Fiance Visa - sole parental responsibility

[MDNJ101]

Hi

Can anyone provide a definitive answer in respect of what exactly can be combined to meet the FR for a Fiance Visa?

My partner is in China and wishes to come here, with her 11 year old son, to marry me. She has approximately £52000 in cash savings.

I am self employed and this year have had to rely on the coronavirus business support. Also, because of the cash based nature of my business I have been advised that it will be very difficult for me to have my earnings taken into account as there are mismatches between my tax return and bank balance. ( I keep a day book of all receipts cash or other but I often use the cash in other transactions and therefore do not bank it all - and before anyone asks, I DO declare all income on my tax returns! However, at the time of my last tax return, I did not know I was going to meet someone who needed a visa to enter the country, otherwise Iwould have changed this practice.

Consequently, all I can offer as her Sponsor is a very small pension and the lowest balance in my own bank account over the qualifying 6 months.

She also has income derived from renting a property in Beijing.

If we take all the money, her savings, her rental income and my contributions, we make the threshold. BUT, I don't know if we are able to include her rental income. If not, we're scuppered.

Please help.

Thanks

[seagul]

BUT, I don't know if we are able to include her rental income.

Property rental – further guidance
Appendix FM-SE specifies further requirements for property rental income:
Any rental income from property, in the UK or overseas, must be from a property that
is:
• owned by the person
• not their main residence and will not be so if the application is granted, except
in the circumstances specified in paragraph 20(e)
• if ownership of the property is shared with a third party, only income received
from their share of the property can be counted

page 37
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... .0-ext.pdf

[seagul]

Also see:

Sources for meeting the financial
requirement
Where the applicant has to meet the minimum income requirement, the financial
requirement can generally be met in the following 5 ways:
• income from salaried or non-salaried employment of the partner (and/or the
applicant if they are in the UK with permission to work) - this is referred to as
Category A or Category B, depending on the employment history
• non-employment income, for example, income from property rental or
dividends from shares. This is referred to as Category C. of this guidance
• cash savings of the applicant’s partner and/or the applicant, above £16,000,
held by the partner and/or the applicant for at least 6 months and under their
control - this is referred to as Category D
• state (UK or foreign), occupational or private pension of the applicant’s partner
and/or the applicant - this is referred to as Category E
• income from self-employment, and income as a director or employee of a
specified limited company in the UK, of the partner (and/or the applicant if they
are in the UK with permission to work) - this is referred to as Category F or
Category G, depending on which financial year(s) is or are being relied upon

page 16

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... .0-ext.pdf

[MDNJ101]

Thanks for this - I am aware of these requirements, the question is whether or not it can be included in the application as it is HER property and rental income and not mine. I am not clear on the distinction between what is allowed as she is applying outside the UK.

Thanks

[seagul]

It seems of being allowable:

Category C: Non-employment income – requirements:
The following are sources of non-employment income which can be counted towards
the financial requirement under Category C:
• property rental
• dividends or other income from investments, stocks and shares, bonds or trust
funds
• interest from savings
• maintenance payments from a former partner of the applicant in relation to the
applicant or any children of the applicant and their former partner (any
documents issued by the family court must have permission to be disclosed).
Also, maintenance payments from a former partner of the applicant’s partner in
relation to that partner
• UK Maternity Allowance, Bereavement Allowance, Bereavement Payment and
• Widowed Parent’s Allowance
• payments under the War Pensions Scheme, the Armed Forces Compensation
Scheme and the Armed Forces Attributable Benefits Scheme
• a maintenance grant or stipend (not a loan) associated with undergraduate
study or postgraduate study or research
• ongoing insurance payments
• ongoing payments from a structured legal settlement
• ongoing royalty payments

Unless otherwise specified, the specified non-employment income which the
applicant’s partner and/or the applicant have received in the 12 months prior to the date of application can be counted towards the financial requirement.

The relevant asset on which any income is based must be in the name of the
applicant, their partner or both jointly and held or owned at the date of application

[MDNJ101]

Thanks again - I do see this. The problem is that other people, "experts" and advisors and other websites are saying that the rental income only applies to the Sponsor when the applicant is out of the UK!! Logically, this makes no sense to me, and the directorate seems pretty clear. But I'm confused as to why so many of them are saying the opposite.

Goodness this is a confusing time

[seagul]

Thanks again - I do see this. The problem is that other people, "experts" and advisors and other websites are saying that the rental income only applies to the Sponsor when the applicant is out of the UK!! Logically, this makes no sense to me, and the directorate seems pretty clear. But I'm confused as to why so many of them are saying the opposite.

Goodness this is a confusing time

I can see that you have been gleaning the relevant information from the official guidance and other various sources. And, I also do agree that there is no much granularity laid down in the guidance over it which is pretty foolhardy but unfortunately we don't have much member's experiences either to pour some illumination over this grey area.

[MDNJ101]

Thanks. I'm really struggling to understand the logic behind it NOT being acceptable but then logic seems to be somewhat arbitrary where HO is concerned.

[seagul]

Hi,

Where cash savings are used as well as non earned income for the FR for a fiance visa, does anyone know the following?

If the cash savings figure includes money from the non-earned income source, e.g. rental money paid into a current account, do we need to split out the rental income from the overall savings total?

Many thanks

You can choose to not differentiating it if the cash savings alone will be sufficient and have been held for at least 6 months. However, you will have to declare the provenance of these funds such as rental income & other sources.

[MDNJ101]

That's really good solid advice. Thank you.

Sadly the cash savings alone are not quite enough. However, if we extract the non-earned income and declare it separately, then it and the cash savings do cover the FR.

We have all the provenance for the non earned income, rental contracts, copies of the bank account into which it is paid, Court order with child maintenance declared and statements that show no non- payments from that time.

Thanks again.

[seagul]

That's really good solid advice. Thank you.
However, if we extract the non-earned income and declare it separately, then it and the cash savings do cover the FR.

That's fine too.

[seagul]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any recent info on how long priority applications for fiance visas are currently taking? Is the backlog still slowing things up?

Thanks

There is no priority service available in now days, and if there is from outside of UK, then you would have been told about the timescale.

[MDNJ101]

Not helpful. The question - which you have moved - was if anybody knew how long priority visa applications are currently taking to process.

Implicit in this question is the concept that I am interested in PRIORITY visas.

We have been offered a Priority Visa application by VFS in China for a Fiance Visa.

So yes - I do know what THEY'RE saying, but that wasn't my question.

Your answer about there being no priority service available raises more questions than it answers. For instance, are there no priority visas because of the Covid outbreak? Is it a policy change? Do the HO not inform third party application centres abroad that they've stopped doing them?

Very often, and very disappointingly when you consider the harshness of the system most people who come to this forum have had to endure, the answers here are partial, unhelpful and given in a tone of dismissal.

[MDNJ101]

Hi, we are about to submit our application but before we do we would like to ask what members think of our situation with my partner's son's biological father.

He has signed a notarised document in which he gives his permission for his son to live with his mother in the UK and he has signed another document (not notarised) in which he agrees that he has had no day to day decision making role in his son's life since his divorce in 2016 and that all day to day and major decisions have been made by my partner.

However, he also pays a fixed monthly maintenance for his son and has been pretty good at keeping up the payments.

Does anyone have any experience of a similar situation?

Moreover, do the members think that we have enough evidence for the Home Office to accept that my partner has sole responsibility?

Many thanks

[MDNJ101]

How petty