabiting in a relationship akin to marriage. Through my wife’s support and assistance I was able to advocate in my own medical care and regain my ability to work.

My marriage to XXXXXXXXXXXX is my first marriage. My wife was previously married and her divorced was finalized in September of 2008 after a lengthy separation.  My wife has one child, XXXXXXXXXXXXX who is included in her application as a dependent.  My wife’s ex-husband is recently and unexpectedly deceased and as they previously shared joint custody of their son, she now has sole responsibility for her son.

Following an internet prelude, I first met my wife when she came to England for a summer vacation in June of 2008. We spent considerable time together during her 6 week holiday. In November of 2008 my wife entered the United Kingdom under a work permit visa and began her employment with XXXXXXXXXXXXX where she is presently and will continue to be employed. At this time my wife and I began cohabitating at XXXXXXXXXXX, Colchester in a relationship akin to marriage. In April of 2009 I proposed marriage and on the 31st of July, 2009 we were married in St. Michael’s Church in Colchester, Essex.

I have included the following documents in support of her application:
1.   Bank Statements
2.   Pay Slips and letter from my employer
3.   Original Tenancy Agreement
4.   Council Tax Statement

In recent months, my account shows unusual activity as we have been in receipt of several cash gifts towards our wedding and honeymoon from my parents and from other members of my family.

Other supporting material will be provided by XXXXXXXX  including income documentation and verification to show that we are able to support our household including my step-son. I hope that you will find this documentation satisfactory and proceed with the issuance of her visa and her son’s visa so that we can be quickly rejoined as a family. We are anxious to provide a stable and loving home to my wife’s son as he is experiencing tremendous grief following the loss of his father.

If you are in need of any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards,

XXXXXXXXXXXX

**************

ALSO-
I know I am probably being paranoid, but if they deny me, will that in some way invalidate my work visa? I cannot afford to lose my job as my husband and I will lose everything as I am the primary financial support for our family. I would end up stuck out in America without employment and with a son to look after while my husband was unable to fill the financial obligation of our tenancy agreement. If for some reason they deny us, our plan B was for me to return to the United Kingdom while my mother looked after my son for a short period until we could sort out the details to bring him over.

Your letter seems fine to me. However you may want to include the part about losing the passport and submitting the Certified Long Form Birth Certificate instead.

I wouldn't think that your WP would be curtailed if your settlement visa is refused since it is still valid and will be until it's expiry date, however hopefully someone with professional experience will comment upon it as this is just an educated guess on my part, however I will do some digging and see if I can come up with anything regarding.

I don't have any advice to add to the loads others have already posted, but I wanted to say that I'm sorry for your loss (even though he was your ex-husband, his death will have an effect on you/your son), and congrats on getting married!   Hopefully you and your husband can have a real honeymoon in a few months once this is all sorted.

Good luck with everything!

This was what I was going to say!
Good luck with everything 

Jayen, I am so sorry to hear about this.  Good luck bringing your son to the UK!

Thank you all for you kind thoughts.

I am running across a few more issues and perhaps I could get more help/answers:

1) My husband does not know his passport number. The passport was lost some time ago and was only used once in the 5 years he had it. Do we need the passport number? If we need it, how does he go about getting it?

2) We went around to banks to get statements today. Of course we needed current statements and some of my accounts (like HSBC) only send statements once a qurater and my husband's bank account was set up paperless long before we met and he had only just gotten his first 2 statements (we knew he would need them for my spouse visa which we thought we were going to apply for in October so we started having them sent.) Here is what I managed to get:
A) LLOYDS - print outs going back for the last 45 days since the last paper statement was sent. They look like print outs - no letter head - but they are each stamped and signed as true copies.
B) HSBC - Print outs going back to last statement (which was in March). They are on HSBC letter head but still look like print outs. They would not sign them. My new statement from March to August went in the mail today.
C) CO-OP - They would only give us really crappy looking print outs that give little detail and they said their computer system in house does not go back over 45 days in any way that can be printed. But we did at least get his recent transactions (about 25 days worth) printed out, stamped and signed. He ordered an April and a May statement as he only has paper statements from late May through to today. It only amounts to 2.5 months so we are just going to have to wait on the April and May ones to be sent. Hopefully they will look good as his bank did not want to sign ANYTHING.
D) BBT (in America) - I called them and they are preparing printed out statements, signed and stamped by the manager along with a cover letter on bank stationary.

In total we have about 2500 GBP in current account and about 4500 GBP in savings. I am assuming this will be enough.

3) Part of the reason we have so much in 'savings' is that we took out a loan on 90 days no interest back 2 months ago in order to pay for the wedding (3000 GBP). After we already got the money his parents announced that they would pay. So we used the money to be able to advance purchases for the wedding and then his parents would transfer the money a few days later. The 90 days isn't up until October 1st and we were planning to pay it off this week now that the wedding is over, but now think we should hold off until I get back from America in case we need the money for transportation, etc. Will it look bad that we have a recent loan? We have the ability to make the payments on it with no problem in our budget so should we do a cover letter or just include the loan payments in our budget that we send?

4) I was previously on an NT tax code (long story about how I qualified for it) but now that I am married I will have taxes taken out of my cheques. But all my paystubs show the higher amounts and no taxes (except NI tax) taken out. When I did the budget, I printed off a statement from HMRC about what my pay would be after taxes on a 603L tax code. Will this be OK? Our budget does not rely on the higher amount I used to receive.  Should I just give a cover letter explaining that I am changing tax codes and then give a copy of the print out from HMRC?


ARRRGHHHH!! This would have been so much easier in October when it was planned. We would have had the statements, we would have had paystubs for me with the right tax code on them, etc. ARRRRRRGH!! The loan would have been paid back!!!

I feel like I am going to go cover letter crazy and then they aren't even remotely want to grant the visas because we look dodgy.

I am headed off to the airport to fly out in about 1 hour.

Thanks for everyone's help and I will be checking back at the thread when I get to Phoenix in about 24 hours.

Best of luck. Wishing the best for you and your son!