spouse visa

[rogerq]

hi everyone
i"ve known a wonderful young woman from indonesia for 6 months and i plan to marry her next month in jakarta before bringing her here to england as my wife.
i"m worried about my financial situation as regards to meeting the uk"s requirement for us to support ourselves here (she has a 4 year old son).
i only earn about £15 k a year and i can only afford a 1 bedroom apartment. Does anyone know if my income and apartment limitations will be a problem?
Any other advice will also be gratefully recieved.

thank you

[antontony]

Hello,

The threshold is 85 UK pounds per person per week. That is 12 240 a year.

So far, you are OK for the wages.

Accommodation. It must be 1 bedroom for adults and 1 bedroom for a child aged over 3, if I am not mistaken.

The application may be refused as your accommodation is not adequate...

Can you move to a 2 bedroom flat ?

[ppron747]

According to "Diplomatic Service Procedures - Entry clearance Volume 1 - General instructions" a two-room flat (not necessarily two BEDroom) would not be considered as overcrowded for three people provided the rooms (excluding bathroom & Spam) each exceed 50 square feet. Unless these instructions have been superceded, I can see no reason for rogerq to find a bigger flat in order to satisfy the requirement of the Rules.

I can also find no mention of your "threshhold" income of £12, 240 pa income in the DSP volume, which contents itself with talking about "sufficient". Can you tell us where you got this figure from?

[ppron747]

Since posting the above, I see that John posted a "sticky" on the subject of accommodation a couple of days ago - here

[rogerq]

thank you for your help, very useful information.....i wonder if anyone knows if there is a requirement for us to live together first if we are to be successful in our application for a spouses visa.....currently we"ve only spent 11 days together on holiday earlier this year....

[ppron747]

There's certainly no requirement for you to live together before marriage - think what fun "Colonel Angry of Tunbridge Wells" would have with a law that required people to live together out of wedlock....

[rogerq]

you know, all this visa stuff is a real headache, but that comment has made me laugh!

[zaimondos]

Hi,

I have a similar question related to evidence that we will be able to support ourselves without recourse to public funds.

My situation is that my wife is Japanese, I am a dual British/Australian citizen who has been living in London for 5 months. We have been married for 5 months but had been together for 2 years before getting married (one year in Japan, the second year we were living in different countries but she visited me twice during that time). I have been working as a temp in London for four months, earning 10 pounds an hour (approx 18,200 a year based on a 35 hour week). My wife is currently living and working in Japan, and her salary is roughly 34,000 pounds (converted from yen) and she has a lot of savings and a good cv (multinational companies etc). She will quit her job in Japan and move here, hopefully in late Jan/Feb. Her company will allow her to work from home in London (she works in IT) for a couple of months while they wait for her replacement to be able to start working. Then she will have to find a job here. We have rented an apartment here in London as the sole occupants with both our names on the tenancy agreement. Rent is 900 pounds. Obviously I can't afford this on my own so my wife is paying half.

Sorry for the long-winded description. The questions: Should we mention when we apply very soon for the visa that my wife will be working from home initially after she moves here with (hopefully) a spouse visa? I am on a low income that would barely be able to support myself and my wife if she were not earning money and contributing to the rent, will that be a problem? Do you have more information about that 85 pound a week per person amount mentioned above?

Regards

Z