Returning to UK with UK husband working abroad?

Hi all. I'm thankful that I found this forum. I'm Filipina married to my British husband for 18 years. We have two children and we are based in the UAE. My husband and I met here and this place was so different from when we arrived. The cost of living is getting more expensive every year and educating our children is taking up most of our income. For the last 6 years, our children's schools doubled the fees. Unfortunately, there is no help from my husband's company neither the government when it comes to expats education.
One of our boys is talented athlete and wants to go back to UK to train and represent his country someday. His sport requires early years of training and finding an excellent club here is impossible and it will cost so much money (no support again for expat talented children).We are thinking of moving the children back to UK to access the sports facilities there and get good solid UK education. Our problem is how can I go and live in UK to look after the children while my husband works overseas? Is it doable? Has anyone manage to apply for visa to look after the children while husband is working abroad?
We do not want to separate our family but sometimes sacrifices have to be made. My husband is 57 years old and job opportunities for him in UK are hard to come. He wants to works for two more years in the UAE to support us in UK and give us time to save but it so important for the children to move back now . Someone suggested I let relatives look after the children but as a mother, I can't do that to them especially they are still young and there is no one from my husband's family who can look after them ( husband's parents passed away). We can't afford boarding school fees and the children wouldn't want to anyway.
Is there a way for me to go to UK with our children and look after them? My husband would continue to support us from UAE and our family will be together quite often with school holidays and my husband's leave.
My husband definitely plans to resettle in UK. His job in the UAE is contractual and no matter how long we live here, we are still temporary residents. We are losing sleep regarding our situation and we don't know who can guide us. I hope anyone who had a similar situation would share their stories to us.
Thank you so much.

My wifes friend is a Filipina living in Britain. Her husband works ovreseas for 4 or 5 weeks at a time.

She had to apply for a Fiancee Visa first though, to come here.

But, I believe your hubby will need to be settled here first.

Is there a way he can regain residency here in the UK while working in UAE? Or is he in the UAE permanently?

Thank you for your reply.
I'm thinking why is it so hard to find solution to our situation which is quite simple: our British children want to go back to their country and I, as their mother has to be with them ,while husband is working abroad to support us so we won't have to rely on public funds. Why is there no visa option for my category?

He is currently UAE resident. His income from here is enough to meet the financial requirements of salary BUT if he resigns to settle permanently to UK with us right now, we won't meet the financial requirement plus we won't have source of income.

Can he travel back and forward to the UAE? Or does he have to remain resident there?

Does he have £62000 in cash savings?

He can travel back and forward probably once a month for long weekends ( excluding his 1 month leave) but that would be the maximum because of the flight cost

Welcome to the Forum, Sarah.

I have to agree with John: even though your children are de-facto British Citizens and you are their mum, unless you have a Settlement Visa, you will not be able to live in the UK and care for your sons. For you to be considered for a Settlement Visa, your husband must himself be resident in the UK and meet the minimum financial requirement.

The other point I wish to make is that you will find it rather challenging to find a state-funded school that has any sports provision - other than PE or swimming. If you have a sports-gifted child, then he/she may be awarded a sports scholarship by one of the better independent private schools.

We can probably produce £62,000 but not right away as we have to sell our apartment in the Philippines. I think the money has to be sitting in our account for certain length of time.
Does the £62,000 need to be in the UK or can it be in the Philippines on my account?
Would having this money help our situation?

Thank you Markham. You are right about the sport program ( or lack of) of state funded schools but I did some research and I found the Glasgow School of Sport and the cost of swimming with govt funded clubs are way cheaper than what we have here plus we don't have to pay extra for the travel to UK to compete in nationals, etc. Private schools have better sports programme but I'm worried that he will be always under pressure to perform if he is on a scholarship. Probably when he is bit older and more used to life in UK.

Not sure where it has to sit but it has to be cashable. Would it be readily cashable in a Philippine bank while you are in the UK? How about considering an HSBC account?

Also, yes, I think your hubby would have to spend a bit of time here to prove residency, assuming you had the cashable savings. . Not 100% sure on that though.

Having the money would definitely help as your hubby would not need to satisfy the income requirment as a consequence.

Hello Sarah and welcome, you seem to have a little bit of a predicament, I understand exactly why you would like to come to settle in the UK leaving your husband back in the UAE to bring the bread home so to speak. I am surprised that your husbands company does'nt pay for your childrens education, I have spent quite a while in that neck of the woods and regarded an expats salary, accomodation and education for the children as a standard package. Dubai is where I met my future wife nearly eight years ago, and yes it has changed a lot over the years. As John and Markham said, your husband would have to be resident here in the UK to enable him to sponsor you and take you to the UK.
If the UK is definately where you want to be then you have no other option than your husband moving back here permanently then applying for a Spouse visa at a later date, and for you to join him after the visa is granted. It is nowhere as difficult as it once was to find work here in the UK at the age of 57 especially if he has a sought after proffession. Unlike our beloved Philippines you are not allowed to discriminate against older workers here in the UK, although it has taken many years to get to this stage.

You have many things to ponder on Sarah, good luck with it all and I hope you come to the right decision.

Life is never simple is it

the savings need to be in an accessible bank account for 6 months--you need to provide 6 months original statements---and has to be obtained legally--and not a loan.

i sold my house last november to provide the funds.

also--the amount for a spouse is £62,000---plus more for children---but i dont know if that applies as your kids a brit citizens.

I think it may be doable via the 'European route'. That would mean moving to another EU country, living and working there for 3-4 months and then moving to the UK. You could do that without having to obtain any Visa for yourself as your husband would be exercising his rights as a European citizen for free movement within the EU, for him and his family. It is also called the 'Surinder Singh route'...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surinder_Singh_route

I realise that may not be exactly want you want, since your husband would have to move too but I think there is also the possibility that he could move back to UAE once you are are settled in the UK, but I am not sure about that.

Hi Timmers, thank you for your reply. Things have changed a lot in the UAE the past few years. It is no longer the Mecca for tax free income as a lot of companies would only give expat package to very senior management people and the government started charging "fees" to most services. My husband is under a local contract, it is very small company.Ten years ago when he negotiated for his package, we didn't anticipate the massive amount of tuition fee increase and the unpredictability of the housing market. We had to move houses almost every two years because of the greedy landlords. The house we are staying now doubled its rental value from last year and we are getting calls from our landlord again to move out. Hindsight, we should had packed our bags years ago but when there are children involve, it is not so easy to move them away from their schools, friends and way of life.
Do you think it is hopeless and waste of money to apply for visa in our current situation? Do you think that they wouldn't consider the importance of taking the children back to UK to further their education and talent because they reached the limit of what they can offer here?

Hi bigmac, thank you for your reply. I think it doesn't apply to Brit children. We are selling the apartment in the Philippines to partially fund the £62,000 and my family in the Philippines is willing to provide the rest but it takes time to get all these organise.
If we are applying visa from overseas and all settling back together in UK, is the £62,000 enough or do we have to provide UK employment contract for my husband too?

Thank you Howerd. We will definitely look at the Surinder Singh route. My concern with this is we have to move the children from UAE to EU school to UK school My research shows too that they are clamping down on applications using this route and you can no longer just live in EU country for short period of time??? http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/eu-rights-clinic/2013/12/08/uk-changes-rules-on-surinder-singh-route/

If your children are British then all you would need is the £62000 in cashable funds in your husbands bank account to enable him to satisfy the financial requirement. As has been said, it needs to have been there for a specific amount of time. If the £62000 is there then no income is required in terms of satisyfing the financial requirement for your visa. If the kids are British then they will need no visa, just a British passport.