I am currently in the UK and my wife is in Taiwan.
We got married on the 25th May 2016 after 7 years of a relationship
We got married in Hong Kong but don’t/haven’t lived there.
Here is some more background info -
Me -
New employment since June 15th 2016 in the UK
Salary is above ÂŁ18,600
In my accounts I have over ÂŁ17,000
I receive basic Disability Living Allowance (lowest rate)
I live at home with my parents but I am planning on renting when my wife arrives in the UK
My wife -
Wife studied in Edinburgh University for a Masters Degree (was in the UK for about 3 years)
Wife is Taiwanese, residence is in Taiwan and she is there now
Wife has approximately ÂŁ4,800 in her accounts but also have some stock ownership.
I receive low level disability living allowance income (DWP), can I use this to skip the financial part?
Does stock ownership contribute to savings?
Can my wife and me use both of our accounts together to apply?
I have a shared bank account with my brother, 50/50 each, so half of that is my savings, is this OK on the application?
How long was your application from start to end?
Did anything difficult pop up while you were applying?
Don’t know, sorry. I think it’s unlikely that DLA will let you skip that step.
No, cash only.
Yes, that’s fine.
Might be a problem. But you should be able to qualify through your income, once you can evidence six months’ worth of payslips. So savings are irrelevant in your situation.
Our situation was a little different – we were both in Taiwan at the time, so we had to rely on savings rather than my income. I would say we spent about a year doing low-key prep, sorting out enough cash in savings to qualify (has to be there for at least six months before application). The last month or so of that time was fairly intensive – getting documents certified and posted from the UK, checking and rechecking every piece of paper.
Once we came to hand over the cash at the office in Taipei, it was very fast. We paid extra for the priority service and we had our answer in two days.
One potential issue I see in your case is the fact that you haven’t been married for long. You will need to show evidence of your relationship going back at least two years. This evidence can include ticket stubs (which show you both travelling somewhere together), holiday snaps, stamps in your passports etc.
Following with interest. Also a UK national who married my Taiwanese wife in HK, not looking to move back soon, and I’m well aware that the process/requirements are likely to change by the time we do, but we will some day. Always good to read about experiences of it.
Your DLA does make all the difference. If you didn’t have it, you’d have to meet the savings rules specified in Appendix FM 1.7: Financial Requirement. This amounts to £62,500, held for six months. This is the (frankly insane) route we used to qualify. (You can ignore that link above, I posted it mostly for others like Fiffles.)
As you receive DLA you are instead required to show “adequate maintenance”. Allegedly (and this is from some random on the internet so, you know, plenty of salt) as a couple with no children this means you have to evidence £114.85 per week in income after housing costs. Here are the adequate maintenance guidelines.
The formula used for savings is that they take the lowest amount in your bank statements over the past six months and divide it by 143 (weeks). In your case by combining yours and your wife’s savings, that should get you over the line, if you’re not currently paying rent to your parents. Your DLA should also add a safety margin. However, see section 3.3 on cash savings where it states they must be “under your control”. I don’t know if a joint account with your brother meets that condition or not.
I encourage you to read that second document I linked to thoroughly. Your application will hinge on meeting the conditions it outlines.
Ill have a read through that in detail just now.
My DLA is only ÂŁ43.75 per week so does that mean I cannot apply using DLA? If its ÂŁ114.85 needed?
Yes I am not currently paying any rent and we wont for the time being.
Yeah I wasn’t sure if the joint account wold be a problem, Ill read into that too but how we work it is that 50% is mine but all of it can be accessed by me.
Thanks again with your help and Ill probably be posting again – oh the paperwork!
If you apply for a visa and that visa gets rejected, does that make it harder to apply again?
DLA is the qualifying condition that allows you to use the “adequate maintenance” criteria, instead of the £18,600 criteria. But that £114.85 is a total figure, not just your DLA. In your case you can add the DLA to your savings (divided by 143) and it will be enough. If you have roughly £21,000 in savings (including your wife’s money) then that’s £146.85 a week according to their formula. Add in your DLA and that’s £190.60, easily clear of the threshold.
If you apply for a visa and that visa gets rejected, does that make it harder to apply again?
Don’t know, I’m afraid. My hunch would be “yes”. But even if it doesn’t, applying for a visa is an expensive endeavour; I wouldn’t do so unless I had all my ducks in a row.
Thank you so much for the information, comments and tips. Its very useful and very appreciated.
I have a lot of reading and counting to do now, Ill be in touch.
Hi all,
I have a quick almost silly question.
For the financial requirement, I want to use my savings of ÂŁ17,000 and my salary which is above ÂŁ18,600.
What box is it on the form I should tick?
Its not very clear.
I do hope you managed to process the application for your wife successfully.
I’m sorry that I can’t be of any help whatsoever (and I’m months late to the party anyway) but this thread fills me with so much anger. This entire requirement was put into place by Theresa May in her former role as Home Secretary and apparently it’s to help control immigration into the UK. It upsets me so much that it was easier and cheaper for me to take my ENTIRE family to Canada (all three of us being non-citizens) than it would have been for me and my son to just bring his mother back to the UK.
I did get it after much time and effort although it does seem pretty easy to revoke the visa too.
Its a complete disgrace. Its a country keeping out good people and exporting good people.
I do get anxious reading stories that people who have lived in the UK for years are given a hard time by the immigration office and sometimes deported even when into old age.
We’ve just got the visa renewal sorted, and I was pretty nervous about it. The very day my wife is eligible for ILR and then naturalisation she will apply. I won’t relax about her immigration status until she has that new passport in her hand.
I mean Christ, if it all went pear-shaped I’d have to move back to Taiwan and hang out with @kk and @Rocket the whole damn time. Nobody wants that.
