Homeless while you're waiting on your visa???

Ack, really?!! Do you just mean long-term couples who don't give enough proof, or in general?? 

Long term couples who don't provide enough proof (need a photo and a joint mail item for each year at a minimum).

Does "Priority" really speed things up significantly? How fast is the turnaround, generally? (I know it varies by time of year.) Even if they did go ahead of me, I wouldn't want to be away from them for too long. I can't imagine being thousands of miles away from my young kids and husband for weeks on end, or longer? I would be freaking out I would get denied, and what then? Terrifying.   

It's always worth paying for priority. Even if you are not in a hurry. We've seen time and time and time again people who applied non priority, just wishing they could go back and change their decision. (You can no longer upgrade retroactively)

Well, we're in for some "interesting times" early next year, that much is clear. Hard to go from completely settled to that, but we've decided we need to get back no matter what. Especially before they inevitably move the goalposts again.

Completely forgot another huge question. What about the cat!?!? Hard enough being "homeless" with two little kids! Jesus. 

So long as kitty is microchipped and had his/her rabies vaccine a month before you leave, no problem.  Cats fly as cargo into the UK and they will ONLY book kitty at the last minute.  So that part is easy!  Just expensive.

Another thing, I'm wondering if it's even possible to tell our potential future buyer that there will be a slight delay before we can hand over the keys? So we can wait on the visa while still in our house? Do people ever do that?

Another thing, I'm wondering if it's even possible to tell our potential future buyer that there will be a slight delay before we can hand over the keys? So we can wait on the visa while still in our house? Do people ever do that?

I mean, you could write it into the contract or ask if you can rent from them if the house closes before the visa, but if you need the money from the sale for the visa I don't think that would ever work. I put my house on the market when I got my visa and came back to sign all the closing paperwork & finish clearing it out once sold. Some people assign  a POA to a trusted family member for signing financial documents like that.

Completely forgot another huge question. What about the cat!?!? Hard enough being "homeless" with two little kids! Jesus. 

KFdancer has outlined the process but I wouldn't say it was easy. It took me quite a while to make sense of the various forms and figure out the logistics.  I would start your research sooner rather than later so you know exactly what it is you have to do. 

We ran into a similar problem, with the same scenario of selling our house to meet the requirement along with additional savings and a 401k. Then I found out from Medivisas and a few other people that the 401k is apparently too arbitrary to rely on, since "instantly available" can depend on whether someone opts to count the five hour time difference in operating hours as an obstacle. We also had a hiccup in that the family we were going to stay with till we found a place aren't geographically close to his job lead, and we got a great offer on our house much faster than we expected.

You can write an extended closing period into your contract; we had to just to have time to get all our stuff on a container ship. We worked out a deal with the buyers to rent the place back from them for 30 days and they were fabulous about working with us on that.

Medivisa suggested we go with our Plan B: I (US citizen) come over with my Better Half (UK citizen) as a visitor, get a place to satisfy accommodation requirements, he starts work and we can use the income option with the savings to back it up, I go back and bring the dogs and cats over, stay in the UK till the end of summer, and then go back to the US in the fall when the application rush hopefully goes down a bit and work while the application goes through. I'm renting a room in the US to store vending gear in from friends there as an address; I'll be staying with them when I'm not on the road between events.

That's worked well so far. I did get some extra questioning at EDI when I came back with the furballs, but I had my US vending contracts for this autumn and examples of the stuff I make to show them I'm legit, and they were happy enough with that. I also got a great lead on a festival to try vending at when I come back from one of the border officers whose wife is also crafty  ;0)

Good luck!

That's worked well so far. I did get some extra questioning at EDI when I came back with the furballs, but I had my US vending contracts for this autumn and examples of the stuff I make to show them I'm legit, and they were happy enough with that. I also got a great lead on a festival to try vending at when I come back from one of the border officers whose wife is also crafty  ;0)

Good luck!

Hi SB, great to see you! 
That's the part of the plan I would have been a little worried about but really glad to hear that it wasn't a problem for you!  How are you enjoying Scotland? 

Not read all the posts so not sure if this was suggested yet or not, but can you see if there's maybe an Airbnb nearby where you could look to stay for a few months? Or a hotel maybe where it's easier to extend or cut short as necessary? It's obviously not ideal and not as good as staying with family/friends you know and trust, but it might be another option to explore.

Hi SB, great to see you! 
That's the part of the plan I would have been a little worried about but really glad to hear that it wasn't a problem for you!  How are you enjoying Scotland? 

(Bangs on head) Knocking wood that it doesn't come back to bite me on the ass later, but doing it this way potentially solves more problems than it creates.

Enjoying the hell out of it! As hot and dry as it's been the weather has still been awesome compared to what we'd have in NC right now, in between all the busy and a few hiccups I've hit three of my Bucket List Squee items (Falkirk Wheel, Kelpies, and meeting Chris Packham), got two places that asked me to put in a CV when I come back with a settlement visa, and an invite to teach the zero footprint container class from one of the sustainable gardening interest clubs in Glasgow (does Snoopydance)  ;0)

(Bangs on head) Knocking wood that it doesn't come back to bite me on the ass later, but doing it this way potentially solves more problems than it creates.

Enjoying the hell out of it! As hot and dry as it's been the weather has still been awesome compared to what we'd have in NC right now, in between all the busy and a few hiccups I've hit three of my Bucket List Squee items (Falkirk Wheel, Kelpies, and meeting Chris Packham), got two places that asked me to put in a CV when I come back with a settlement visa, and an invite to teach the zero footprint container class from one of the sustainable gardening interest clubs in Glasgow (does Snoopydance)  ;0)

That's awesome! 

 No, the problem would potentially have been that they might have refused you entry when you arrived with the animals but you're here so you are over that hurdle!