Can anyone point me to the right part of the UK Visa website?

[lborgia]

We want to move back after 10 years away - I'm British, so is my son, other son is now a citizen we all have British passports. Is that enough for us to be able to just up sticks and walk back in?

Meanwhile, DH (Oz by birth) had a spousal visa when we were last in the UK, but imagine that at the very least we'll have to jump through some new hoops for him... but cannot find anything useful on the website.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? I assume that if he gets a job before we get there then he could have a work visa, but am hoping we can get this all sorted as a family so we can move next year without relying on him finding a job straightaway. We have funds to support ourselves for at least a year, and would be moving in to our own home (which will be mortgage free).

This is a while off but given all the stuff at the moment, wanted to see if I can pin anything down early.

Many thanks.

www.gov.uk/join-family-in-uk

Have a look at the Moving Back To The UK section of the British Expats Forum. It is fabulous, loads of links to the spousal visa and loads of regulars who know tge rules and have been through it themselves. Good luck!

britishexpats.com/forum/

Also, when that visa finishes, he'll need to apply to settle in the UK:

www.gov.uk/settle-in-the-uk

There are hoops alright. I couldn't get my Australian dh. Like you I am British, so are our dc. We had been married for 13 years, we owned a house in the uk, he is a high wage earner and he had lived here in the uk for 19 years overall.

We eventually got in on an appeal (after 18 months) but really we shouldn't have as the law as it stands was correctly applied.

http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk

You will probably ok if you have money to support you all for a year. There is a set amount but I can't remember what is is now. We were going to borrow it from my mum but we couldn't as you have to show where it came from. Bastards!

Wow, thanks for all that. ..although I'm frozen to the spot by savoy's comment. That's that then? OMG, I'M really scared now. ..never able to live in the UK again is something I. ..well I don't know how I would get my head around it.

Shit.

Thanks for the comments though.

Those who are British can all walk straight back in without concern.

If you have been living elsewhere in the EU as a family then your DH will also be able to walk straight back in under the "Surinder Singh" loophole.

If you have been living outside the EU then he will need to apply for entry clearance as a partner under Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules, showing that he is "suitable" (no convictions), that the relationship is genuine (unlikely to be an issue if you have two kids) and that you have an income of over £18,600pa.

It's the income threshold which catches most people. However you can rely on your income while you've been living abroad and any job offer received in the UK in many circumstances.

It was a bit of a shock to us as well.

The £18600 (more to support each of your dc)income has to be earns by the British partner in the U.K. For six months. And it can't be a temporary job and you can't include overtime. So for us, we would have had to live separately for all that time, running two homes. Whilst I worked and the dc would have been twelve thousand miles away from one of their parents. I just kept saying 'well, we will have to buy two toasters, I don't want to have two toasters'

Then we looked at the Surinder Singh route. My dd has a cuddly toy called Surinder Singh as we were bandying it around so much. We considered going to live in a holiday resort somewhere (so we didn't have to buy another toaster....) and lounging about for six months.

We did the spouse visa route, and the kids and I came over 9 months before DH so I could get the 6 months income for his visa (I got the job before I moved). He came over on a visitors visa for 3 months of this, but couldn't work during this time and went back before we applied.

I think, however, that the income thing is waived if you have about (just over) 60k of cash savings in your own name for at least 6 months before you apply.

Then another visa 2.5 years on, but this one can be on joint income.

It's really pricey and all adds up. After a while we just stopped counting how much the move had cost.

Savoy that is the best name for a soft toy!!

The £18600 (more to support each of your dc)income has to be earns by the British partner in the U.K.
DC are exempt from the financial requirement if they are British. :)

Additionally you CAN use the British partner's income from OUTSIDE the UK - see the guidance here at p22 www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/525708/Appendix_FM_1_7_Financial_Requirement.pdf

As long as the British partner is earning over the threshold while they are abroad and has a job offer over the threshold to return to, the income earned abroad counts. So if British partner is living in Australia earning £20k and has a job offer in the UK at £25k for example, then the applicant can apply to come in at the same time as the British partner. That applies even if the British partner has already left their job (see p28 of the guidance).

A little update on Surinder Singh: you can no longer do this if you are planning just to go and lounge in a holiday resort. From Feb 2017 the rules have changed so that anyone who was not in "genuine" pursuit of Treaty rights will not be permitted to rely on Surinder Singh. This is almost certainly illegal under EU law and certainly conflicts with the existing caselaw, but nobody cares because Brexit.

Thanks for the updates - Laura, thanks for clarifying that, I'd def be doing OK here. ..but not sure how easy it would be for me to get a job in the UK from overseas as it's an admin manager job that I suspect would be easily filled from within the UK. ..

Lovely, lots to work with there. Thanks again!