Financial situation re sponsor - advice please!

[ChrisSmith]

I'm planning to marry my US fiancee and then hopefully get her over here on a spouse visa. I'm a British citizen. The only thing I'm concerned about is the strength of our financial situation, which from my point of view seems a bit less than solid. I'm a full time student on a bursary of 650 GBP / month, and work part time earning on average 250 GBP / month. I have another year of uni to go, when I will exit with a professional qualification which will hopefully get me working, starting salary around 20,000 GBP pa. I have no savings, and am usually overdrawn at the end of each month. My fiancee has some savings, around 7,000 GBP. I rent my one bedroom apartment. I don't (can't) claim any benefits, but get my council tax paid for me.
Any views and pointers of a good way forward would be welcome, thanks.

[stedman]

Does your fiancee work at the moment and will she be employable when she gets here? If she will be then you can use that to support your application. You get £900 a month and have a flat so you're not exactly on the breadline...

[ChrisSmith]

stedman - yeah, she's working full-time just now, and has a full employment history with good qualifications and I believe she could get good references too. Right, I'm not exactly on the breadline either, I was wondering how much future prospects were weighed up against the current situation.
Thanks a lot for your reply, much appreciated.

[stedman]

Since you have only a year to go on your course, and you're not married yet, can't she wait until you've started working before applying for the spouse visa? I'm sure your application will be successful either way but it's up the person you see how they interpret supporting and maintaining one's self without resorting to public funds. But you may have a tentative job offer even before you graduate which you can use for the application.

[ChrisSmith]

Waiting a year isn't an option so we're gonna go ahead with it hopefully in a couple of months and see what they say. I'm guessing I would point out our good prospects for the future in some kind of covering letter, or in the sponsorship letter?
Thanks again for replying.

[ChrisSmith]

How would I go about including someone else - possibly a family member - as an additional sponsor? What documentation would I need to include?

[VictoriaS]

The same documentation you are providing yourself, plus a letter of support.


Victoria

[ChrisSmith]

Does anyone know if it's possible for a friend to be a co-sponsor? More specifically, my US wife has a well-off friend who may be willing to act as co-sponsor. He's a US citizen, resident in the US. Would this be ok as long as I remain the sponsor (which obviously I will!!) ?

[Wanderer]

Does anyone know if it's possible for a friend to be a co-sponsor? More specifically, my US wife has a well-off friend who may be willing to act as co-sponsor. He's a US citizen, resident in the US. Would this be ok as long as I remain the sponsor (which obviously I will!!) ?

Read this forum I think it's recently been decided by court that third-party support will NOT be allowed.

[ChrisSmith]

I've heard that too, but can't find a post here about it - ?

edit...ok, found some stuff... has anyone had a recent application turned down because of a refusal to acknowledge co-sponsorship?

[ChrisSmith]

Well, it says here
http://www.gherson.com/articles/third-p ... n-of-huang
"The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) has decided in AM (3rd party support not permitted R281 (v)) Ethiopia [2007] UKAIT 00058 that applicants for entry clearance (a visa) cannot rely upon third party support to satisfy the maintenance requirements of the Immigration Rules unless the Rules expressly state that they may do so"
And 'the rules' (?) from here
http://tinyurl.com/3dzztl
state that:
"Members of the couple’s families in the UK may offer to maintain the couple adequately until they can do so from their own resources. This is acceptable in the case of fiancé(e)s / proposed civil partners who are not permitted to work until the marriage / civil partnership. However, for spouses or civil partners, such an arrangement would not satisfy the Rules, which require the couple to maintain themselves. Nevertheless it may be appropriate in certain circumstances to exercise discretion for a spouse or civil partner where it is clear that such an arrangement will be for a limited period and that the couple will be in a position to maintain themselves shortly after the applicant’s arrival in the UK"
So....if 'discretion' can be exercised, what then ?

[VictoriaS]

I've heard that too, but can't find a post here about it - ?

edit...ok, found some stuff... has anyone had a recent application turned down because of a refusal to acknowledge co-sponsorship?

I attended a hearing on Monday at which third party support was disregareded. We don't know if this has trickled up to ECO's though.

Victoria