Non salaried income and category A - UK fiance visa

Hi there,

Firstly I am quite new to this and have had various questions recently regarding different aspects of the fiance visa application so I do apologise. The help on here has been invaluable so far. This is regarding Non salaried employment and I have also posted the same question on ex pat forum so I can get as much advice as possible!

I have 2 jobs in order to meet the financial requirement under category A.

One is simple - is a pub job I do 20ish hours per week/paid by the hour. This is definitely un salaried. I started in April and will have my 6 months by end of Sept. I do not have an official contract but they have written me an employment letter stating the information required by the home office (basically the same as below with non salaried calculation.)

My main job is slightly more complicated. I work for a charity and have a payscale that equates to 14.36 per hour. My hours have always varied but am currently on a permanent contract working a minimum of 3 days (22.2 hours) per week. However this does vary and sometimes I am asked to do more hours (in the past I have done less) for example I have recently been funded to do 6 days extra work on a schools project and they will be spread out over the next 3 months as I complete them. My contract stipulates I get paid 14.36 per hour and currently work a minimum of 22.2 hours per week. Extra hours are offered on an ad hoc basis and are paid at £14.36.

Does this still constitute non salaried employment if I have a fixed minimum amount of hours? I get paid monthly not weekly but pay is calculated on hours worked. Sometimes I work the same hours for a month or 2, sometimes it changes.

Also could someone please check through this employment letter that has been drafted for me? I have projected pay for next 3 months based on hours I'll probably be working. (I won't have 6 months in both jobs until the end of Sept.) Also, please bear in mind that this is only half of my income. When added to my other non salaried job my total Gross comes to about £22,600 and I will make sure this is made clear and the calculation done as part of my appendix 2 and associated paperwork.

To whom it may concern,

I can clarify that xxxxx has been employed at xxxxx since 2008 and her current role is as the office manager and waste reduction manager. She has a permanent contract.

Her employment is non salaried and she is paid £14.36 gross hourly on the basis of days worked in any given month. Her current minimum contracted hours as of June 2015 are 3 days (a “day” is classified as 7.4 hours – so 22.2 hours per week) and this will be ongoing. Any extra hours are paid at £14.36 per hour.
Monthly GROSS pay for last 6 months:

APRIL   797.43
MAY 797.43
June 1273.60
July 1379.86
August 1486.12
September 1592.39

Based on the calculation of NON SALARIED employment over the 6 month time period in question
April 2015-September 2015 her annual total gross pay will be £7326.83 / 6 x 12
= £14, 653.65

This can be evidenced by her wage slips signed by myself and the provided corresponding bank statements

I know these letters have to be dated not more than 28 days before my application I am just trying to make sure i am prepared so have discussed already with both employers and they will be updated when I have my wage slips and then dated/signed etc



Thank you in advance

One is simple - is a pub job I do 20ish hours per week/paid by the hour. This is definitely un salaried. I started in April and will have my 6 months by end of Sept. I do not have an official contract but they have written me an employment letter stating the information required by the home office (basically the same as below with non salaried calculation.)

Okay, that's fine as the contract is not mandatory - as long as you have the letter and original payslips and bank statements, you should be fine.

Does this still constitute non salaried employment if I have a fixed minimum amount of hours? I get paid monthly not weekly but pay is calculated on hours worked. Sometimes I work the same hours for a month or 2, sometimes it changes.

Salaried employment means you are paid a fixed annual salary. If your annual salary in this job is not fixed and you are paid an hourly wage, you are non-salaried.

In terms of the visa application, the only difference between salaried and non-salaried employment when meeting the requirement is how they calculate your overall income. As long as your total income from both jobs combined is at least £18,600, you will meet the requirement.

I know these letters have to be dated not more than 28 days before my application I am just trying to make sure i am prepared so have discussed already with both employers and they will be updated when I have my wage slips and then dated/signed etc

Looks to me like you have too much information on the letter. It's not up to your employer to do the salary calculation, it's UKVI who works it out. In fact, you don't even have to show the calculation yourself either (though you can include it in your application if you so wish).

All the employer letter needs to state is
- how long you have been in employment (since 2008)
- how long you have been working in your current position, earning the £14.36 per hour wage (since whatever date it is)
- type of employment (permanent)
- current income (£14.36 per hour, minimum 22.5 hours per week)

I would just have them say something like (blue part added by me):

To the Entry Clearance Office,

I can clarify that xxxxx has been employed at xxxxx since 2008 (they should specify the date you started, or at least the month and year) and her current role is as the office manager and waste reduction manager and she has been in this role since Month/Year. She has a permanent contract.

Her employment is non salaried and she is paid £14.36 gross hourly on the basis of days worked in any given month. Her current minimum contracted hours as of June 2015 are 3 days (a “day” is classified as 7.4 hours – so 22.2 hours per week) and this will be ongoing. Any extra hours are paid at £14.36 per hour.

You are an absolute star.  thank you for helping me with my many woes!

I just thought laying it out really clearly like that with the calculation might help make things easier for them and make sure nothing was missed. I will definitely add the calculation somewhere just because I'm neurotic like that but you're probably right that it should be excluded from the letter. I think I'm trying to go above and beyond as I feel like I'm a special case with my 2 jobs but guessing there are many out there doing the same!

It will all correspond to payslips and bank statements for both jobs and will be well over the £18,600 so that should be fine.  Good lord I'm starting to think this might actually happen!  thank you so much.  I feel a lot lighter from all your help today.  Next question is accommodation. Ha! Thanks again

You are an absolute star.  thank you for helping me with my many woes!

No problem .

I just thought laying it out really clearly like that with the calculation might help make things easier for them and make sure nothing was missed.

They still have to do the calculation themselves anyway and they have to add in the income from the other job as well in order to work it out, so I imagine they will combine the total you were paid from both jobs each month and then work out if you meet the requirement from that amount.

I will definitely add the calculation somewhere just because I'm neurotic like that but you're probably right that it should be excluded from the letter. I think I'm trying to go above and beyond as I feel like I'm a special case with my 2 jobs but guessing there are many out there doing the same!

Nope, not a special case at all . All you need to show is that your total income was at least £18,600 from both jobs combined and you meet the requirement - shouldn't take them more than a few minutes to work it out.

In fact, your case will probably be much easier for them than others - for example, self-employment income is really tricky to show you meet the requirement because there are so many specific documents you must provide and if there is just one document missing they can refuse the visa.

Good lord I'm starting to think this might actually happen!  thank you so much.  I feel a lot lighter from all your help today.  Next question is accommodation. Ha! Thanks again

Honestly, the visa is pretty straightforward to get... as long as you are prepared with the documents and meet the requirements, it will be granted. Looking at the immigration statistics from the last 10 years, on average 93-98 % of all UK visa applications made in the US are approved (that's for all types of visa).

Just adding my thanks ksand. I'm in a similar position with a 5 hour contract but actually working overtime every week so I was planning on asking this question myself come October when I'm pulling everything together for my FLR(M).


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Thank you again and happy that someone else got the reassurance they needed.  It really is a very confusing process!

Yes, I guess they will add the total of both for each month and then add them all together, divide by 6 and x by 12.  I bloody hope so as in April my hours were low at the pub and my main job so I didn't reach 1550 for that month.  All the others were WELL above though and if added together and divided by 6 it comes up at 1800ish per month so all should be well.  They're both none salaried so they ought to use the none salaried calc for both.

Thank you again.  The statistics make me feel better.  I'm just trying to get everything in order so i can feel better about it all.

I'm going to tackle the sponsor letter next.  What should that include?  Do I need to mention my finances, accomodation and my marital status (divorced) in this?  I know I have to talk about our relationship a bit.  Should I refer to pictures and proof of flights etc when describing how we've visited back and  forth etc?  For example I went to his brother's bar mitzvah when I was over in Feb and met his grandmother for the first time, there is a group photo of us all so I thought it might make sense to say see picture 4 for example?

We tend to talk via facetime and whatsapp.  I have been screenshotting my call log on facetime since Oct last year so have that and then have some emails and have the email copy of our entire whatsapp chat which is over 11,000 messages.  How much do I need to provide?  Should I blank out the actual messages?  It emails it to you as a notebook file and has the date and time and then says either his name or mine (just first names) and then our message.  Will this be ok?  Will it look dodgy as it's just a notebook file.  Surely no one would doctor 11,000 messages in the pursuit of a sham marriage?! I could screen shot some too.

Thank you

Thank you again and happy that someone else got the reassurance they needed.  It really is a very confusing process!

Yes, I guess they will add the total of both for each month and then add them all together, divide by 6 and x by 12.  I bloody hope so as in April my hours were low at the pub and my main job so I didn't reach 1550 for that month.  All the others were WELL above though and if added together and divided by 6 it comes up at 1800ish per month so all should be well.  They're both none salaried so they ought to use the none salaried calc for both.

I just want you to know that it may effect their decision. My husband and I applied Dec of 2013/January of 2014 and we were originally denied my visa because he didn't reach the minimum of the 1550 GPB in one of the 6 months by 50 GPB even though he had cumulatively over earned. At the time you received an email if you were denied your visa with the reasoning behind why. I don't think they send emails like that anymore.

My husband reminds me there is a bit of history I was leaving out. This was our second application, as we had been denied earlier that summer. I didn't have UK Yankee then...
We hadn't understood that you were required to have already been earning the financial requirement and not just have a letter from your work stating you had been given a raise and promotion to meet it. The person who processed our application that time laid out why we didn't meet the requirement and how she (they actually gave their name at the time) did the maths to reach that conclusion, which was add everything together, divide by 6 and then multiply by 12.

I was livid because we were over the required amount for 6 months by several hundred GBP. And our previous application denial stated that it wasn't about what you earned every month but by the average of the 6 months. I wrote them a very strongly worded email stating he had done over time and it wasn't paid until a month or two later and he had received a pay rise that month and how we were cumulatively several hundred pounds above the requirement and how in my previous email denial the UKVI processor had stated how the financial requirement was done differently than they were saying this time quoting her email directly.

In the end, with just a day or two's wait, I received an email stating that this other person felt we met the financial requirement and I would receive my visa shortly.

I guess long story short, that it could mean a denial. I hope not for your sake! I know how gutted I was. I've got my fingers crossed for you.

edit: I have a headache and realised I'd made some spelling errors.

I just want you to know that it may effect their decision. My husband and I applied Dec of 2013/January of 2014 and we were originally denied my visa because he didn't reach the minimum of the 1550 GPB in one of the 6 months by 50 GPB even though he had cumulatively over earned. At the time you received an email if you were denied your visa with the reasoning behind why. I don't think they send emails like that anymore.

Just to clarify though that non-salaried employment is calculated differently to salaried, which means you don't need to earn a minimum of £1,550 per month to meet the requirement and you can have variable amounts on your payslips.

If the OP's main job was salaried, they would only count the lowest monthly salary earned during the 6 months, which was £797.43 and use that amount to work out if she meets the requirement.

In that case, the lowest amount was £797.43:

£797.43 x 12 = £9,569.16... which is nowhere near the minimum requirement and so the second job would need to pay £9,030.84 per year to meet the requirement.

However, as the income from both jobs is non-salaried, the requirement will be calculated by adding together the total income from both jobs over the 6 months, dividing by 6 and multiplying by 12.

Using the OP's income from her main job from the last 6 months (as per the calculation a few posts up):
(£7326.83 / 6) x 12 = £14,653.65

So the second job only needs to pay £3,946.35 per year to meet the requirement.

As the OP said, she works about 20 hours at week at the pub, and assuming it pays at least minimum wage (£6.50 per hour), this should give an annual salary of around £6,760 or more, meaning the total annual income used for the application should be at least:

£14,653.65 + £6,760 = £21,413.65

I guess long story short, that it could mean a denial. I hope not for your sake! I know how gutted I was. I've got my fingers crossed for you.

In the OPs case there shouldn't be any reason for denial, because her jobs are both non-salaried.

If the main job was salaried, then there would be a problem and the visa would likely be refused because they would use the amount in the April/May payslips to calculate the annual salary and ignore the other higher income months.

In the OP's case:
a) She will have been in both jobs for more than 6 months

b) Both of her jobs are non-salaried, so they will just take an average of the 6 months and multiply by 12 - so as long as that total is more than £18,600 (as the OP said, it's over £22,000), there should be no reason for refusal

Thank you both for your messages.  I think that in your case what I thought you were saying is that your husband's job is salaried and that he received a pay rise part way through the 6 months you were relying on to meet the financial requirements? However, if he was salaried I am confused as to why they used the gross total over 6 months divided by 6 and multiplied by 12 initially ?  It kind of looks like maybe your ECO made a mistake the second time and calculated it incorrectly when it was un salaried, perhaps because they were not aware that it was?  That is why I wanted to spell it out implicitly (and do the calculation for them)as I had read another post where it had been calculated incorrectly. You've scared me a bit now!

Yeah, my pub job is 20ish hours now but in my second month I covered someone's holiday so earned loads more and have covered bank hols etc recently.  I will give you the figures (bearing in mind I am predicting but have a very good idea of my hours coming up in both jobs):

MAIN JOB                PUB JOB         TOTAL
APRIL   797.43         360.45           1157.88
MAY 797.43             945.77           1743.20
June 1273.60           674.98           1948.58
July 1379.86            600.00           1979.86
August 1486.12       580.00           2066.12
September 1592.39  520.00           2112.39

Which gives a grand gross total over 6 months of £11,008.03

Therefore £11,008.03 divided by 6 = £1834.67 x 12 = £22,016.06

Both my letters from my employers will made it crystal clear my jobs are non salaried and my hours vary and I will explicitly quote the calculation used in the home office document so there can be no confusion. I really hope that first month will be fine.  I have been told by at least 4 lawyers (I rang for quotes and asked them ALL the same question) and many people online and it even says in the guidelines that non salaried means that first month won't be an issue.  I'd hate to apply and be rejected when I could have just waited a month!

Thank you though and I'm glad yours got sorted in the end! My next step is the sponsor letter.

Thanks both

I really hope that first month will be fine.  I have been told by at least 4 lawyers (I rang for quotes and asked them ALL the same question) and many people online and it even says in the guidelines that non salaried means that first month won't be an issue.  I'd hate to apply and be rejected when I could have just waited a month!

Yes, as it is non-salaried, they will just take the per month average as per your calculations.

However, if your jobs were salaried, your first month would be a problem and you wouldn't qualify for the visa using April's income and would have to wait an extra month - because they would just take £1,157.88 as your monthly salary and multiply it by 12 to get your annual income = £13,894.56.

From the official guidelines for calculating the income:

5.1.4. The only difference in Category A between salaried and non-salaried employment is how gross annual salary or employment income is calculated:

Where the person is in salaried employment – they must have been paid throughout the period of 6 months prior to the date of application at a level of gross annual salary which equals or exceeds the level relied upon in the application. Therefore the figure used towards the requirement will be the lowest level of annual salary received during the 6 month period.

Where the person is in non-salaried employment – the level of gross annual employment income relied upon in the application will be the annual equivalent of the person’s average gross monthly income from non-salaried employment in the 6 months prior to the date of application (where that employment was held throughout that period).

To calculate this annualised average for non-salaried employment in Category A the following calculation should be used:

(Total gross income from employment held throughout the 6 month period, divided by 6) multiplied by 12 = Income from non-salaried employment that can be counted towards the financial requirement.

Thanks - that's what I thought and had been convinced of.  I am just confused by the previous lady's story -  I can think the only explanation must be that it wasn't utterly clear that the income was unsalaried.  The first application must have been dealt with by someone who realised and the second app by someone who didn't.  Again, I think the fact it was dealt with so quickly suggests it was clearly an error on the part of the ECO assessing the 2nd application.  I hope I don't get the one who makes errors!! That's why I want to spell it out.  Anyway - thanks again

Thanks - that's what I thought and had been convinced of.  I am just confused by the previous lady's story -  I can think the only explanation must be that it wasn't utterly clear that the income was unsalaried.  The first application must have been dealt with by someone who realised and the second app by someone who didn't.  Again, I think the fact it was dealt with so quickly suggests it was clearly an error on the part of the ECO assessing the 2nd application.  I hope I don't get the one who makes errors!! That's why I want to spell it out.  Anyway - thanks again

I think we all find reasons to be nervous about the visa even if we know the rules are clear. I'm in an almost identical income situation to you with me and my partner both having non salaried jobs and I stress about it all the time. Let us know how the application goes! You might be able to provide some peace of mind to me or anyone else in a similar position.


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Sorry, I forgot to reply to your questions about the sponsor letter.

I'm going to tackle the sponsor letter next.  What should that include?  Do I need to mention my finances, accomodation and my marital status (divorced) in this?  I know I have to talk about our relationship a bit.

Yes, your letter is your confirmation of sponsorship for the application and so you need to state how you meet each of the requirements to be able to sponsor your husband's visa.

It should be addressed to the Entry Clearance Officer and include:

- your ability to sponsor the visa (i.e. UK citizen born and raised)
- your current employment situation and annual income, stating the financial category you are applying under
- where you will live together in the UK
- a short description of how you met, when you married and why you have decided to make your life together in the UK
- a list of the documents you, as the sponsor, are including to support what you've stated in the letter

Should I refer to pictures and proof of flights etc when describing how we've visited back and  forth etc?  For example I went to his brother's bar mitzvah when I was over in Feb and met his grandmother for the first time, there is a group photo of us all so I thought it might make sense to say see picture 4 for example?

Only mention it in passing in the letter, no more than a short sentence (i.e. 'I have visited him in the US A times in B amount of time and he has visited me in the UK X times in Y amount of time').

We tend to talk via facetime and whatsapp.  I have been screenshotting my call log on facetime since Oct last year so have that and then have some emails and have the email copy of our entire whatsapp chat which is over 11,000 messages.  How much do I need to provide?  Should I blank out the actual messages? 

No more than a couple of sheets of paper and no actual messages.

You just need a list of dates and times covering your relationship - if you can filter the call log so you only show a couple per week or per month, that's great, otherwise, take just a handful of screenshots, maybe one per every couple of months.

For emails, just select a range of emails covering your entire relationship, showing date, sender and subject line and screenshot them all on one page if you can. If not, then like above, just take a handful of screenshots covering the relationship and paste them onto a couple of pages.

It emails it to you as a notebook file and has the date and time and then says either his name or mine (just first names) and then our message.  Will this be ok?  Will it look dodgy as it's just a notebook file.  Surely no one would doctor 11,000 messages in the pursuit of a sham marriage?! I could screen shot some too.

I would screenshot rather than just print a Notebook file.

But whatever you do, DO NOT send 11,000 messages! Maybe a selection of about 50 covering the whole relationship, on a couple of sheets of paper.

_________________________________________________ _______________

So for relationship evidence you need:

- marriage certificate
- 1 or 2 photos of the two of you
- boarding passes from trips to see each other
- letters/cards sent to each other, if you have any
- a couple of sheets of paper showing emails/Facetime calls (maybe 2 sheets per source) etc.

Remember you will need to send photocopies of everything you want returning, so you don't want to be sending reams of paper - ideally your entire application package should fit into a large padded envelope, no  more than about an inch or so thick and a couple of pounds in weight.

Thanks - that's what I thought and had been convinced of.  I am just confused by the previous lady's story -  I can think the only explanation must be that it wasn't utterly clear that the income was unsalaried.  The first application must have been dealt with by someone who realised and the second app by someone who didn't.  Again, I think the fact it was dealt with so quickly suggests it was clearly an error on the part of the ECO assessing the 2nd application.  I hope I don't get the one who makes errors!! That's why I want to spell it out.  Anyway - thanks again

Yes, it's a good idea to spell it out just to make sure.

For the record though, errors like this are very uncommon - in fact, lyonaria's case is the first I've heard of this happening to anyone here on the forum.

Thanks - that's what I thought and had been convinced of.  I am just confused by the previous lady's story -  I can think the only explanation must be that it wasn't utterly clear that the income was unsalaried.  The first application must have been dealt with by someone who realised and the second app by someone who didn't.  Again, I think the fact it was dealt with so quickly suggests it was clearly an error on the part of the ECO assessing the 2nd application.  I hope I don't get the one who makes errors!! That's why I want to spell it out.  Anyway - thanks again

Oh, my husband is salaried and has been since he started work at the company he works for. It was clearly stated in both of his letters that it was a salaried job, but what's weird is that he didn't always make the same amount every month at the time, he did overtime a lot. The second letter was a carbon copy of the first with only the dates changed.

So when we were denied the second time, I was peeved. We had followed the rules the first person had told us applied to us and still we were denied. Until I sent my email and was granted my visa. I then found out that they were correct in denying us, but the FIRST UKVI person screwed up and because they screwed up I think the 3rd person took pity on us. I feel a bit bad now because I could have made trouble for the first woman, because I clearly pointed her out by name...  It happened in the one month that we didn't meet the minimum of the 1550 GBP of my second application. We hadn't know that there was a minimum monthly income, I didn't know to search for it. If I had known we would have just waited until January to apply rather than in December.