Sponsorship and spouse visa

[John Green]

Reading the Gov.Uk website, it mentions that in some situations I might have to supply a sponsorship form to get my spouse from Moldova into the UK. Does anyone know if this is something I need to bother with? She is coming here in April for a few weeks on a Visitor Visa (AKA General Visa).

To meet the language requirement, I am arranging for her to take the A1 level English exam when she is here on the visitor visa.

The level and sources of the Financial Requirement is in Family Migration: Appendix FM Section 1.7, Appendix Armed forces, dated August 2015, page 47.

Presumably, I have to make one of these forms out each year for the 5 years until she gets ILR. Will that be on the anniversaries of my submitting the first one of them?

[Casa]

You seem to be very confused over the whole procedure. The page you have listed refers to savings and is not a sponsorship form. You aren't required to submit a 'form' every year. You will have to show that you continue to meet the finance rule:
1. Initial spouse visa application
2. For the 2,5 year FLR(M)visa extension
3. ILR at the end of the 5 year period SET(M)

There is no 'General visitor visa' as you've previously been advised. This has been replaced with a Standard Visitor Visa. Has this already been granted?

[John Green]

Hi Casa. No, I was giving you three questions or points in the same message, rather than sticking to the one topic or question. I know about those diferences.

OK, the most important question in the message is about the sponsorship issue. It says on the list of requirements (documents) that the sponsor may have to submit a "sponsorship form" but "depending on circumstances."

Is this something to take note of? What circumstances are they thinking of?

Yes, she received the "visitor" visa (part of the standard visitor visa) and she has to the end of May to use it (end of the 6 months to use it).

Is this the form I may have to fill out (after looking at the other posts):

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... p-form.pdf

[Casa]

No, you've posted a link to an old UKBA form (now the UKVI) and in any event this doesn't apply to you. I can't find any reference to a sponsorship undertaking on page 47 in your link. (Appendix FM Section 1.7, Appendix Armed forces, dated August 2015, page 47.)
Just one point to clarify; when your wife applied for her visitor visa, did she state that it was to visit you (her husband)?

[John Green]

I'm not sure now what she put on that part of the visa, it was back in the summer of 2015, and for one reason and another, for example she then had to get the supporting documents, it wasn't sent until later. I am fairly sure she said she was coming to see her spouse, but I would have to ask her. Does it matter?

[Casa]

Yes it does. It's crucial to the success of her Spouse visa application. The reason I raised the question is because it's generally very difficult to obtain a visitor visa when the husband (or wife) is living in the UK, due to the risk of an overstay.
If she has withheld the information that the reason to visit is to spend time with you (her husband) this can potentially result in a refusal of the Spouse Settlement visa due to deception. All information submitted in visa applications is held on the UKVI system for cross-matching.
Surely she must have submitted evidence of where she would be staying and with whom?

[John Green]

I think so but I need to double check. The reason is that she started filling it out before we married. Then it was delayed for one reason and the other. Then we got married in Moldova, then after we married she completed the form.

[Casa]

Hopefully she's kept a copy of the information given in her application. Assuming she intends to stay in your house, did you submit any evidence of this?

[John Green]

I did give her the information, yes, and a letter. But I need to get back to be sure. I do remember we both got a bit confused after we married about some passage on the form and it was almost sent out with the wrong section filled out (not with the wrong information).

[John Green]

Sorry for the delay. But today she confirmed that when she applied for the visitor visa, she told them she was coming from Moldova to the UK to be with me as her husband and to see where I live and my region of the UK with me.

I recall giving them a letter of invitation for the visitor visa. Will this mean I don't have to in some fashion "sponsor" her (my original query) for the spouse visa?

Thanks.

[Casa]

The sponsor form you appear to be referring to, doesn't apply to a spouse settlement visa. Your wife will however, have to complete and print off Appendix 2 of the VAF4a application.

[John Green]

Cheers. I will tell her.

I know this query has been answered before, and I have repeated it to her. So not need to answer this, unless I have it wrong.

But the residency rules for the 5 year route spouse visa are quite liberal. She has a lot of emotional and family ties to Moldova, which is why it keeps coming up with her.

I told her that under the 5 year route spouse rules, she can return there to Moldova to visit for up to 6 months in a year. Without it causing problems for the UKVI authority. Presumably this same UK residency rule applies for the full 5 years to ILR. So this UK residence guidance applies for the last 30 months in the UK under the "remain in the UK" visa rules, after her first 30 months here using the spouse visa?

[Casa]

Cheers. I will tell her.

I know this query has been answered before, and I have repeated it to her. So not need to answer this, unless I have it wrong.

But the residency rules for the 5 year route spouse visa are quite liberal. She has a lot of emotional and family ties to Moldova, which is why it keeps coming up with her.

I told her that under the 5 year route spouse rules, she can return there to Moldova to visit for up to 6 months in a year. Without it causing problems for the UKVI authority. Presumably this same UK residency rule applies for the full 5 years to ILR. So this UK residence guidance applies for the last 30 months in the UK under the "remain in the UK" visa rules, after her first 30 months here using the spouse visa?

Without trawling back through all your posts/threads I can't easily trace where your specific 'visit for up to 6 months in a year' originates. Reasonable absences for holidays/health etc will be accepted. However, it may raise questions for the Case Worker if your wife is spending as much time in her home country as she is here...especially if she has left you behind. See this official guidance:
"Your application to settle here will be judged on its merits, taking into account your reasons for travel, the length of your absences, and whether you and your partner travelled and lived together while you were outside the UK."

[John Green]

Thanks. There were a number of posts on this, but I do recall one of those replying making the "6 months a year" claim.

Page 26 of the Immigration Directorate Instruction Family Migration Appendix FM Section 1.0a gives the case where "the couple have spent the majority of the period overseas." Then, "there may be reason to doubt that all the requirements of the Rules have been met," with regards to UK residency.

From this guidance, it looks like (especially if I accompany my wife on her visits) it would not be unreasonable to believe that if we are outside the UK for perhaps 3 to 4 months a year for the 5 years to ILR, this would cause no problems? To visit her family and friends.

(These are hypothetical examples - until my wife comes here on the spouse visa to see the lie of the land, I cannot be specific)

[John Green]

Regarding the completion of the spouse visa for family members outside the EU and EEA.

The form is long and quite complicated in places. If there may be a complication, therefore a potential problem, with one of the questions in the form, would you recommend the initial use of a professional UK immigration lawyer to help to fill out the form?

Or would you perhaps advise to fill the form out without their help. If the application is a failure, and UKVI will identify for the applicant the problem, to then use their paid services for an appeal? (Presuming that they can do appeals only.)

[Casa]

If you're struggling with the form and you don't feel that you can be helped with this on the forum, then it would be wise to seek advice from a legal professional. Be aware that if your application is full of holes and the visa is refused, the legal services for an appeal may well stretch to a few thousand pounds. Far better to get it right in the first place.

[John Green]

If the application for a spouse visa fails, do they give the applicant a refund of the money they paid out? I believe this is currently £1,195 plus the Health Surcharge. Or if you fail to get the visa, do you simply lose this money?

[vinny]

If you fail, then you will get a refund on the Immigration Health Surcharge.

[Casa]

As Vinny has advised the NHS surcharge will be refunded, but the visa fee will be lost. Often, the first indication that the visa application has been refused is the NHS surcharge refund. If the application is re-submitted the full fee will have to be paid again.

[John Green]

Thanks again for the swift replies.

I suppose one of the few "good" things about a refusal is, I understand, that they have to give the grounds of the refusal. They have to usually be specific as to what is missing. Armed with that information, I imagine a second attempt would be successful.

Alternatively, would an appeal against a refusal be better and cheaper?

[Casa]

Thanks again for the swift replies.

I suppose one of the few "good" things about a refusal is, I understand, that they have to give the grounds of the refusal. They have to usually be specific as to what is missing. Armed with that information, I imagine a second attempt would be successful.

Alternatively, would an appeal against a refusal be better and cheaper?

Yes. the grounds for refusal under the Immigraton Rules would be given in writing. An appeal would only be successful if the ECO has erred in their refusal. Also bear in mind that an appeal is generally a very lengthy process and may require the services of a legal professional, incurring considerable costs.

[John Green]

Understood, and normally an immigration lawyer service would be advisable to handle any appeal, I assume.

On the issue of, for example, insufficient material supplied with the spouse visa in the supporting documents category. There may (noting the complixity of some of this) be a document they need that is temporarily missing, or (more likely) some detail not supplied with the visa application because it was simply overlooked by the applicant. Or he did not think the information had to be supplied.

In this situation, where there is no deception intended, would the entry officer suspend the spouse application until the required documents or information (which he will give) is finally supplied?

Rather than saying that the application has been refused with no other recourse to the applicant than to start the process over again and pay again.

[vinny]

7. ECB10.7 What to do if an applicant provides insufficient information

11. ECB10.13 Evidential flexibility