Spouse Visa - UK Spouse in transition from US to UK

Hi all! Amazing forum with loads of information. Still, I couldn't quite put my finger on any other thread dealing with this issue, though I can't imagine I'm the first. Here's the quick background: My wife has both US and UK citizenship. She has lived in US for 23 years, and Scotland for 5 before that. Miraculously, we both received offers of employment based in London within two weeks of each other. She is to continue to be employed by her US-based company (and paid in US Dollars), but working out of their London office. I will be hired by the UK subsidiary of my current US-based employer (paid in GBP). Both of our employers would like us to begin our UK-based jobs as soon as possible. My wife will likely get over there permanently in a matter of 3-4 weeks, as she does not have to deal with obtaining a Visa. I really need to get the Visa application process started as quickly as possible, ideally before she is permanently relocated. But doing so seems to make a few questions in the App and Appendix 2 trickier. Questions on the App, like:

"Does your spouse live with you?"
"Is your sponsor currently living in the UK?"
"Where is your sponsor now?"

If I were to apply before her relocation date, do I answer with the current information, or the "planned" information? Is this something to describe in the cover letter?

As for the Appendix, I assume the correct route is to go with 3B, not 3A. I'm a little confused by 3B, though. On the initial selection (item 3.3 on page 5), 3B is listed as:

"Income from salaried employment overseas (with job offer in the UK)."

But then when you get to part 3B, it only asks about employment overseas, nothing about the job offer. Again, is that information to include in the cover letter? Would it be simpler all around to use the Bank Account method?

Thanks in advance for the thoughts!

Welcome to the forum .

But doing so seems to make a few questions in the App and Appendix 2 trickier. Questions on the App, like:

"Does your spouse live with you?"
"Is your sponsor currently living in the UK?"
"Where is your sponsor now?"

If I were to apply before her relocation date, do I answer with the current information, or the "planned" information? Is this something to describe in the cover letter?

You answer the questions as per what is true on your official application date (the date you submit the online application and pay for the visa).

If she has not left for the UK on the date you apply for the visa, you can answer:

- Yes
- No
- In City, State... or even 'sitting next to me' (or wherever she is at that moment)

If she has left for the UK, you put:
- No
- Yes
- In City, UK

It does not need to be described in a cover letter... though she can mention it in her sponsor's confirmation letter, in the financial requirement paragraph.

As for the Appendix, I assume the correct route is to go with 3B, not 3A. I'm a little confused by 3B, though. On the initial selection (item 3.3 on page 5), 3B is listed as:

"Income from salaried employment overseas (with job offer in the UK)."

But then when you get to part 3B, it only asks about employment overseas, nothing about the job offer. Again, is that information to include in the cover letter?

Nope, does not need to be included in the cover letter, but she can mention it in her mandatory sponsor confirmation letter, when she explains how she meets the financial requirement.

How you complete Part 3 depends on several things on the date of application, essentially:
a) whether she is still employed at her US job (complete Part 3B, Category A)
or
b) whether she has left her US job but hasn't started the UK job yet (Complete Part 3B, Category B)

If so, you apply under Part 3B, Category A, and you provide:
- job offer letter
AND
- letter from her current US employer confirming her US employment details
- 6 months of US payslips showing a pre-tax salary of at least £1,550 per month
- 6 months of US bank statements showing the deposit of every single payslip

If not, you apply under Part 3B, Category B, and you provide:
- job offer letter
AND
- 12 months of US payslips showing total pre-tax earnings of at least £18,600 over the 12 months
- 12 months of US bank statements showing the deposit of every single payslip

So, for Part 3B, Category A (if she is still in the US and hasn't left her US job yet), you answer as follows:
3.23: YES
3.24-3.29 Give her US employment details
3.30: YES
3.31: NO
Go to 3.39
3.39: YES
3.40-3.45: Complete her UK job offer details
3.46: YES
3.47: N/A
3.48: YES

And for Category B (if she has left the US job), you answer as follows:
3.23: NO
Go to 3.31
3.31: YES
3.32-3.38: Give the details of her US employment over the last 12 months
3.39: YES
3.40-3.45: Complete her UK job offer details
3.46: YES
3.47: N/A
3.48: YES

Would it be simpler all around to use the Bank Account method?

Do you meet the Category D requirement using £62,500 of cash savings, held in your bank account(s) in full for at least 6 months?

If so, then DEFINITELY use cash savings instead of employment details. It's much, much simpler.

You just provide 6 full months of bank statements showing the money in the account for the whole time, and that's it.

In that case, you complete Part 3F:
3.74: Category D alone
3.75: give bank account and funds details
3.76: total savings
3.77: YES

Wow, fantastic information. Thank you so much.

As for the bank account, thanks to a sale of a house in earlier 2017, we should have enough. But I just realized, the overall amount is spread among a checking account and 2 savings accounts, though with the same bank.  No individual account will have that much. Is it still possible to use this method? All of them are joint accounts between my wife and I.

If we can combine, I gather that I print the last 6 statements, starting with the most recent before the application date, and have someone at the bank certify/stamp each page, correct?

Thanks!

Ahh, just realized you said "bank account(S)" - I guess that answers my question already!

Ahh, just realized you said "bank account(S)" - I guess that answers my question already!

Yeah, you can use a combination of accounts, but:
a) all accounts must be in either your name, your spouse's name, or both names jointly... no other names can be on the account
AND
b) the amount you are using from each account must have been held in full for a minimum of 6 months before applying for the visa. If any accounts have fallen below the amount you need to meet £62,500 for even one day of the 6 months, you won't meet the requirement.

So, for example, say you have 3 accounts to make up £62,500
Account 1 has had £30,000 in it since Jan 1st 2017
Account 2 has had £25,000 in it since June 1st 2017
Account 3 has had £8,000 in it since August 1st 2017
That gives a total of £63,000.

However, because Account 3 has only had the £8,000 in it since August 1st 2017, you cannot apply for the visa until after February 1st 2018... because that's when the £8,000 reaches 6 months.

Then, if, for example, you took £500 out of Account 1 on December 1st, you would still be fine to apply from Feb 1st, because the total amount held in all accounts since August 1st would still be £62,500.

However, if you took out £600 of Account 1 on December 1st, and then deposited it again on December 2nd (meaning the total amount held in all accounts between the 1st and 2nd Dec was £62,400)... you would reset the 6 months and would not be able to apply until June 2nd 2018.

Also, if your account are in US dollars, you have to be careful with exchange rates to make sure that on the date you apply, the Oanda exchange rate translates to at least £62,500.

For example, today, the Oanda exchange rate is 1.3813 USD to 1 GBP... so £62,500 would be $86,331.40. However, with yesterday's exchange rate, £62,500 is only $86,138.90. So, that means that if you applied today you would need $192.50 more in your accounts than if you had applied yesterday.

Or even going back a week... on January 11th, £62,500 was $84,523.90, which means you would need $1,807.50 more in the account today than you would have needed on the 11th. And actually, even going back 1 month to December... if you had applied on December 18th, you would only have needed $83,297.80 in your accounts...so you would need $3,033.60 more in the account for the last 6 months if you were applying today.

So, essentially, you really need to make sure you have a few thousand more in your account than you might expect, in case the exchange rate changes again.

Again, thanks so much for the incredible amount of detailed info. I would have assumed - incorrectly - that if each monthly statement for the last 6 months had a balance exceeding the minimum, that we'd be good. Going down to a day-by-day examination may get a little too close for comfort, given the ebbs and flows of deposits and withdrawals. I'll have to analyze it more closely, and will definitely only attempt this approach if there is a bit of extra leeway to account for the possibility of additional changes between the pound and dollar.

Thanks!

A couple follow-up questions on going with the bank account method, Category 4. I've gone through the various statements side-by-side, and can confirm that at the current exchange rate, we have at all times over the last 6 months been in excess of the minimum amount. Ha, I'd been kicking myself for months for not investing the proceeds of that house sale, but now I'm glad we didn't!! Anyway, is there anything further to do other than getting the appropriate certification for the bank statements? Do we just make a statement in the cover letter/sponsor letter that we satisfy Category D, and let them do the math? I don't suppose a spreadsheet showing a running total of the accounts added together would be accepted or do much good? Anything else we should be thinking of?

And finally, when going with Category D, we really don't need to include anything job-related? We can get a letter from my wife's (sponsor) employer easily enough, but I don't want to include excessive information if not needed.

Thanks and cheers!

If your savings are from the proceeds of a house sale and you owned the house for more than 6 months before selling it, you don’t actually need to hold the money in your account for 6 months... you can apply as soon as the money is deposited.

However, if this is the case, you do need to provide evidence of the ownership and sale of the property so actually if you have held the money in your accounts for at least 6 months, it makes the paperwork easier.

So for the cash savings, you need:
- 6 months of original bank statements (they do not need to be certified if they were issued by the bank... but if you printed them from online banking they must either be stamped/signed by the bank on EVERY page or accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the bank)
- a statement on the application form regarding the source of the funds

I suppose you could also include evidence of the sale of the house, but I don’t think it’s strictly necessary.

The sponsor letter will need to mention which category you meet and how much money you have in the accounts, so you can put the details in there too.

If you are using Category D, you do not need to mention ANYTHING about employment. They will only look at documents associated with the category you are applying under and nothing else.

So, you tick Category D, fill out the Category D questions and leave the rest of Part 3 blank.


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Well, you weren't kidding about the need to follow the exchange rate! Over the last week alone it's moved enough to make the 6 month calculation too close for comfort. I think we need to go back to the approach of the sponsor's UK job offer. But again, this situation is a little tricky, so I'm looking for some help.

My wife (the sponsor), just today received the draft job offer letter for the UK position. It checks out and she is going to agree to it. But it still needs to be signed by her future UK manager, so we won't be getting the signed original until some point mid-next week at best. Here's the issue, though: It has an official start date of February 1. By the time we get the original and finalize the Visa application, it may technically be a couple days past February 1. At that point, can we still apply under the job OFFER category?

One other thing, and I apologize, because this has been asked so many times, but I just want to ask again: We asked our bank to print 6 months' worth of certified bank statements. They agreed to do so (at no charge) and we received them in the mail today. And they look pretty much exactly like something I could have printed myself off the internet. There's no stamp, no letterhead, and no "certified" comment or anything like that. They're not even tri-folded, they came in a large envelope! How can UKVI tell these are from the bank?

Thanks again for all the assistance you've provided, it's been incredible!