Will Related but added complication of Illegal Immigrant!

[exLtEveDallas]

I'm after any suggestions - because I'm stumped.

A benificiary of a family members will moved to the USA 15 years ago. She married an American. She kept British Citizenship initially and has never green carded etc.

Her British Passport ran out 8 years ago and she never renewed it.
She doesn't have a bank account.
She works cash in hand.
She is technically (I think) an illegal immigrant.

Her DH works, pays tax etc.
They have a huge medical bill related debt.

She is due a good sum of cash from the will.

How on earth do we get this money to her?
There is a Solicitor involved over here, but he hasn't yet been told the extent of the problem - because we didn't know about it till last week! The executor would rather not involve him in case it shines a light on the relatives immigration status.

Any ideas?

So theoretically none knows she's not in the uk , she could say she's been homeless and nomadic for the last 15 years, couch surfing and living on the generosity of her friends and not mention the USA at all. The problems will be around paying any inheritance tax due, so probably simpler to keep USA out the loop ?

Is the will / estate in the UK or USA?

If UK, the estate will pay the tax and then distribute

What ID checks will the executor need to do to agree her rights to the funds?
Would the executor be allowed to pay the money into her husband's bank account ?

Will is in the UK
Relative is in the US
Solicitor knows that Relative is a beneficiary, and is in the US, but not that she doesn't have a bank account or status.

Such a mess.

TBH if you go down the route of
"she does not have a bank account, is funded by her husband, can the money go into his account"
then the fact that she has a rather big problem with US immigration is her problem, not yours.

Why do you think that she is an illegal immigrant? If she married a US citizen it makes absolutely no sense that she didn't go through the proper channels to have permanent residency.

No sense at all Queen, but we know she didn't (cost etc). Even when she still had a current British passport she couldn't leave the country or she wouldn't have been allowed back in.

I don't think the solicitor would be willing to send the money to anyone other than her.

Oh, I wonder if they have a joint bank account? Although I doubt it, she's completely off the radar as far as I know. Even her bloody FB page is in an assumed name!

Does she still have an account in the uk?

Ooh I don't know. I doubt it, but I can ask. Probably unlikely after this amount of time.

I'm.sure you sure the money by Western Union just getting someone to do it!

*wire

V V unlikely that an executor solicitor would be allowed to do that.
They are required to ensure that the beneficiary receives the money.

This could be a real problem actually, as I think the solicitor distributing the estate may need some ID!

Having said that, I have heard of someone in the same position as the beneficiary - won't sort it out because they are worried about what will happen, have not been back to the UK for years and have missed family occasions because of it.

Yeah, she's missed everything - really close marriages, births and so on. Couldn't even come 'home' for the funeral.

Well, if it's a significant amount of money, the beneficiary will have to jump through the legal hoops in order to get it. As far as the solicitor is concerned, he just requires XYZ in order to settle the estate. Which you then tell relative to sort out. Her legal status is really down to her and it's not something you can influence or correct.

I wonder if we'd be able to open a bank account here in her name and just deposit the cash, leaving it here? Oh, but then there'd be no signature.

Seriously, we've even been considering a family holiday with all of us carrying cash over - we'd probably get nicked as smugglers!

She has a child (adult) over here. I wonder if she could have the money?

Opening bank accounts is really tough as she has no current UK passport or address or NI record
so the bank would reject it on MLR rules

cash not possible as the Executor would not do it.

Adult child here - you have your answer.
Get her to sign her share across to the child,
executor gives money to child
mother and child sort it out between them

Hi, as others have identified you have 2 issues here, one is anti money laundering, ie proving her identity and address. If her passport has run out, that could be hard, but does she have a drivers licence? It is extremely unusual to be in the states without a DL many illegals can obtain one and use that as their ID. She will also need proof of address, if she has an old bank account they are hopefully able to have some sort of statement with her address on it within the past few months.
Secondly, the issue of getting the money to her. Once her identity has been established she can ask for the money to go where she wishes. One solution others haven't mentioned yet is a deed of variation, where if you are gifted something from a Will you can alter who it goes to, so she would need to write and advise she wants the money to go to her adult daughter. Obviously they would still need proof it was her giving these instructions. If she is giving it to the daughter to make it easier to get the money for herself at a later date (for example, she wanted to hold the money until she could put it in an account) she would need to trust her completely, as the money would be hers absolutely.

I know her situation may sound mad to others, I have huge sympathy for her, green cards cost money, the debt was probably because insurance is v hard for illegals to get.
Last thing to mention is that if the money were transferred to the US either by cheque or electronically (they love cheques over here!) and it's a large ump sum, it may come to the attention of the IRS, as banking will flag it and will require reasons for the source of funds (again, anti Money laundering on behalf of the US banks) so she will come to the attention of the authorities over there. I would probably avoid any bank transfers to the US until she has her paperwork in order. You do have to declare large sums of cash you bring across, you also need to declare the source of funds and their destination, so be careful, they do have cash sniffing dogs sometimes and whilst I have met some lovely border guards, they are not known for their geniality! I am in Canada but my sister is int he US and had to jump through hoops bringing money over, hope that helps a little and good luck.

Hmm. That could work. I presume she'd just have to tell/sign something for the solicitor. Once the DD has the money she could transfer it to the DH, whereas the solicitor wouldn't.

I suppose we shouldn't worry how she deals with it after that (although it's hard, I know they live quite hand to mouth in the US, so this money would be a HUGE deal). Mind you, maybe they'd just use it to pay the med bills off. Such a shame.

If the money can be given to the UK daughter then it can be trickled across to the US by electronic transfer
all legal
and much less stress

setting the IRS bells ringing would be a bad thing

Is she determined to stay in the US? If not, then if it’s over £16k she’s inheriting she will be able to use it as the income to sponsor him to come to the UK. In which case she would need to return to the UK alone, claim the money then get a visa for him.

Loves
She has no passport.
She cannot book a flight out of the USA.

Talkinpeace is right, no passport. But in any case her DH wouldn't come to the UK, they are very settled over there.

The advice given has been great. Sadly the issues are complex. As far as I know she doesn't have a driving licence, she didn't drive when she was in UK, and I doubt she tried over there. She doesn't have a bank account of her own, and the account etc she would have had over here would have linked to her old address, the sale of which is where the money is coming from!

I think giving permission for the money to go to her adult DD or another relative she trusts is probably the way ahead, and then trickling it to her via her husband. God, I just hope he's a decent man.

She can easily get a UK passport though, if she wanted to. It’s a simple system to apply from abroad. The issue is that she wouldn’t then be able to return to the US. Irrelevant if they want to stay in the US though.

She can easily get a UK passport though, if she wanted to. It’s a simple system to apply from abroad.
That depends when she left and what paperwork she has to prove her Britishness.
Theresa May's hostile environment cuts in all directions
BUT
Such an application would get notified to the US authorities
so would be a a bad thing

Stick with doing it through the daughter in the UK

Find someone who has an American and British bank account. And just deposit it in their British and ask them to take it out of the American.
Disclaimer, no idea if this is legal