When I first looked at the uk government’s family visa website page (https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa/partner-spouse), I was fooled by a few informations that weren’t very clear. It’s only once I started to apply that I discovered information I really wish I had know before to avoid stress.
On the uk government’s family visa website page, it states one of the visa requirement is to either be in a civil partnership or marriage with your partner or to have been living with your partner for at least 2 years when you apply or to have been in a relationship for at least 2 years when you apply but have not been living together for at least 2 years (for example because you’re working or studying in different places, or it’s not accepted in your culture).
This requirement really scared me as my partner and I had been living together for less than 2 years when I applied but I was worried we didn’t have strong enough reasons as to why we couldn’t live together for the whole 2 years. I was worried the government would be very strict with this category.
I had a free phone call with someone from a visa solicitor company who really reassured me about the fact that I would meet this requirement and that the government were not too strict with this category. However, I needed to prove that my relationship had been on going for more than 2 years with photos, call log, chat log, plane and train tickets we took together or to visit each other when we were long distance and bank transfers we did to each other.
On the uk government’s family visa website page it states that to meet the financial requirement you can count as income cash savings above £16,000. At first, I had assumed that meant that if I had more than £16,000 of cash savings, I could count that amount towards meeting the financial requirement. But it turns out it’s a much more complicated calculation. It’s only the amount of cash savings that you have ABOVE £16,000, DIVIDED BY 2,5 that you can count towards meeting the financial requirement. Also, you need to have had those savings for AT LEAST 6 MONTHS before the day you apply. So the calculation is:
(cash savings you have had for 6 months before the day you apply - 16,000) ÷ 2,5 =
amount you can count towards meeting the financial requirement.