How to Bring Your Wife to the UK

Posted onOctober 18, 2023

If your wife is living overseas, she may need a Spouse Visa to come to the UK to live with you. Our Immigration solicitors answer your questions on ‘how to bring your wife to the UK’ and advise on the criteria for a UK Spouse Visa.

UK Online and London-Based Immigration Lawyers and Spouse Visa Solicitors

For immigration legal advice on Spouse Visas call London-based OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.

Does my wife need a Spouse Visa to come to the UK?

If your wife isn’t a British national then she will need a visa to come to the UK unless she is only planning a short visit and comes from a country where visas aren’t required for visits to the UK of 6 months or less. Most married couples want to live in the same country and if your wife is subject to UK immigration control, she will need a visa to live in the UK. The obvious visa application is for a Spouse Visa but your wife could apply for another type of visa. For example, a Skilled Worker Visa or a Health and Care Worker Visa.

Sponsoring a wife to come to the UK

Your wife will need a sponsor to come to the UK – that is you as her husband. The sponsor role is not difficult but you will need to meet a financial requirement as part of the Spouse Visa application process. Meeting the Spouse Visa financial requirement can be straightforward if you are employed or in receipt of certain UK state benefits. If you are self-employed or a company director or retired our Spouse Visa Solicitors can advise you on the evidence you will need to produce to show that you meet the financial requirement.

Any husband can sponsor their wife to come to the UK on a Spouse Visa if they are a British citizen or if they have Settled status (Indefinite leave to remain or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme ) or Asylum status. If you are not sure if you qualify as a sponsor or if you need to apply for Indefinite leave to remain before you can sponsor your wife then our specialist Immigration solicitors can help you. Call us on 0203 959 9123.

If you are an EU national then you may be able to bring your wife to the UK via the EU Settlement Scheme. In this article, we focus on Spouse Visa applications but we can also help with EU-based applications.

The Spouse Visa

To bring your wife to the UK, she will need to apply online for a Spouse Visa. Our expert Spouse Visa Solicitors can help you both with the application – she does not have to have a separate lawyer in the country where she is living.

To obtain a Spouse Visa your wife needs to be able to prove to the UK Home Office that:

She is married to a person who either has British citizenship or Indefinite leave to remain or Settled or Asylum status
She and her husband are both over 18
The relationship is genuine – it isn’t a sham marriage
She intends to live with her husband in the UK – the intention must be to permanently live together rather than stay in the UK for a couple of months and then return to her home country
She has suitable accommodation in the UK – this can be provided by her sponsoring husband. A husband does not need to own a property or even rent a property in his name to meet the accommodation criteria
She meets the financial requirement – this can be in her own right (for example, if she has cash savings of £65,000) or by her sponsoring husband meeting the financial requirement or a combination of the wife and husband meeting the financial requirement
She meets the English language requirement – this may mean she needs to sit an English language test if she isn’t from a country where English is a primary language. For example, Spouse Visa applicants from the US are automatically exempt from having to sit an English language test

The list of 7 requirements can seem a bit overwhelming, especially if your circumstances are not straightforward. For example, if a sponsoring husband is:

Living with his parents so uncertain about whether they will meet the accommodation requirement for a Spouse Visa
Worried that as the marriage was arranged by family the Home Office will be suspicious that the relationship is genuine
Self-employed and only recently set up his business
Concerned that his wife will not want to leave her elderly parents in her home country

Our Spouse Visa Solicitors can talk you through any concerns you may have about the Spouse Visa eligibility criteria and the application process.

How much do I need to earn to bring my wife to the UK?

The financial requirement in the Spouse Visa application process can be confusing for some applicants as there are various ways you can meet the financial requirement. Even if you are employed and you think it is obvious that you meet the Spouse Visa financial requirement you still need to provide the proscribed evidence to the Home Office with your wife's Spouse Visa application. If you don’t then the application will be refused, and your wife will need to apply again. That just builds in delay and adds to the expense.

As a sponsoring husband, you need to earn at least £18,600 gross a year to sponsor your wife's Spouse Visa application. The figure is higher if your wife has children who aren’t British citizens who she will be bringing with her on Dependant visas.

If you are not working but you are in receipt of certain UK state benefits you don’t need to meet the financial requirement as your benefits automatically mean the Spouse Visa financial requirement is met. Not all benefit claimants qualify under this exception so check with your Spouse Visa Solicitors.

If you have multiple sources of income (for example, pensions, rental income from a buy-to-let, share dividends, bank interest, and part-time employment) the financial requirement immigration rules can get a bit complicated. If you have cash savings of £65,000 you can meet the financial requirement by cash savings alone. If you have cash savings of less than £65,000 you may be able to combine your savings and income to meet the financial requirement using the Home Office formula. The immigration rules can get complex because not all incomes can be combined and not all savings are classed as ‘cash.’

Our Spouse Visa Solicitors can advise you on what financial paperwork you need to provide in support of a wife's application for a Spouse Visa. The documents needed will depend on the sponsoring husband's sources of income and the complexity of his finances.

On top of meeting the financial requirement, you need to be equally careful to provide sufficient evidence that your relationship is genuine and that you intend to live together in the UK. Providing your marriage certificate will not be sufficient.

Proving your relationship

Proving love is tricky – to say the least! However, our Spouse Visa Solicitors are experts in advising on the types of documents that may satisfy a Home Office official that you are in a genuine relationship with your wife even though you may be separated by thousands of miles.

Whilst your marriage certificate is the obvious place to start you will need to provide an English translation if you married overseas.

If you got married recently after years of living together you may want to provide evidence of your cohabitation. If it is a whirlwind holiday romance, conducted in part via social media and text, there are other things you can produce to evidence your relationship. If the wedding was arranged then other evidence may need to be gathered.

The Home Office will consider a letter setting out the genuineness of your relationship if it is supported by other things, such as photos and correspondence or evidence of joint financial commitments. Whilst you do not want the letter to read as if it was written by an Immigration solicitor it is vital to include some key information, such as when and how you met, how your relationship developed and your plans to live together as a family in the UK.

Spouse Visa Legal Advice

There is no getting away from the fact that applying for a Spouse Visa is time-consuming but the rewards are enormous. Our Spouse Visa Solicitors never lose sight of the fact that when they are applying for a Spouse Visa the future happiness of a family rests on their shoulders. Whilst our Immigration solicitors may make thousands of Spouse Visa applications every year nothing is as important to you as your application. That’s why our Spouse Visa Solicitors treat every application as if it were for a member of their family. With OTS Solicitors you can be assured of receiving some of the best legal advice available in the UK today.

We know that there are loads of Immigration solicitors who say they are London spouse Visa Solicitors. What sets OTS Solicitors apart from the rest? We think it is a combination of things from our attention to detail, caring attitude and the honest straightforward advice we provide. If we think it will be difficult for your wife to secure a Spouse Visa then we will tell you that but we will then do our utmost to make a successful application.

We think clients give the best write up of why the Spouse Visa Solicitors at OTS Solicitors are special. Here is a recent Google review:

We used OTS solicitors for the first time knowing our spouse visa application would be complicated due to the paperwork requirements. We had the privilege of working with Sanae and despite the lack of faith we had in obtaining the visa, we managed to receive it much to our surprise. During the process Sanae was very patient, helpful and kept us updated. I have recommended Sanae to all my family and friends and would highly recommend OTS to anyone who needs help.

UK Online and London-Based Immigration Lawyers and Spouse Visa Solicitors

For immigration legal advice on Spouse Visas call London-based OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us. online.

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