Salary rules for fiance visa?

[Drewturner]

Thank you Terpe,

I understand most of what you have explained. To start, I fall under the non-salaried employment category, I am paid an hourly rate and although I will work the same hours every week, some months I will be paid under £1550 gross and some months well over £1550 gross, but averaged out over the year I will earn over £18,600.

I can prove this by supplying 6 months pay slips but if I were to supply 12 months pay slips I would fall short of £18,600 because I only started to earn enough to meet the minimum requirements when I received my promotion in December last year.

Also I dont have any other sufficient income/savings that can count towards my funding.

I hope this makes sense

[Terpe]

Thank you Terpe,

I understand most of what you have explained. To start, I fall under the non-salaried employment category, I am paid an hourly rate and although I will work the same hours every week, some months I will be paid under £1550 gross and some months well over £1550 gross, but averaged out over the year I will earn over £18,600.

I can prove this by supplying 6 months pay slips but if I were to supply 12 months pay slips I would fall short of £18,600 because I only started to earn enough to meet the minimum requirements when I received my promotion in December last year.

Also I dont have any other sufficient income/savings that can count towards my funding.

I hope this makes sense

Yep, it does.
Glad to have been of some help.

Read the rules again just to be sure which category applies to you.

Good luck

[Drewturner]

Yep, it does.
Glad to have been of some help.

Read the rules again just to be sure which category applies to you.

Good luck

One last question Terpe

Looking at my options I have decided that if I wanted to apply under category B then I would have to wait until December so I can supply 12 months of pay slips that will average out at over £18,600 (assuming the goal posts are not moved) but I would really like to start sooner so my question is...if I apply under category A and supply 6 months of pay slips, will they take all the 6 and average them out? (which would work out well for me) or will they do what the last agency told me and take my lowest monthly pay from the 6 and go by that? (which would not be enough).


Thanks.

[Terpe]

One last question Terpe

Looking at my options I have decided that if I wanted to apply under category B then I would have to wait until December so I can supply 12 months of pay slips that will average out at over £18,600 (assuming the goal posts are not moved) but I would really like to start sooner so my question is...if I apply under category A and supply 6 months of pay slips, will they take all the 6 and average them out? (which would work out well for me) or will they do what the last agency told me and take my lowest monthly pay from the 6 and go by that? (which would not be enough).


Thanks.

Drew,

To immediately answer your key question, my own take on this is that UKBA will not base the computation on the payslip at the lowest level.

Apologies again for this long reply, but I just want to take this opportunity to clarify for everyone how I come to that conclusion.

These Financial Requirements have just recently been ammended.
They are so new (published April 2013) that there are no actual experiences of how UKBA may or may not view 'variations' from rule. In my opinion best practice for anyone considering visa applications now is to set your targets/strategies according to the immigration rules as they are today and make any adjustments as and when they get released and published.
I never try to 2nd guess how UKBA will or will not react.

In summary,

ALL applications under Category A will involve providing evidence based on income in the 6 months prior to the date of application

ALL applications under Category B will involve providing evidence based on income in the 12 months prior to the date of application.

Drew, of course you want your fiancee to make an application as soon as possible. But you must make certain it's fully compliant.

Based on your desire to submit an application within the 6 months salary qualifying period, then this would need to fall under Category A

Means you'll need to tick all the following 'boxes':-

1 You have been with the same employer for 6 months or more prior to the date of application
2 You are in a non-salaried employment (means employment income is paid at an hourly or other rate or paid an amount which varies according to the work undertaken)
3 You have been paid throughout the period of 6 months prior to the date of application at a level of gross annual salary which equals or exceeds the level relied upon in the application.

These latest ammendments make no mention at all about computing salary from the payslip with the lowest level.
Instead, they now include a specific calculation method for establishing an annualised average for non-salaried employment.

where:-
Income from non-salaried employment that can be counted towards the financial requirement =
((Total gross income from employment held throughout the 6 month period) divided by 6) multiplied by 12

Here's a case study suggested by UKBA

The applicant‟s partner is in non-salaried employment in the UK. He works on a weekly rota basis and does not receive any paid holidays. He has earned £450 each week in the same job for the last 7 calendar months, except for the week prior to the date of application when he earned £150 owing to a holiday.

Non-salaried income = (gross earnings from employment held throughout the 6 month period, divided by 6) x 12
= ((25 weeks x 450 + 1 week x 150) ÷ 6) x 12
= (11,400 ÷ 6) x 12
= £22,800

So the financial requirement is met through Category A non-salaried employment.

Note that one 'salary point' (£150) is the lowest.
It does not meet a notional weekly level (£18600/52 = £357.69) nor does it meet a notional monthly level if combined with the previous 3 weeks pay.((£450x3)+£150=£1500)
So in my view the computation is NOT based on a payslip at the lowest level in the the 6 month period, but is based on the result of a calculation for annualised average of preceding 6 months

To me, as long as the calculated 'annualised average' meets the financial requirement level, then the individual variablity of actual payslips is not considered as the basis.

Hope that helps.

If anyone reading this has an alternative view, please shout out now.

[Drewturner]

Hi Terpe,

I have started to gather my documents together and will apply at the beginning of June. Thank you very much for your help.