Benefits of a spouse offer letter?

Hello again everyone,

Can somebody give advice on the benefits of my (US) spouse having a UK offer letter? We thought she would be able to include one in our spouse visa application but found out this morning that's probably not possible.

I'll try to be brief: My wife was contacted by an employer yesterday. They said that they wanted to offer her a position but that they needed to advertise it for 5 more days, interview any further candidates who responded and then, if she was still the best choice, offer her a Tier 2 visa.

I'm in the process of negotiating an offer this week, so we asked my wife's potential employer if they would be ok not going through that Tier 2 process if we instead make her eligible via the spouse visa route.

The employer called back this morning saying that they would be prepared to hold the job but they can't supply any kind of offer letter (or even a conditional offer letter) until they know my wife has the spouse visa. They said that once she has a Home Office ID number they can make the offer at that point.

So the question is, does it still make sense to go through with the spousal visa? It's not significantly weakened by the fact that she can't show proof of a job offer is it? I know it's mainly based on my own job offer, earnings etc, but it would have been a nice bit of extra piece of mind for us - just not sure how much it matters.

Thanks again for any advice,
Craig

No, there's no point in including one at all.

UKVI are not allowed to consider the applicant's job prospects when making the decision on a spousal visa, so even if you do include one it won't make any difference and may not even be looked at.

It's much, much easier to qualify for a spousal visa than it is to qualify for a Tier 2 visa (assuming the UK sponsor meets the financial requirement), and having a spousal visa means your wife can work in any job she likes without needing the company to sponsor her, so from both your point of view and the company's point of view, not needing a Tier 2 visa is a very good thing and usually the preferable option.

Edited to add: Usually the only time that a Tier 2 visa would be the better option over the spousal visa is if there is absolutely no way that the UK spouse can meet the financial requirement to sponsor the visa. In that case, they cannot qualify for the spousal visa and so only option to move to the UK would be for the US applicant to qualify for a Tier 2 visa, work for at least 6 months in the UK, and then use their UK income to switch to a spousal visa when they can qualify (FLR(M) visa).

In my opinion, if you had to choose between a spouse visa or Tier 2 visa (and both were feasible options), I would opt for the spouse visa.  I would generally only recommend a Tier 2 visa over a spouse visa if there was a reason the spouse visa wasn't an immediate option. 

Some points to think about if you're choosing between the two:

- A Tier 2 visa is tied to her job.  If for whatever reason it doesn't work out (redundancy, job unhappiness, wanting a career change, etc), she would lose her ability to remain in the UK with that visa.  With a spouse visa, she is free to pursue any job and change jobs as much as she wants to.

- Permanent residency through a Tier 2 visa could be a changing goal post.  There's a minimum income she'll have to be earning after 5 years to qualify, and the requirements may change and she won't be able to apply for ILR through this route when the time comes.  There have been members of this forum who spent 5 years in the UK with a work visa, and in their last year the ILR requirements changed and they couldn't qualify.  They had to move back to the US. 

- Switching.  If at any point she switches to a spouse visa for any reason, the clock to ILR resets.  Any time previously spent on a Tier 2 visa will not count, and she'll need to accumulate 5 years in the UK with a spouse visa to qualify for ILR.  If you begin with a spouse visa, you wouldn't need to potentially reset the immigration clock if you had to switch from a Tier 2 to spouse visa later on.

If you are applying for a spouse visa, it doesn't matter at all if she has an offer letter or not - it isn't counted.  The spouse visa is entirely based on your (UK sponsor) ability to meet the financial requirements (save for specific exceptions, like a pension, significant savings, sale of a house, etc).

Thanks Ksand and Aquila, that's extremely helpful info about the spouse letter not being important.

I also didn't think about the idea of the Tier 2 visa impacting the ILR clock.

So many different details to think about, some sane advice from yourselves is much appreciated.

They said that they wanted to offer her a position but that they needed to advertise it for 5 more days, interview any further candidates who responded and then, if she was still the best choice, offer her a Tier 2 visa.

Just to add to what the others have said on visas. Being the "best choice" won't get a work visa. Unless it is a shortage occupation job, there has to be 'nobody else' who can do that job.

UKVI are getting very hot on checking this now and won't issue a visa if they look at the CVs of the applicants and find there were others who could do that job. Even if the company only sends UKVI a few CVs, UKVI won't accept that either if they feel there would have been more applicants for that job.

If she gets a work visa and loses that sponsor, then she gets a 60 day notice from UKVI to find another sponsor, or leave the UK. To maintain her 5 years to ILR on a PBS, she will not only have to find another company to switch (in country), but will have to go through that 'nobody else' who can do that job, again. If she runs out of time and has to leave the UK, she has a 12 month cooling off period outside the UK before she can return on a work visa (if she can get one).

A spouse visa is freedom to work where she wants to, to do what job she wants to do, or even not to work at all.