Hello hivemind, I'm really hoping someone has the knowledge to help me understand what to do here! Apologies if it gets long!
DH and I are currently based in a European country, I'm British, he's not. Since having our DC, we have decided we would like to move to UK, he will therefore need a spousal visa and I will technically be the 'sponsor'. I am self-employed, working online with independent direct clients who pay me by invoice, therefore my business can essentially be easily transferred to be based in the UK and all that changes is who gets the tax money. All my recent financial records are of course from the country we're living in now, so therefore different currency but can already prove to meet the financial requirement to support a spousal visa, so all good on that front.
I'm just confused because as we have proceeded with his application, all of the questions about me as the sponsoring partner seem to imply that I'm already living there, and ask for my income in GBP, telling me to use figures from certain british forms etc that of course I don't have. So, I'm wondering if there is some other way that we were supposed to start this application, given that we are all trying to move together, as a family (in which DD and I are British and DH isn't) rather than me trying to bring over a spouse if that makes sense? (For example if I'm meant to do something first and then he starts an application, or if we've done it correctly to just start his application and have me fill out the sponsor details as though I'm there e.g. with currency exchanges etc).
Another question that makes me wonder if we've gone about it wrong is regarding our 'dependents'. Firstly, it asked DH if he had dependents, so we said yes and gave details of our DD. It asked if his dependents will be coming with him, we said yes (I'm now doubly confused about whether we should have put that because again, looking online, bringing dependents is an extra cost, but... she's British). Then when it came to the questions about me as his sponsor, they asked if I had dependents so I said yes and we ended up answering about the very same DD 😅I just don't know if we've done this right but at the same time, neither of us can say 'no' to that question so I'm questioning if there's a whole other way we should have gone about this process!
Argh, thank you so much Mumsnet - if anyone manages to clarify any of this at all for me I'll be so grateful. It feels like our situation couldn't really be more simple and yet the application process makes me feel like it's really complicated! Am I missing something huge?