Bank Statements

[chris9111]

Hi,

I am currently applying for my wife's visa and have just spent 1 and half weeks waiting for my bank statements. They finally came and were dated from July to 6th February 2015. I have been working in a good job from the 1st September 2014 till date. I get paid on the 15th of every month and knew that once I had 6 wage slips and 6 months bank statements showing this I could apply for my wife's visa. The bank is a joke, sent me the wrong ones I ordered and know I have to wait again. I have the bank statements online from the 6th till date. Can I use them for my wife's visa. The heading is with the banks name, with the date, my name and the transactions.

Please advise.

[The Fat Controller]

I have only ever used downloaded and home printed statements as evidence of my finances as sponsor of 4 visas, 3 visitor visas for ex-gf and 1 family visit visa for my wife last August.

Cannot comment about any other type of UK visa.

[durhamboy]

I presume that this is for a settlement visa. I believe that the rules state that they must be original copies. However many people just have internet accounts and it can be very hard (nigh on impossible!) to get original statements. When I did my wife's SV (over 2 years ago) I just supplied internet copies although i did have an original letter from the bank concerning the opening of the account.

I have heard of others just supplying copies without problems. Good luck.

[7by7]

First question; which country is your wife applying to?

Second question; what type of visa is she applying for?

Assuming the answers are the UK and a settlement visa according to Annex FM Section FM 1.7: Financial Requirement

3.3. Evidence requirements – general information

3.3.4. Bank statements must be on official bank stationery. Alternatively, electronic bank statements can also be accepted for all bank accounts (the account itself does not have to be exclusively online) as long as they are either accompanied by a letter from the bank on its headed stationery confirming that the documents are authentic or which bear the official stamp of the issuing bank on every page.

3.3.5. The bank statements must cover the specified periods as described in the Immigration Rules for each of the sources of income relied upon.

3.3.8. Where Appendix FM-SE requires the applicant to provide specified evidence relating to a period which ends with the date of application, that evidence must be dated no earlier than 28 days before the date of application.

Anecdotal evidence, such as that above, suggests that for visit visas printouts of online statements are accepted; but I would not want to say the same for a settlement application. The rules are stricter and the ECOs have very little, if any, discretion.

However, 3.4. Evidential flexibility indicates that, provided all the other evidence is ok, documents in the wrong format, e.g. printouts, can be accepted. But you will see from reading that section that there are a lot of ifs, buts and maybes to that!

My advice is to try and get your bank to send you the statements in the correct format; but it is your decision.

[chris9111]

ok no probs, I have re-ordered them. But not easy to stay within the requirement of 28 days. When it takes 5-8 working days to get there and if you forgot to send something else out. That could double.