Spouse visa refused under new rules despite earning £19k

[Kuya]

Hello all,

Newbie to this forum..

Just this week myself and my wife had the devastating news that the spouse visa we applied for in October has been refused, the worse part is that over the last 12 months I have earned over £19,000.00.

My problem is that my lowest monthly income is £1,514.81 but I top up my salary with overtime and bonuses, and so the ECO has dismissed my gross salary completely when they refused my wife from entering the UK.

Their refusal letter contained:

Your sponsor is not exempt from the financial requirements as defined paragraph E-ECP.3.3. I am not able to to take into account any potential employment you have available to you in the UK or any offers of financial support from third parties. In order to meet the financial requirements of the rules your sponsor needs a gross income at least £18,600 per annum. From the evidence provided your sponsor's gross income from his employment with XXX is £17,715.00 per annum which is not sufficient to meet the financial requirements. Therefore in order to qualify, you and your sponsor will require £18,212.50 in savings in order to meet the financial requirements. You have provided evidence that your sponsor holds £856.99 in his Bank account and this was the closing balance of this account on 14th September 2012, however this amount is not sufficient to meet the financial requirements. You have submitted no other evidence to show you and your sponsor meet the financial requirements therefore I refuse your application under paragraph EC-P.1.1 (d) of appendix FM of the immigration rules. (E-ECP.3.1)

I chose category B as I couldn't apply under category A, I supplied a years worth of payslips and bank records, those showed £19,172.15 earned and my P60 showed £19,278.89 over 2011-2012.

However, it seems that they don't count overtime and bonuses. Or at least in my case they didn't. Or perhaps it was because I have been employed with the same company for 7 years?

So how do you guys think I can appeal?

[Franko]

The problem here is that the Eco will take your lowest earning month of the period and use that to calculate you gross annual salary hence the minimum you can earn in one months is £1550, because one month you earned less than this then you failed to meet the salary requirement. Ot does count.

[harv]

You applied under Category B?

So you were classed as self employed or running your own company. As far as I know there is no rule for the self employed to have monthly salary above the £1,550 threshold throughout last 12 months. This is the sole reason the UKBA ask for 12 months of records to calculate total annual salary.

The threshold of minimum £1,550 is for Employed person which is Category A.

Since you are self employed monthly salary is not the real amount you get as your annual number because the business is run by yourself and profits are calculated at the end of year. Thus the monthly salary can fluctuate.

I would suggest that you write a covering letter explaining just that. As long as HMRC is happy with your annual salary taken into account near the end of year, why should UKBA cause issues. I would suggest you write down how self employment works, I think the ECO was some sort of a trainee!

Please correct me on this if I am talking rubbish...

[Kuya]

Exactly, as they do under category A. Though I applied under Category B so supplied a years worth of evidence and listed myself as Category B.

Sadly, had I waited until January I could have gone under Category A but wanting to spend Christmas with my wife made me think the UKBA would simply use a calculator and allow my wife to be with me.

[Kuya]

I'm not self employed. I get a monthly salary of £1476.25 with a monthly bonus of £38.20 taking it to £1514.45 and every 3 months I get quarterly bonuses and throughout winter a lot over overtime (as an example this last two months pay have been over £5000).

And come January, with a 3% pay increase I can show £1558 (including the bonus each month) that I will get taxed on. So I know unless they move the bar I will qualify under Category A soon but I don't want to have to wait another 6 months and pay another £826.

The bonus by the way comes to me as shopping vouchers, I get more than £38 this way but I pay income tax and national insurance against it. So if the British Government sees fit to tax me on this bonus I feel I should be able to use it in my figures (as it is on my payslip).

[harv]

If you are employed and used Category B (for self employed), than purely you have incorrectly filled the form. Having said that, if you are employed throughout then the ECO decision is correct no matter if you filled in Category A or B in the first place.

PS - Self employed person is required to provide further evidence of self employment and being on a permanent employment that would not be possible.

[one2ka4]

hi, harv, i think you got a bit of misunderstanding there. In form, you even got two catagories under employed job as well. With catagory A you use if you have been working for more than past six months and if not then use catagory B, So in that one you also mention about your previous job as current one only less than six months.

[one2ka4]

Kuya, as you have been working for the same company past 7 years, you should have selected under catagory A and only needed to provide past 6 months info. Was the lowest income in the past 6 months of wage slips you provided?? Or before that?? If it was before that then you got chance to appeal, otherwise as you said you will have to reapply in Jan when you got past six months over 1550 threshold..

Hope that helps..