financial worries for SPOUSE VISA!.

[Mohammed Qadir]

Can someone please tell me if i can still apply for my wifes visa with the following information;-
I am working part-time (20 hours a week) and as noted on the letter from my employer, this works out 5,250 a year (paid every 4 weeks). (I WORK AT PC WORLD!!). I am going to include 2 wage slips with my application because i have only started work around 2 months ago. Even though i am contracted to 20 hours, on the wage slips you can see i have been doing overtime and extra hours (around 20-30 more hours a month) so i was wondering will this be just enough financial evidence i need to get my wifes visa?. I have included the other documents aswell which the solicitor which i am using has improved of and he also thinks the financial aspect is ok (i have savings about £2,400 in one account and £1,680 in another account and he says the wage slips are ok) BUT i would like another persons opinion about the 20 hours a week and about the yearly salary. The financial guidlines state that the income should be above income support levels for a couple, (which is about £90 a week) but the £5,250 works out to be £404 a month which is £101 a week so in the financial guidlines i am ok BUT then again i would like someone elses opinion. The only thing that is EXCELLENT for me is that i am working for one of the biggest companies in Europe (PC WORLD), so i am hoping that will sway their decision a little bit. Anyone, help?.

[Brit Chick]

I think that as long as you can show that what you earn is enough for you and wifey to live on without recourse to public funding then its okay. As far as I know, there is no set minimum wage you have to be earning in order to pass the financiality test.

[John]

Mohammed, what is your UK immigration status? It is not totally clear what sort of visa your wife will be applying for.

The warning bell ringing in my head .... and this could of course be a total coincidence ... relates to the fact that you say that you have been working for 20 hours per week .... the limit on student visa holders working during term-time. Are you in the UK on a student visa? If so, the extra hours you mention, were any of those extra hours worked in term-time, as compared to the holidays between terms?

Your accommodation costs? How much are those? That could be a very relevant figure in working out whether your wife might need to claim certain Public Funds.

[Mohammed Qadir]

I am a british citizen, born and raised here, i am applying for my spouses visa so that she can come and live with me here in the uk. She is going to apply from the Islamabad fedex offices. Please anyone help with regarding the previous question i have posted?.

[Mohammed Qadir]

my accommodation costs are ZERO (0) because i live in my sisters big house for which i pay NO RENT or anything whatsoever and i have the document which states that i can live there rent-free.
Regarding the student visa???, what is this all about??. like i wrote before i am a born british citizen, graduated from the huddersfield university last year and am now only working 20 hours a week at PC WORLD. The reason why it is only 20 because they can't give any more hours at the moment but may go to full-time in near future. Please anyone else reply to my question above.

[John]

Regarding the student visa???, what is this all about??

Well you have clarified that now, at 12.41.pm today, but certainly previously it was not at all clear. For all I knew you were here in the UK on a student visa and now wanting to get your wife her on a dependant's visa ..... but thanks now for clarifying that. So OK, you want a 2-year spouse visa for your wife.

OK, accommodation :-

i live in my sisters big house for which i pay NO RENT or anything whatsoever and i have the document which states that i can live there rent-free.

Does that same document make clear that your wife can also live there rent-free? If not it certainly needs to do that.

And you need to show that the house will be "suitable" and certainly not overcrowded if the visa is to be granted. Have a good read through this topic ... and then grab a tape measure to work out how many rooms are over 50 square feet in size (not counting any Spam, bathroom or toilet, whatever their size). So how many "counting rooms"?

And assuming the visa is granted, how many adults will be living there? And how many children? And as regards children, their ages?

Back to the financial point, even with no accommodation cost at all, I think this is very borderline as to whether the financial test is passed. At the very least it cannot but help if you find a fulltime job paying more.

[Mohammed Qadir]

Regarding the financial point, the first 2 wage slips that i am sending for the spouses visa, the first month pay slip has £492 as in the net pay, the second month has £679 (due to doing overtime and extra hours), (tax and national insurance is taken out aswell) even though it states on the contract i only do 20 hours a week, the immigration officer should take into account that i am doing extra hours and that the income is suitable for me and my wife if they look at the pay slips themselves and see that i am willing to do overtime until my pay looks like i do fulltime work. would this sway the officers decision OR would they only look at the contract itself (20 hours) and the yearly salary??. please anyone Help!!!.

[Mohammed Qadir]

Also, i keep forgetting to mention that i am doing the immigration case for my wifes visa through a SOLICITOR so this should also sway the immigration officer to giving the visa. The SOLICITOR has completed all the paperwork and i am waiting for them. Please anyone reply about the financial situation noted above. Help!!.

[John]

i am doing the immigration case for my wifes visa through a SOLICITOR so this should also sway the immigration officer to giving the visa.

Oh right, just because an application is made with the help of a Solicitor, that will influence the decision? I think not!

The application will be decided on the supporting evidence and the best you can hope to achieve is that the "evidence folder" will be well-prepared. A well-prepared "evidence folder" will clearly have advantages over a few pieces of paper stuffed into a brown paper envelope.

[ilm]

the immigration officer should take into account that i am doing extra hours and that the income is suitable for me and my wife if they look at the pay slips themselves and see that i am willing to do overtime until my pay looks like i do fulltime work.

Don't assume they will. I can almost guarantee they won't. If you think this is enough to support yourself tell them so and explain you do overtime. Maybe even get the employer to write a letter saying you can do overtime and the rate it is paid at. If you didn't have this job what else could you do? Show that you have the skill and intention to work to earn enough with or without this job because this is a very low salary and doesn't say much about your earning potential, especially as you have only been doing it for 2 months.

i am doing the immigration case for my wifes visa through a SOLICITOR so this should also sway the immigration officer to giving the visa

I don't think it works like that. It is all down to the quality of application. One would hope a solicitor will produce a good application but your questions infer this may not be the case? Do not assume just because a solicitor is doing the application it will succeed.

Answering your original question, your wife can apply for the visa and it could succeed. I agree with John though that this is borderline so go overboard with the evidence. You have gone to alot of effort to put the details on this formum to convince us so ensure the same effort goes into convincing the ECO.

[larry]

Guys, Thank you for your assistance and your efforts in help others out of their problems. As you are aware from my previous posts, I am in a similar situation Muhammed is in and it always gives someone sleepless night. I actually want more clarifications

John, what do you mean by "evidence folder"? is it a special folder apart from normal brown envelop? please explain.

Mohammed, where you do get the information that the minimum for a couple is around £90/week?

I will be applying for my wife from Nigeria soon and the information will be invaluable to me.

[John]

what do you mean by "evidence folder"? is it a special folder apart from normal brown envelop? please explain.

Absolutely not compulsory to present the information in a particular way but just for a minute or two, put yourself in the position of the ECO being asked to consider the application. Which would you prefer, pieces of paper just stuffed into an envelope, or alternatively a neat folder divided into logical sections .... financial evidence .... accommodation evidence ... etc.. Clearly a neat well-presented folder is going to make life easier for the ECO.

[larry]

The financial guidlines state that the income should be above income support levels for a couple, (which is about £90 a week).

John, what about the financial guidline that mohammed quoted above, any gist on that as well?

[Mohammed Qadir]

Larry, i got the information about the £90.00 a week income support level for both couples from the "Immigration Advisory Service" website which is very, very useful when it comes to finding information about immigration.

This is what i need help on because even though my 20 hours a week on £5.05 looks very low wage, it is still ahead of the £90.00 a week because it totals £101 a week, so in the eyes of the immigration advisory service i do fulfill the financial requirements even though it is just over BUT i do still qualify!!. yippee!!.