Halifax Mortgage - Spouse Visa

katkatmachine

Hi,

We applied for a mortgage through a mortgage adviser (MA). Our MA said that he submitted the application last week Monday (11 Nov) but until now no news yet. We have already paid the valuation fee of £200 and the bank loan fee of £999.

Just a bit of background, my partner is British and I am on a spouse visa which will expire on March 2020, I will renew it on February though and I’m 100% sure that I will get approved. My question is, will my visa status affect our mortgage application? To add, when we applied for a mortgage in principle I already stated my visa status. We were supposed to mortgage 95% of the price of the house, but as per our MA, a lot of lenders backed out when they learned about my visa status. We were able to get a mortgage in pricinple though from Halifax for only 85% hence we were forced to avail HTB for the 10%. I know we already submitted the application and all the documents to our MA and they said they forwarded it to Halifax, but I am still concerned about my visa.

Can you please advise on this?
Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,
Kat

kingstreet

Has the applicant lived/worked in the UK for three years or longer, not including time as a student?

katkatmachine

Hi Kingstreet,

I've been here since May 2017. Started working from October 2017 until now. I am full time and permanent at work. Whilst my partner is a nurse, British, full time and also permanent at work.

Will my visa status affect our application?

Thanks,
Kat

kingstreet

Usuallt, the visa is supposed to have two and a half years left, the applicant to have lived and worked here three years or more, or the LTV be below 75%. However, this is not specific to spouses' visas.

Where the customer is not a citizen of one of the countries listed above then the following checks must be completed:

Applicants must not enjoy diplomatic immunity

Passport includes indefinite leave to remain - proceed.

Passport does not include indefinite leave to remain but includes work permit or visa with minimum 2 years 6 months remaining - proceed.

If not, has the customer lived and worked in the UK for over 3 years (excluding refugees or any period as a student) - proceed

If not, where work permit has less than 2 years 6 months remaining employer must confirm that they have applied (or intend to apply) for the permit to be renewed - proceed

If none of the above applies, then the case may not proceed (or could be limited to 75% LTV).

Please ensure that if the passport has a visa stamp and if this stamp has specific conditions attached that any documents that refer to these conditions are submitted with the passport, i.e. if the visa says ‘As authorised by the secretary of state’ then the work permit and a letter from the employer confirming that they have applied (or intend to apply) for the permit to be renewed are submitted.

Some Non-EEA nationals may have an identity card issued by the home office in place of a visa, which will confirm the client's right to stay, work or study in the UK. These cards are acceptable.

I suspect there may be a request for further information if you don't meet the above and would suggest speaking to the broker who is getting paid for this transaction.

katkatmachine

That does not look promising at all. I'm really worried.

Sorry I forgot to mention, that our mortgage adviser said that our mortgage was approved subject to valuation. He said this last Monday, but we don't have a schedule yet of the valuation. Can you please explain what this means?

kingstreet

If you are being told it's approved, then one can only assume that is true. There is a valuation instruction to a surveyor, a valuation inspection appointment and the return of the valuation report to the lender by the surveyor.

Slappermum

Do you not fall under

"If not, where work permit has less than 2 years 6 months remaining employer must confirm that they have applied (or intend to apply) for the permit to be renewed - proceed"

nik_k

Slappermum wrote: »

Do you not fall under

"If not, where work permit has less than 2 years 6 months remaining employer must confirm that they have applied (or intend to apply) for the permit to be renewed - proceed"

A spouse visa isn't an employer-sponsored visa, so I can't see how it would fall under this section

Ben8282

katkatmachine wrote: »

my partner is British and I am on a spouse visa which will expire on March 2020, I will renew it on February though and I’m 100% sure that I will get approved.

This is perhaps the greatest concern. You cannot be 100% sure that you will get the spouse visa approved. The fact that you and your partner are applying for a mortgage together would imply both that your relationship is genuine and has bot broken down and that you are both employed and earning enough to be able to support yourselves, but you never know.

In the unfortunate even that this visa is not aproved what wil you do? Will you default the mortgage and both return to live in your home country or will you end your relationship with you returning home and your partner remaining here to pay the mortgage from their sole income or ? I imagine this would be of great concern to any potential lender.

kingstreet

Can I point out, I did say earlier;-

However, this is not specific to spouses' visas

so Halifax may not apply this criteria quite as rigorously in such circumstances.

katkatmachine

Hi guys. Just to update, we got the mortgage offer. Yey! I was really scared that we will get declined especially that we have already paid the £999 bank fee! But thankfully we got the offer. I guess my visa is alright (even though it’s about to expire in three months) since I am married to a British citizen.

Also, I am fairly confident that my spouse visa will get approved and extended since we meet all the requirements. And even if not, the Home Office will just change it to longer route. To explain, I am on a 5-year route until i get a permanent residency visa, in case when we apply and we don’t meet the visa requirements, the Home Office will still approve my visa but they will extend the route to 10 years. I know some people who have been in this situation. It is very costly to get extended to 10-year route since you have to re-apply every 2.5 years so we try our best to finish the 5-year route that i am currently in right now.

Thank you guys for all your input on this. I am very grateful.