Does claiming benefits affect spouse visa application?

[dinagul]

Hello friends,

I have spent many hours reading the forums. I am sorry if I missed something, but could not find the answer to my problem, so decided to post this question here.

I am a British citizen, my husband is Turkish. I live in London with 2 kids and he is in Istanbul.

I am claiming housing benefit, child tax credits, working tax credits and child benefits at the moment. The council also overpayed me housing benefit a couple of years ago, resulting in me owing the council around £9000, which I am now slowly repaying.

I am on maternity leave at the moment which will soon finish and I plan to return to work and earn the required salary over £18600 to satisfy the financial requirement. Before I went on maternity leave I worked part time and earned less than £18600, so I cannot provide 6 months worth of payslips at the moment.

My questions are:

Will my claiming benefits and the debt to council play against my husband's spouse visa application in 6 months time when we apply?
Should I clear the debt as soon as possible (with a loan or something)?
Should I stop claiming benefits in order for my husband to get visa?

If this information was discussed on the forums before, please could you point me in the right direction.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my post.

[SoHopeful]

You don't need to stop claiming anything you may be entitled to and none of the debts will affect you sponsoring your husband - however once you are earning the required amount or more your benefits will be reduced or stopped accordingly. That was the concept behind that figure I believe - anyone earning £18,600+ would not be or receiving very little public funding.

Once your husband arrives you would need to notify relevant departments that he is living with you and not eligible to access public funds.

[dinagul]

Thank you very much for reply. Are there any government documents about this? Has anyone been in the same situation? It will be very hard for me to earn this money with 2 kids and no family around to help, so it would be awful to struggle for nothing in the end... I remember earning 18000 before and still I qualified for benefits.

[SoHopeful]

I was in a similar situation. I was unemployed for a year prior to sponsoring my husband and I was receiving the relevant benefits for myself and my son. I ended up taking a job I wouldn't have usually considered due to the distance from home to be able to do the application. It was tough but once he got his visa I left.

There were lots of reports about how the new rules would affect women trying to sponsor their husbands with childcare issues so your circumstances are shared by many others.

You are still entitled to claim whatever you are eligible for but for immigration purposes only what you actually earn from paid employment will count. I know two people also affected - one decided to leave the UK to join her husband and the other is literally working as many hours as she can.

This document explains how you need to evidence your employment/earnings for a successful application:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _final.pdf

[dinagul]

Thank you for posting the link and sharing your experience. It sounds hopeful!

I had a look at the link and noticed on page 4/5 information regarding maintenance payments:

Third party support will only be accepted in the form of:
(i) payments from a former partner of the applicant for the maintenance of the
applicant or any children of the applicant and the former partner, and payments
from a former partner of the applicant’s partner for the maintenance of that
partner;

Does it mean that I could add these payments to my salary to satisfy the financial requirement?

Thank you again. I will study this document properly.