Financial Requirement for Fiancé Visa

Hi,

We’re about to complete our requirements for Fiancé Visa but we’re worried about something on financial requirement form. My British fiancé quit his job recently (January 2023). As part of the requirements listed, we still prepared his employment reference letter, payslips and also his recent P60. In the application form, we only declared CASH SAVINGS. Him as a sponsor… cash savings declared is around 30,000 GBP( no other source of income). But we read somewhere in a website that it should be 62,500£ as cash savings but in the application form we didn’t see such thing. As I understood the whole financial requirement thing is that, it’s minimum 18,600£ if he still got his old job. Should we take the risk? Or we misunderstood everything?

fully and clearly explained in this link
https://immigrationlawyers-london.com/uk-family-visas/fiance-visa.php

Thank you so much. That made it clear

Unfortunately, the cash fund was from redundancy payment and went in to his bank account Feb 2023. Home office requires 6 months cash held, right? So.. we need to wait until late August to pay the visa fee and submit the documents required. My TB test is expiring October 3...it's still valid upon submission, right?

We didn't dig more about cash savings, we messed up.

You did but handily for you the example shown on the link above matches your situation:

• £30,000 in savings: £30,000 - £16,000 = £14,000 / 2.5 = £5,600
• £18,600 - £5,600 = £13,000

In this example, you would only need to show an annual income of £13,000 if you have savings of £30,000.

So unless your partner has some more savings or income from a new job or income from property or something you're not going to meet the Financial Requirements.

What you can do as per the link calculate like this
Year to date earnings =£ ?
£18600- YTD earnings =£? Shotrtfall

Shortfall£s multiplied = savings required
YTD earnings plus savings
August not to far away
Yes your TB only needs to be valid at point of application

good luck

Well, he's currently unemployed cos he quit his 34 yr old job last January 2023, and doesn't have any other source of income. What he thought was... Quit his job, get my visa done and get another job once I get there. He got the bulk cash from his redundancy pay last Feb and it sums up more than 30k including his old savings while he's working.

At this point, we can only present his last P60 which is 31k annual. Will that be acceptable even if he has resigned?

Hi I have only just come across this topic

John is correct, currently you do not meet the financial requirement, the only way you can meet the financial requirement is if your partner obtains an income, and then I believe you need 6 months most recent bank statements and salary slips. The other exception to the £18,600 annual income would be if your partner received a permitted benefit ie

• Carer’s Allowance;
• Disability Living Allowance (DLA);
• Armed Forces Independence Payment or Guaranteed Income Payment under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme;
• Constant Attendance Allowance;
• Attendance Allowance;
• Personal Independence Payment (PIP);
• Industrial Injury Disablement Benefit;
• Severe Disablement Allowance; and
• Mobility Supplement or War Disablement Pension under the War Pensions Scheme.

but you have already said your partner has no other income.
So unless I am mistaken as things stand your partner needs to obtain an income of at least £13,000 per annum, then that I believe needs to be shown that it was for the most recent 6 months, which means any application that you make will need to be after your partner has had that income for 6 months,

Sorry to say unless other members know something different your late August date is not possible, it will be 6 months from your partner getting additional income to meet the financial requirement.

Thanks. I appreciate everyone who replied. Covid ****ed up our plan to be honest we had this plan way back in late 2019. At that time, I was working somewhere abroad. I resigned from work to process my visa but in early 2020, we had to defer everything. What I mean is that we waited for so long yet it seems we had to wait for further more. At least, there is an informative forum like this to get more information about the process. The visa fee is too big to lose for nothing.
He got a Plan B-- to get his pension pot(it's a lumpsum loot from his pension, I think every English knows about this). To be honest, I am not in favour of this plan but he wanted to. He said he could get loot around 70k, plus his savings of 30k from redundancy pay last February. Will this plan work? If it is, we still need 6 months to mature the fund in his account, right? Or is the first 30k enough?
Otherwise, he needs to get a job first and settle my visa later.

I don’t believe now that the link I supplied covers this and I posted it prior to the op posting the£31k figure.
In effect the link only talks about what ifs to meet the financial requirement, with the £31 k on the p60 it’s not covered by the link as they have exceeded the £18600 requirement albeit the guy. hasn’t worked since January. However if he was to get a job now the rules covering being with an employer less than 6 months come into play and the financial calculation comes in 2 parts
Part one does he or will he meet the current requirements based on his earnings from the new employer if no
Then part 2 calculates previous employment YTD and calculated will he meet the requirement in the ops case it’s yes
I can’t see anything yet that covers this situation that the sponsor has met the requirement in part of the year but at application is unemployed but my guess would be part 2 comes into play YTD earnings.I am intrigued and will dig deeper

Yup. If he can take a lump sum of £32,500 or more from his pension and add that to the £30,000 he got from being made redundant AND keep the whole £62,500 in a UK bank with immediate access for 6 months you should be able to meet the Financial Requirement.

If you have no income you need at least £62,500 in savings - £30,000 is not enough.

Pension rules are a bit tricky but may have some advantages depending on exactly how the pension is set up. Without knowing the detail hard to advise on it. If your partner is over 55 then can start pension drawdown if it is a personal pension. Pension income counts as income and rules are only needs to start 28 days before. Also worth understanding if can transfer investments into cash within the pension without taking it out as that provides an alternative without having to take the money out. Think there are some rules worth investigating as may solve your problem. If he isnt earning then taking pension income may be tax efficient now but there are limits on what can put in later to make up for it so may want to bear that in mind.

11A. In respect of cash savings:

1. (a) The savings may be held in any form of bank/savings account (whether a current, deposit or investment account, provided by a financial institution regulated by the appropriate regulatory body for the country in which that institution is operating), provided that the account allows the savings to be accessed immediately (with or without a penalty for withdrawing funds without notice). This can include savings held in a pension savings account which can be immediately withdrawn.
2. (b) Paid out competition winnings or a legacy which has been paid can contribute to cash savings.
3. (c) Funds held as cash savings by the applicant, their partner or both jointly at the date of application can have been transferred from investments, stocks, shares, bonds or trust funds within the period of 6 months prior to the date of application, provided that:
   1. (i) The funds have been in the ownership and under the control of the applicant, their partner or both jointly for at least the period of 6 months prior to the date of application.
   2. (ii) The ownership of the funds in the form of investments, stocks, shares, bonds or trust funds; the cash value of the funds in that form at or before the beginning of the period of 6 months prior to the date of application; and the transfer of the funds into cash, are evidenced by a portfolio report or other relevant documentation from a financial institution regulated by the appropriate regulatory body for the country in which that institution is operating.
   3. (iii) The requirements of this Appendix in respect of the cash savings held at the date of application are met, except that the period of 6 months prior to the date of application in paragraph 11(a) will be reduced by the amount of that period in which the relevant funds were held in the form of investments, stocks, shares, bonds or trust funds.
   4. (iv) For the purposes of sub-paragraph 11A(c), “investments” includes funds held in an investment account or pension account or fund which does not meet the requirements of paragraphs 11 and 11A(a)

Excellent reply @Br28016.

I could be wrong but I get the feeling Aki's partner knows what the score is and Aki is looking for a little assurance that it's all going to be ok...

He's exactly 55 and He said He can withdraw 25% of the lumpsum pot. The amount calculated as we spoke last night was 73k(not sure if it's taxable). If only the 30k initial cash fund is enough, the lumpsum will serve as our back up. He didn't want to withdraw the lumpsum sooner as needed cos the amount grows over time.
As far as I understood from what your qouted above..if he withdraw the lumpsum this month, the amount will be treated as an income and cash held is reduced to 28 days from the time the loot goes into his bank account? So that means, we can chase to apply sooner than my TB test expires(October 3)? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Exactly. We waited for almost 4 years and we wanted to do it in one go, as much as possible. We could wait for more time if it's not possible for now.
I have prepared everything, only a few to print to be honest. This financial requirement caught us off guard cos we thought we have more than 18,600£ to show as cash fund.

It sounds like pension is a personal pension and they normally allow 25% to be taken as cash. The 25% is tax free. Only issue with that is ensuring that the withdrawal meets the in cash for six months requirement. My interpretation of the rules is that so long as you have the evidence trail them should be possible. Evidence trail is key.

Requires a bit more research but may be more flexible ways to utilise and at same time avoid having to take out of pension while meeting requirement.

Options that I think are possible are to move 62.5k of pension investment into cash within the pension and then document that as the savings and under the rules as aged 55 then available for immediate withdrawal. Key word is available as my interpretation is dont actually have to take out of pension.

Another alternative if pension is fully flexible is to take a pension of 18.6k and get documentation that this is pension payment and hence income. Fully flexible pension scheme should allow pension to be taken and stopped as desired and if I understood rules potentially allows an income of 18.6k in a single payment to meet the income requirement. Interestingly only need income 28 days before application which gives flexibility. Only have to pay tax on 6k if no other income.

Those are pushing boundaries of possible so would need good evidence trail and explanation of how meets evidence requirement in line with the rules in the application. Would not rely on them to work it out as not simple way of meeting rules.

Arguement for keeping it simple and taking the 25% cash sum which is tax free and after application putting into ISA to replicate pension investment - takes three years to get all in there but can grow free of tax.

Hmm...
He already has 30k in his account freely accessible by him. That already has covered the 18,600£ requirement, right?
Now, based on John's calculation we need to show a 13,000£ as income.
Since you said personal pensions can be considered as income, will it work if we can show a document that we have a 25% lumpsum pension awaiting to be withdrawn? That way, it can save the lumpsum pension from premature widthrawal.

Right here goes, as i see it you have 2 choices all dependant on when you want/need to apply, 1. as i said earlier get a job that gives enough income to make up your financial requirement. 2. Use the pension pot to make your cash up to £62.500, now if you take out 10k from your pension pot the 1st £2,500 is tax free and the remaining £7,500 will be taxed so you would need to work out how much of that 73k you actually need to use, when i applied for our spouse visa in my first application I tried to use my pension pot as part of the financial requirement, that pension pot at that time was held in shares SIPP (as most pension pots are) but the idiot at the other end said it did not meet the financial requirement, so seeing as mine was a SIPP I converted the shares into cash within my SIPP and did it that way, so dependant on how the pension is held it could be possible to do it that way, transfer into cash then after the application is made transfer back into shares, I,m almost sure even if you take enough cash out of your pension pot once you have completed your application you can put it back into your pension, the choice is yours.

He's definitely taking out the pension as cash. And put it aside to another account. He wanted to do it by 2025 cos it would make a bigger pot. If only the 30k redundancy pay was enough to meet the financial requirement. I think, it is more than enough for the two of us since before this year ends he surely can get another job. And after fiancé visa, I can also get a job.