good news

[marley2005]

guys,

i did what u advised me , and saved money for marriage visa application and went for it two days ago and i got it yesssssssssssssssssssss.

because of the last hurdle of maintenance and since i got a job now in the oilfield in 4 weeks on and 4 off work rotation in algeria they gave me the visa .

but i am worried now about what are my rights since my wife is still on benefits, and my salary is in algerian dinar, i just wanna know what i am allowed to claim and working overseas rules .
please help

[Chess]

Congratulations - Marley..

Just goes to show that the board is very helpful!!

[John]

Marley ... many congratulations ... to you and your wife!

As regards your current job, do you intend to retain that? Or after you have come to the UK, to find a different UK-based job? And then give in your notice at your current job?

Or do you intend to continue in your present job and then after four weeks working then spend four weeks in the UK with your wife?

You will see that your visa has a "No recourse to Public Funds" restriction. You are not allowed to be the claimant for anything within the Public Funds definition. However your wife's benefit situation might change but it is rather complicated and before delving into that it would be helpful to know what you intend to do about work.

Again ... congratulations!

[Kayalami]

Marley,

Mabrouk akhwan. The UK oil and gas sector has a shortage of upstream skills to include rig/deckhands and reservoir management personnel. You will have no problems getting a job as long as you are willing to relocate - such will be a neccessity due to the 'no public funds' clause in your visa. Best wishes for the future and for a long and happy marriage.

[marley2005]

guys,

in words of honesty, you can't imagine the help you gave me, at first the problem seems bigger but after talking in here, it goes smaller and easy to be jumped over thank you all and success to everybody.

well, my job now is Logistic and procurement coordinator with NABORS drilling international. my salary is 500 pounds a month in algerian dinars, i am working via agency but like the people before me , in six months period i may have a direct contract wiht Nabors, and the salary will go up of course. my problem now is as follows:

i have to pay for flight ticket myself, i am discussing this with my manager if there will be a chance to get it paid by the company.

i know only that child benefit and family tax credit are the benefit this couple are allowed to have but i don't know anythingelse about this.

since i got the visa, does this mean, my wife has to declare this straightaway or wait till i come, we don't to be in trouble wiht the council .

i am planning to work another four weeks, and use the four weeks vacation to have a good and better job in oilfield or in other field if my negotiations will go closed wiht Nabors.

please advise, please

[John]

my salary is 500 pounds a month in algerian dinars

You need to appreciate that the salary you mention is miniscule by UK standards. It is well below the UK National Minimum Wage, which is now £5.05 per hour for adults. In other words working in the UK you would earn more than you currently earn even doing unskilled work. Or put it another way, just working in McDonalds would get you say £200 per week.

But I don't suggest you would want to take such unskilled work. I just mention it to show you how low your current earnings are by UK standards. Kayalami has already said about skill shortages in your work area. You could well find that you could secure employment in the UK at a very nice multiple of what you currently earn. But Kayalami is better placed to be more specific about that.

Do appreciate that as the holder of a spouse visa that you are fully entitled to work in the UK .... without needing a Work Permit!

Accordingly I suspect your plan should be to give up your current job as soon as you have found something paying you significantly more.

since i got the visa, does this mean, my wife has to declare this straightaway or wait till i come, we don't to be in trouble wiht the council .

An interesting question. I shall look up the small print in the legislation ... by profession I am a Tax Consultant. But I suspect you have no need to take any action, at the very least until you next come to the UK using your spouse visa. After that? Depends upon whether you will be changing jobs, or continuing to earn a miniscule salary.

[John]

OK, the benefits situation! As far as I can see there is no question of any adjustment being needed before you first arrive in the UK using your spouse visa. But when you do arrive in the UK using that spouse visa it looks like some adjustment would be needed.

Can you clarify ... what sort of benefits is your wife getting at the moment? It is possible that some benefits might need to be stopped, only to be replaced with other claims.

Take Tax Credits for example. It might be the case that if your wife is not working that she is not getting these at present? Is it Income Support she is getting?

Tax Credits ... here is a link to part of HMRC's Tax Credits Technical Manual. In other words, part of the detailed instructions given to their staff dealing with Tax Credits claims. The sections there regarding Residence Rules and Immigration Rules make interesting reading having regards to your circumstances. Also note a bit later on that reference is made to regulation 3(2) of Tax Credits (Immigration) Regulations 2003. In the past you have said your wife is British and thus under 3(2) there is no problem you being a joint claimant to Tax Credits, even though your spouse visa has a "No recourse to Public Funds" restriction. Indeed once you start living with your wife using the spouse visa it would be wrong for your wife to be the sole claimant of Tax Credits .... claims would be needed to be made jointly by the two of you.

Tax Credits come in two varieties .... Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit. Given your current very low (by UK standards) employment income it appears that both types would be payable and indeed would amount to a not insubstantial amount.

Of course that might change when you start earning considerably more in the UK.

[marley2005]

well, my wife is in receipt of the following:

chd benefit,income support, ousing support, disalbled support for her daughter , this is what i know .

so my salary in agleria is 1200 dollars a month but because i am working via agency they deduct from it so i receive 700 dollars which is nearly 500 pounds a month.

i am planning to submitt my visa to my manager and see if i can get a direct contract wiht them so i will get flight paid by the company.

or i can go and find another job in the uk, i am just worried that till this will happen my wife will not receive her money and we will be in trouble before i arrive and get things sorted out.

[John]

Marley I think you need to accept that, irrespective of what you end up doing, you starting to live as man & wife with your wife in the UK is going to cause "turmoil" to your wife's benefit claims! And that will apply even when you are not there ... for example, when you are working in Algeria for 4 weeks at a time ... or indeed, just for the sake of illustration, you are away from home working in the UK's North Sea!

Please appreciate that what follows is not the detail. It is only an outline of the situation. As regards the various UK benefits :-

• Child Benefit - well this one is easy - no change at all
• Income Support - this only applies where no one in the household is working - so income support will stop! (But don't despair too soon - do read on!)
• Housing Support - I guess that consists of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit - with the stopping of Income Support - the automatic entitled to these will stop - but families with one or more people in work are not excluded - but the amount they get is calculated taking their income into account. That is, the more that is being earned the lower the amount of benefit - and at a particular point the income will be such to wipe out the entitlement entirely
• "disabled support for her daughter" - without looking into it further I am not sure exactly what this might be. It might continue - or it might disappear only to be taken into account in .....
• Tax Credits! - your wife will not be getting these at present but unless you are earning over £50000 per year there will certainly be an entitlement to be paid something. Exactly how much will depend upon family income and circumstances. The fact that your step-daughter is disabled is one of the factors to take into account ... and so is your income level. If you continued to earn that (by UK standards) minuscule amount of £500 per month the amount of Tax Credits would be very large.
  
  Clearly you need to appreciate that the more you earn the lower the amount of Tax Credits that will be paid.

I am planning to submit my visa to my manager and see if I can get a direct contract with them so I will get flight paid by the company.

I can see that you would want your air fare paid - BUT - the amount you will earn in the UK will far exceed what you are being paid now. So I think, if you can afford the air fare to the UK, you should pay that and then seek alternative employment here. From the point of view of the visa, as the holder of a spouse visa, a single air ticket is sufficient - a return air ticket is not needed - although I readily accept that sometimes a return air ticket is no more expensive than a single one - or indeed it can be cheaper for some strange reason. Just saying that there is no requirement, as regards the visa, for you to be holding a return ticket to Algeria when you land in the UK with your spouse visa.

[marley2005]

john,
you can't imagine the help you are giving me i highly appreciate it.

i have the money for flight ticket, i can go to live wiht my wife tomorrow , but is it ok if we wait till i get a job there for example a month then we go to check wiht council for benefits?

please advise

[John]

Marley, that's great .... have a safe journey ... and enjoy your reunion with your wife!

Yesterday I sent you a PM. I don't think you have read it yet. That is, it is still in my Outbox rather than my Sentbox.

Towards the top of the screen ... click on "Inbox" .... or indeed click here.

Not sure how long you should delay notifying the change of situation, but suspect one month will be too long. But then I don't think it will take you that long to find a job in the UK.