Using savings for Spouse Visa....

So me and my American girlfriend are in the process of looking into the Spouse Visa to move to the UK. I don't actually earn £18600 a year. Her Dad has given me money to use towards our future/deposit on a house etc. With this money could I use it to meet the difference with my earnings? I've already done the math and it is enough. The question is since this money was given to me/us a while ago do I need to say that it is a ‘gift' as technically it was not given to me to help towards obtaining the visa? How that makes sense?

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

When dealing with regulators nowadays, they are ticking boxes on a computer screen; there is very little if any personal judgement involved.  You should always answer questions honestly, but sometimes people can talk too much and lead the questioner down a path he may not have been going until you mentioned it.

So, if you are asked how much money do you have, you say £XXXXX.XX; if you are asked how much money do you have and where is it, you say £XXXXX.XX and it's in the building society, or the bank (wherever); if you're asked "how much money do you have, where is it and where did you get it", you say " £XXXXX.XX, it's in the building society and it's a gift from my partner's father".  If you answer question 1 with the answer from question 3, you are opening all sorts of doors for the questioner to go down, he may even think there is also a father trying to get into the country.

So, to answer your question, if he asks you where the money came from, answer him/her honestly in as few words possible, do not embellish your responses to any question, they probably don't care much that it's raining where you live, or that Chelsea beat Tottenham on Saturday - they may even be a Tottenham fan (I've heard there are some around the place).  This applies to all questions you may be asked; if they want further information, they will ask for it.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team