Spain Visa - Question About The £500 Savings

mystic_bertie

Hey folks

My gf is having to apply for a visa for spain, one of the requirements is 3 months bank statements showing a minimum balance of £500. She does not have this money, can i send/ transfer her the £500 one week before she applies, then she can print the statements and send me my £500 back.
She is going to stay at a friends villa for a week later in the year so she wont need much spending money at all.

Caz3121

you may be better asking on a forum related to her nationality, I assume she is not a UK passport holder

mystic_bertie

the rules apply to any nationality applying for a visa, she is Filipino and working as a nanny, your right she has not got a British passport.

this is taken from the Spain Visa Information website

Proof of financial means to cover the cost of the intended stay (latest three months UK current account bank statements (original and copies) showing a positive balance with a minimum amount of £ 500.00 regardless of the length of stay in the Spain/Schengen States plus and extra 10% of this amount per day per person when stay in Spain/Schengen States exceeds the 10 days. Statements need to show the last 3 months salary payments. Cash or traveller cheques are not accepted as proof of financial means.

If the current account shows a balance of less than £500.00, then a UK savings account may be used to supplement the current account. A savings account cannot alone be used to show the required minimum balance.

Voyager2002

mystic_bertie wrote: »

the rules apply to any nationality applying for a visa, she is Filipino and working as a nanny, your right she has not got a British passport.

this is taken from the Spain Visa Information website

Proof of financial means to cover the cost of the intended stay (latest three months UK current account bank statements (original and copies) showing a positive balance with a minimum amount of £ 500.00 regardless of the length of stay in the Spain/Schengen States plus and extra 10% of this amount per day per person when stay in Spain/Schengen States exceeds the 10 days. Statements need to show the last 3 months salary payments. Cash or traveller cheques are not accepted as proof of financial means.

If the current account shows a balance of less than £500.00, then a UK savings account may be used to supplement the current account. A savings account cannot alone be used to show the required minimum balance.

It is obvious from this that simply sending her the money would not work.

Where is she now: the Gulf?

Alan_Bowen

Clearly your idea won't work as they want evidence she has had a balance of at least £500 for three months, not just on a particular day. It states that the statements must show three months salary payments as well as the balance.

mystic_bertie

She has been in Scotland for 3 years. She does not get paid that much and she sends money home each month. So if she has to save then she is not going to be left with much each week for spending. Sadly im not in a financial position to give her the money for 3 months.

InsideInsurance

Then it unfortunately looks like she is considered too high a risk under this visa.

How long has she been your girlfriend? Do you cohabit? If so how long? Are you intending to go to Spain together or separately? If you are travelling together and are closely enough attached to be considered "family" then you could see if there is any options under the EEA rules for non-EU family members

mystic_bertie

If she has to save the money she can, it just means she will have to really cut back her spending, she does not squander money anyway.

We have not been together long, we dont live together, we are not traveling together, im not going, she is a live in nanny and lives with another family.

She may only need £100 spending money, her accommodation is free, but is having to find £500 for the visa application.

eDicky

Schengan visa requirements for a short visit are typically designed to make sure that the applicant has a stable life and is unlikely to overstay illegally, and of course has funds available and no intention to work there etc.

You may find that during the online application process, when her record of residence and employment in UK is entered the financial proof requirement drops off. But likely not. In which case maybe you could top up her account, print out then receive it back, three times at monthly intervals. It will be just a formality and probably not examined closely when they can see that she has a stable life and job to return to.

Otherwise it may be hard on her family back in the Philippines if she has to cut back on the remittances to them.

mystic_bertie

thanks for the advice, her appointment is in august so she better save hard:D

Ill put the money in to help her balance, all going well they wont question it. She sends her money home each month as a priority her parents depend on this money. So her plan is to save and still send the money back home, she would go without just to do this. It means only spending a minimum amount each week.

agrinnall

She may well be missing the sun living in Scotland but I would question the sense of spending money that she doesn't really have on a holiday in Spain and going without for 3 months before that. Can she not find a week's cheap holiday in the UK instead?