Maintenance fund req, > 12 month with breaks for migrant

[georr0]

Hi all,

I am planning to apply for Tier dependent visa for dependents. I hold a TIER 1 visa till 2015.

I first entered UK in November, 2008 and hold a valid visa at all times since then. Left the UK in October,2010 and have come back to the UK in November ,2012.

Till date since the first entry in 2008, I have been in the UK for about 27 months but with break in stay.

I have been maintaining funds to be covered considering/assuming I have been in the UK for a period more than 12 months. But i have been advised by a Visa consultant while preparing for dependent visas that my assumption is wrong as it should be 12 months period since the last entry.

I am confused as the guidance does not mention about any breaks in stay or like period of 12 months in last 'X' months ?

Any comment or guidance on this highly appreciated!

Thanks,
George

Maintenance fund guidance for dependents from the UKBA website below

If the main Tier 1 (General) applicant or migrant has been in the UK for less than 12 months, you must show that you or they have at least £1,600 to support you, in addition to the funds needed to support them.

If the main applicant or migrant has been in the UK for 12 months or more, you or they must have at least £533 to support you.

[hussainkothari]

Ok. The general objective is that the applicant must have enough funds to be supported.

I read it as - If you have been in the Uk long enough then you would need £533 to support the dependent.

and if you haven't been in the uk long enough then you need £1600 be to support the dependent.

Now the long enough should apply to your current situation and not to sometime earlier in life. Hence I implicitly read it as "12 months from your visa application dates"

-H

[mulderpf]

The words "have been in the UK" is in present perfect continuous tense which implies that it has been happening "up until now". It does not say "had been in the UK", that would then include you.

Otherwise people would try all kinds of funny things - because I was also once in the UK for an accumulative total of more than 12 months, but when I applied for my initial Tier 1 visa, the understanding was my maintenance fund I had to show at that point was based on my arrangements at that point.

Also look at the spirit in which it was intended, don't try play with words! Just because something isn't explicitly written, doesn't mean that it is not implied (and implication more often than not can actually be proven).

Obviously there's a difference between someone who arrived in the UK in November 2012 from holiday and someone who arrived in the UK in November 2012 from working elsewhere. (In this case, I would imagine they would look at employment, living arrangements and so on).

Clearly you are aware that you have not been in the UK for 12 months up until now without trying to do fancy footwork with words to add them all up. It's not the intention of the maintenance requirement, there is nothing that suggests that any stay which adds up to 12 months would count towards this, no matter how far away in history it is (because that is also not mentioned), so err on the side of caution here and apply the rules based on the fact that you have not been in the UK for more than 12 months.

[georr0]

Thank you mulderpf and hussainkothari.

I was not intending to the "fancy footwork with the words" which i did , until this morning when the visa consultant raised this issue with my wife. I was always on the assumption that I would be considered as someone who was in the UK for more than 12 months and transferred excess funds between my account and my wife overseas account after taking bank statements to pay off mortgages, which means i now have and low on funds for 2 - 3 days while international fund transfer was in-progress.

Most of the funds transferred are still unused is the silver lining here.

Need to explore the options if I could give any clarification for 2 - 3 days of missing funds and then combine funds from both of our accounts and hit the maintenance fund requirements in next month or so rather than waiting for 3 months again hopefully.

George