Hello from Huntersville N Carolina

I am shooting for March 2016 to be moving to N Ireland with my citizen of the UK Irish wife.  Married for over 40 years we have decided to move to be close to her very close family.  I plan on applying for proper visa from within the country, (hope this is right decision). We are both retired and will not be looking for employment. I have been reading forums for a number of days,  some really good scoop,  some confusing scoop.  I have a phone service "Vonage" and talk with family in NI daily w/o any extra charge, what I would really like to do is talk to an expat.  I am not a spamer,  or nut case, or any other unusual type of character,  just looking for scoop, like taxes, health care, cell phone service,  lots of things will be taken care of by my wife's BFF sister.  Send me a PM if you are willing to talk on phone.

Welcome to the forum .

I am shooting for March 2016 to be moving to N Ireland with my citizen of the UK Irish wife.  Married for over 40 years we have decided to move to be close to her very close family.  I plan on applying for proper visa from within the country, (hope this is right decision).

As your wife holds British citizenship you will need to qualify for and apply for a UK spousal visa. However, you cannot apply for this visa from within the country, you must apply for and be granted it before you leave the US.

If you just fly to NI and try to apply for the visa there, your application will be refused (because you can't switch from a visitor visa to any other visa from inside the UK) and you will have to return to the US to apply for it properly.

See here for information about the visa:
https://www.gov.uk/join-family-in-uk/overview

We are both retired and will not be looking for employment. I have been reading forums for a number of days,  some really good scoop,  some confusing scoop. 

How are you currently planning to meet the financial requirement for the visa?

As the UK citizen, your wife needs to meet a minimum income requirement in order to sponsor you for a visa, otherwise you will not be able to move to NI.

There are various financial categories under which you could try to qualify:

- Categories A and B are for when the UK spouse is in salaried or non-salaried UK employment
- Category C is non-employment income from either or both of you (i.e. rent from property you own, or interest from stocks and shares)
- Category D is cash savings from either or both of you
- Category E is pension income from either or both of you
- Categories F and G are when the UK spouse has self-employment income in the UK

Category E:
As you are both retired, do you have pensions that will continue to be paid to you when you are in the UK? If so, do you receive at least £18,600 per year between you (approx. $29,000 per year)?

Otherwise,
Category D: Cash Savings
If you have £62,500 or more in cash savings, held in your account(s) for at least 6 months, you can qualify that way instead

Not sure when I post if my email will be shown,  if not here it is,

It's not a good idea to post your email address on a public forum as it can be an invitation for spam mail or internet scams. I would edit your post to delete the email address from it.

Thank you Ksand 24,  financially we qualify,  plus will be buying house.  I have read and re-read, UK's visa application,  will be reading again after this post,  sure I read if applying in country section,  thanks,  posted email for an expat to send phone number so I could call,  although in this wild crazy world that probably won't happen,  shame though. 

.  I have read and re-read, UK's visa application,  will be reading again after this post,  sure I read if applying in country section,

There is a section for applying if you are already in the UK, but that's only for people who are already legally living in the UK on a different visa, such as a work visa or a student visa and wish to switch to a spouse visa.

It explicitly says that if you are in the UK on a visitor visa (which you would be if you just flew to NI), you cannot apply from within the country. Unfortuantely, the website doesn't make it all that obvious that this is the case - you have to read through the eligibility requirements to see it!

From the UKVI website (https://www.gov.uk/remain-in-uk-family/eligibility):

You can apply to extend or switch in any of these routes if you’re eligible, except if you have permission to be in the UK:

-    as a visitor
-    for less than 6 months – unless you got your visa to get married or become civil partners or you got your visa to wait for the outcome of a family court or divorce

  thanks,  posted email for an expat to send phone number so I could call,  although in this wild crazy world that probably won't happen,  shame though.

You can always let people here on the forum that you'd like to get in touch and then you can exchange emails by private message later, but it's just a bit risky to post your personal email address on a public forum for anyone to see.