Spouse visa financial requirement thru NON EMPLOYMENT SOURC

[sanfus]

Hello All, I am a newbie to this forum

I am planning to apply for Spouse visa for my wife under Partner of British Citizen category. Currently i run a Limited Company in UK for which i am the sole Director and 100% shareholder.

Though i am the Director of my limited company and self employed i had never with drawn any salary from my company . as a 100% shareholder I've withdrawn DIVIDENDS of £29000 during 12 months period prior to my application date only.

I am planning to meet the Financial Requirement thru NON EMPLOYMENT INCOME source only ( i.e DIVIDENDS from shares ONLY not SALARY) .

as per the FM1.7 supportive document provided by UKBA to Evidence Dividends income from shares, the following supporting documents are required

1)A Certificate showing proof of Ownership

2) Personal Bank Statements for the 12 month period prior to the date of application showing that the income relied on was paid into an account in the name of the person


For proof of Ownership i have a letter from Company House stating i am the sole director and 100% share holder of the Company also i have a letter from my Accountant stating the same and my personal bank statements showing entries of Dividends received from my Business Account.

Can any one please advise if i can apply for spouse visa using the above category and evidences stated above only

Appreciate your quick response

many thanks

[MPH80]

Hmm. Oddly there's a second person asking this EXACT question too ... I suspect you've created a couple of users - please stick to one - it keeps it easier.

The non employment income documentation requirements highlight what they expect from the dividends side of things - that they are expecting these to be dividends from a company that you are not a director.

As such - I don't think you can use the non-employment income qualifier. I think you need to follow the 'income through self-employment via a limited company' route.

This has the rather unfortunate side effect of requiring the last year's accounts, which means your recent withdrawal of dividends wouldn't count.

However, I stand to be corrected, and I'd agree with anyone who comments that it's not clear.

Personally - I'd expect a fight if you go down this route.

M.

[sanfus]

Thanks for the reply. But As per the UKBA guidance a Director of a limited company can be a share holder and as a share holder he is eligible to receive dividends from company's profit which is classified as a income from Non Employment source. According to the Ukba guidance financial requirement can be met from single or combination of different sources including income from Non employment source i.e DIVIDEND. I would really appreciate if any one can shed some light on the above

[MPH80]

Well - here's my backing from the immigration rules ... I'll let you post yours ...

Appendix FM-SE:

19. (c) Where the self-employed person has set up their own registered company and is listed as a director of that company, the income that can be counted will be any salary drawn from the gross profits of the company and any income drawn from the post-tax profits of the company.

Post tax profits of the company can only be released as dividends - so that's why I think dividends when you are the director of a company must fall under the self employment route.

I've scanned the rest of FM-SE looking for the references to dividends in non-employment income and can only see that dividends can fall under that category - but as above, given the circumstances of a director is explicitly called out in the self-employment section, I believe that the share-holder dividends is intended to be for non-employee/director income.

M.

[sanfus]

Thanks for the Reply.

I do agree as per the FM-SE a Director of the Company falls under self employment category but a Director of the Company may wear different Hats of receiving income from various sources
like at the same time he can be a Salaried person or a share holder drawing Dividends or he may have Cash Savings etc..

So as per the FM-SE a person can meet the financial requirement from a single(Non Employment income source) or combination of different ways (Salaried+Self employment+Non Employment+Cash Saving etc)

So as per the FM-SE 4.1.2 table a NON EMPLOYMENT income can be used as alone or combined with other sources and vice versa. It is no where specified in the FM-SE that a director of a limited company can't use other income sources to meet the financial requirement.