First of all, thank you for these forums. I have read a good few topics and threads and although I'm still a little lost it's been more help than phoning the Border Agency
As I said, I've read a good few posts and topics but I'm still a bit lost so I thought I'd post my understanding of my situation and see what the general thoughts are.
My wife is American and has her 2-year Residence Permit - we got it a couple of weeks after we married. We have been married for two years next month so, of course, the 2-year Permit is almost up. For our first year, I was finishing university, so we made do with her income and my student loan. For our second year, we were in America with her family, living with her folks.
Our problem is this - we have had little income over the past two years and although we've scratched by without needing benefits, everything we have had has gone to her visa, my Green Card and flights to sort these two things out. We have just enough to pay for what we thought was going to be her 10-year Residence Permit but now not only are we being told several different amounts for this Permit, we've been told by different people that we are needing different things! Some have said that we're looking to get citizenship, some have said that there's no10-year Permit, still others have said that it's just another ILR.
What are we looking at?!
At the moment, we're cramming for the Life in the UK test that we were told several days ago that my wife had to take - not when we first got the 2-year permit, no. Four days ago. Needless to say we're somewhat panicked.
Furthermore, we got back to the UK last week and I was going to apply for jobseekers' allowance but since I made the appointment, I've been told that it could jeopardise my wife's application, since it shows that we cannot support ourselves without help.
But them my thinking is this:
At the moment we are living with my parents. The only thing we need to be earning is money to contribute towards food. Which isn't a lot. Other than that, we're fully supported and have everything we need. We're getting ready to move soon and we need to save up for that, but everything that we would be able to use for a deposit on a flat and the first couple of months' rent is going to this visa!
I've tried to be as concise as possible - I hope someone can help. Apologies if this is in the wrong section, but it seemed the most fitting.
Thank you for your time. I really appreciate it.
Dan.
