Checklist U.K Spouse visa

[Warunee79]

Hi forum members

 

I am in the process of gathering documents for my wife's settlement visa to the U.K.

We had a previous visit visa refusal so I feel the need to add some extra pieces of evidence. 

Please let me know if I've put too much/not enough? 

I know you cannot check the finer details but an overall opinion would be helpful 

we have not yet filled out the appendix 2/online application or Su07 form ( not sure if I need SU07 form?)

 

Applicant:

Online application (Still to be completed)

Letter of introduction 

Ielts A1 Pass certificate

copy of Thai national ID card

Passport & Copy

TB certificate

Birth certificate 

2 passport photos

Proposed flight itinerary 

 

Sponsor:

Sponsor letter

Copy of Passport/stamp page

Appendix 2 form (Still to be completed)

Copy of driving licence

Character reference X 2

CRB certificate

 

Sponsor Financial: (self employed)

Bank statements (how far back? Covering the year and upto most recent??)

ISA savings statement 

Confirmation UTR number

Tax/NI payment schedule (upto date)

Tax return copy

SA302

Accountant confirmation letter

Western Union transfer receipts

SU07 form (required??)

 

Relationship:

Marriage certificate

Certificate Surname change

Certificate Marriage registration

Marriage addendum

House particulars marriage

Wedding photos

photos of us together over 1.5 years

Birthday/Valentine/wedding cards.

Transcript of communication 10 pages taken from each month.

Screen shots of FB wall showing our story.

Hotel/Flight tickets/bookings together.

 

Accomodation:

property title deeds

Council Tax bill

Water bill

Photos of property Annual Mortgage statement.

 

All foreign documents have been translated and certified as true with all relevant stamps etc 

 

 

 

Edited August 11, 2016 by Warunee79
Spelling

[theoldgit]

Whilst I can understand your belt and braces approach, all you need to do is provide evidence of your relationship, evidence that you meet the financial requirement and that you have suitable accommodation available.

Some of what you suggest is specifically excluded from the list of documentation the UKVI ask you to provide. 

 

Applicant:

Online application (Still to be completed)

Letter of introduction NO

Ielts A1 Pass certificate

copy of Thai national ID card

Passport & Copy

TB certificate

Birth certificate 

2 passport photos

Proposed flight itinerary NO

 

Sponsor:

Sponsor letter

Copy of Passport/stamp page

Appendix 2 form (Still to be completed)

Copy of driving licence NO

Character reference X 2 NO

CRB certificate NO

 

Sponsor Financial: (self employed)

Bank statements (how far back? Covering the year and up to most recent??) Six months

ISA savings statement Only really needed if your income doesn't meet the required level.

Confirmation UTR number

Tax/NI payment schedule (upto date)

Tax return copy

SA302

Accountant confirmation letter

Western Union transfer receipts NO

SU07 form (required??) NO

 

Relationship:

Marriage certificate

Certificate Surname change

Certificate Marriage registration

Marriage addendum

House particulars marriage NO

Wedding photos NO

photos of us together over 1.5 years NO

Birthday/Valentine/wedding cards. NO

Transcript of communication 10 pages taken from each month. NO

Screen shots of FB wall showing our story. NO

Hotel/Flight tickets/bookings together. NO

 

Accomodation:

property title deeds Choose one or two.

Council Tax bill Choose one or two

Water bill Choose one or two

Photos of property Annual Mortgage statement. Choose one or two

 

[Warunee79]

Thank you OG.

I read a lot of mixed opinions on the forums which is as to be expected. 

My thinking is we won't get refused for adding a little extra? To imagine it could frustrate the Eco if he has to sieve through a few extra pages seems ridiculous.! 

Some say 1 year bank statements for self employed persons? And photos of us together over 1.5 years you say no ?

 

[rasg]

Why were you refused the previous visit visa? Did you subsequently get a successful visit visa?

 

A small bear trap that may come along and bite you for FLR. Good to sort it out now. I wish we had. If your wife has kids in Thailand that are staying in Thailand for the time being or not even coming to the UK. You will need their birth certificates and translations.

 

I included some photos and a few flight/hotel bookings because we hadn’t been together for that long.

 

To whittle things down further.

 

Applicant:

Online application (Still to be completed)

Letter of introduction 

Ielts A1 Pass certificate

copy of Thai national ID card

Passport & Copy

TB certificate

Birth certificate - NO

2 passport photos - Not any more

Proposed flight itinerary 

 

Sponsor:

Sponsor letter

Copy of Passport/stamp page

Appendix 2 form (Still to be completed)

Copy of driving licence

Character reference X 2

CRB certificate

 

Sponsor Financial: (self employed)

Bank statements (how far back? Covering the year and upto most recent??) Covering the year of your accounts you are supplying. I stapled each month together and had the bank stamp and date the first page of each. I have read differing opinions on this but Santander made it easy for us. Is your name and address on the statements if they are online statements?

 

ISA savings statement - Irrelevant. You can’t combine self employment earnings with anything else

Confirmation UTR number

Tax/NI payment schedule (upto date)

Tax return copy

SA302

Accountant confirmation letter

Western Union transfer receipts

SU07 form (required??)

 

Relationship:

Marriage certificate

Certificate Surname change

Certificate Marriage registration

Marriage addendum

House particulars marriage

Wedding photos

photos of us together over 1.5 years

Birthday/Valentine/wedding cards.

Transcript of communication 10 pages taken from each month.

Screen shots of FB wall showing our story.

Hotel/Flight tickets/bookings together.

 

Accomodation:

property title deeds

Council Tax bill

Water bill

Photos of property Annual Mortgage statement.

 

All foreign documents have been translated and certified as true with all relevant stamps etc 

[theoldgit]

1 hour ago, Warunee79 said:

Thank you OG.

I read a lot of mixed opinions on the forums which is as to be expected. 

My thinking is we won't get refused for adding a little extra? To imagine it could frustrate the Eco if he has to sieve through a few extra pages seems ridiculous.! 

Some say 1 year bank statements for self employed persons? And photos of us together over 1.5 years you say no ?

 

 

Put yourself in the shoes of the ECO, they deal with many of these applications on a daily basis and they won't want to sieve through reams of irrelevant documents, you're job is to make their job as easy as possible by just submitting the necessary documentation. There is always a danger that they might miss something relevant if you include too much.

 

it's not just me that says don't include photos, in their guidance on supporting documents the UKVI specifically advise against including  photos unless requested.

[rasg]

Some say 1 year bank statements for self employed persons?

 

You have to supply bank statements for the same period of the tax year that you are using to apply for the visa. If you are averaging two years of accounts you will need the two years of bank statements that you are relying on for your visa.

[Warunee79]

Thank you OG & Rasg.

I see where you are coming from, I thought photos might add to the relationship evidence as they sometimes refuse applicants on the basis not enough relationship evidence. 

I will take out the unnecessary documents.

thanks for your help ??

[Warunee79]

10 hours ago, rasg said:

Why were you refused the previous visit visa? Did you subsequently get a successful visit visa?

 

A small bear trap that may come along and bite you for FLR. Good to sort it out now. I wish we had. If your wife has kids in Thailand that are staying in Thailand for the time being or not even coming to the UK. You will need their birth certificates and translations.

 

I included some photos and a few flight/hotel bookings because we hadn’t been together for that long.

 

To whittle things down further.

 

Applicant:

Online application (Still to be completed)

Letter of introduction 

Ielts A1 Pass certificate

copy of Thai national ID card

Passport & Copy

TB certificate

Birth certificate - NO

2 passport photos - Not any more

Proposed flight itinerary 

 

Sponsor:

Sponsor letter

Copy of Passport/stamp page

Appendix 2 form (Still to be completed)

Copy of driving licence

Character reference X 2

CRB certificate

 

Sponsor Financial: (self employed)

Bank statements (how far back? Covering the year and upto most recent??) Covering the year of your accounts you are supplying. I stapled each month together and had the bank stamp and date the first page of each. I have read differing opinions on this but Santander made it easy for us. Is your name and address on the statements if they are online statements?

 

ISA savings statement - Irrelevant. You can’t combine self employment earnings with anything else

Confirmation UTR number

Tax/NI payment schedule (upto date)

Tax return copy

SA302

Accountant confirmation letter

Western Union transfer receipts

SU07 form (required??)

 

Relationship:

Marriage certificate

Certificate Surname change

Certificate Marriage registration

Marriage addendum

House particulars marriage

Wedding photos

photos of us together over 1.5 years

Birthday/Valentine/wedding cards.

Transcript of communication 10 pages taken from each month.

Screen shots of FB wall showing our story.

Hotel/Flight tickets/bookings together.

 

Accomodation:

property title deeds

Council Tax bill

Water bill

Photos of property Annual Mortgage statement.

 

All foreign documents have been translated and certified as true with all relevant stamps etc 

We were refused 2 visit visas

very naive and very stupid so I don't need reminding but Being miles apart I'd left my then girlfriend to sort a lot of the documents etc, she put a lot of transcript in with the application and I never checked it, I'd mentioned something about cash work, I actually said "maybe" followed by a short sentence about work! This was in 2014 when we first met and I actually was very uneducated on immigration matters!

secondly, my then girlfriend lied to her boss about her intentions with time off and infact she was going to leave the company she worked at , The embassy called her boss at the time and he said to his knowledge she was going to visit her Aunt for 2 weeks. 

Thirdly, The embassy called her while she was at work, she was not supposed to be on the phone, nervously she did not answer basic questions about me like my birthday,address and date of birth! 

So basically we royally screwed it up .

second refusal was simply that we did not address the first visa refusal issues or explain the comments I'd made. 

We have had no successful visit visa. This was 2014/2015

 

My wife has no children!

 

I am providing Apr 2015-Apr 2016 business accounts for financial requirements but should I not include bank statements up until now also? 

Being that it will be September when we send in our application.

Edited August 12, 2016 by Warunee79

[rasg]

We were refused 2 visit visas

very naive and very stupid so I don't need reminding but Being miles apart I'd left my then girlfriend to sort a lot of the documents etc, she put a lot of transcript in with the application and I never checked it, I'd mentioned something about cash work, I actually said "maybe" followed by a short sentence about work! This was in 2014 when we first met and I actually was very uneducated on immigration matters!

secondly, my then girlfriend lied to her boss about her intentions with time off and infact she was going to leave the company she worked at , The embassy called her boss at the time and he said to his knowledge she was going to visit her Aunt for 2 weeks. 

Thirdly, The embassy called her while she was at work, she was not supposed to be on the phone, nervously she did not answer basic questions about me like my birthday,address and date of birth! 

So basically we royally screwed it up .

second refusal was simply that we did not address the first visa refusal issues or explain the comments I'd made. 

We have had no successful visit visa. This was 2014/2015

 

My wife has no children!

 

Many do. Mine does and it a Royal pain to get the birth certificate here after we married for FLR.

 

I am providing Apr 2015-Apr 2016 business accounts for financial requirements but should I not include bank statements up until now also? 

Being that it will be September when we send in our application.

 

No. You only need bank statements for the duration of the accounts. Sound strange but true.

 

I have no doubt that somebody else will confirm this but you need to address the issues of the visit visas because the application asks if you have had any visas refused. Obviously with a Settlement visa you don't need a reason to return.  

[Richard W]

On 12/08/2016 at 0:14 AM, theoldgit said:

Sponsor Financial: (self employed)

<snip>

Western Union transfer receipts NO

SU07 form (required??) NO

 

Relationship:

 

Interesting.  I'd have included the transfers under evidence of the relationship.  At least, I assume these are evidence of the husband supporting the wife.

[theoldgit]

8 minutes ago, Richard W said:

Interesting.  I'd have included the transfers under evidence of the relationship.  At least, I assume these are evidence of the husband supporting the wife.

 

They're married and the application is for settlement, so the marriage certificate should suffice.

[7by7]

There are two ways for the self employed to meet the financial requirement. For the evidence you need to supply, depending on how you are meeting the requirement, see:

• 9. Self-employment or Director of a specified limited company in the UK of the financial requirement appendix
• Immigration Rules Appendix FM-SE: family members specified evidence

As said, you cannot, for some reason, combine savings and income from self employment, so evidence of your savings is irrelevant; unless you have over £62,500 and so can use that to meet the requirement instead of income.

 

I would not worry too much about the previous visit refusals as she is applying for settlement, not a visit and so the criteria are different. You can briefly mention them in your sponsor's letter with a brief explanation that you and she made mistakes due to inexperience and poor advice, if you like; but I wouldn't go further than that.

[Richard W]

57 minutes ago, 7by7 said:

I would not worry too much about the previous visit refusals as she is applying for settlement, not a visit and so the criteria are different. You can briefly mention them in your sponsor's letter with a brief explanation that you and she made mistakes due to inexperience and poor advice, if you like; but I wouldn't go further than that.

I would view them as evidence of an ongoing relationship - they should count positively for a settlement visa.

[Richard W]

1 hour ago, theoldgit said:

 

They're married and the application is for settlement, so the marriage certificate should suffice.

That's quite a turn around.  Indeed, in the case of family permits (the EEA-route equivalent), where a marriage certificate should normally be all the evidence required of a marriage, family permits are still (2016) being (wrongly) refused because no evidence of a genuine relationship was supplied and the marriage is being declared a marriage of convenience.

[theoldgit]

7 hours ago, Richard W said:

That's quite a turn around.  Indeed, in the case of family permits (the EEA-route equivalent), where a marriage certificate should normally be all the evidence required of a marriage, family permits are still (2016) being (wrongly) refused because no evidence of a genuine relationship was supplied and the marriage is being declared a marriage of convenience.

It's not a turn round at all, the OP is not asking about a family permit he's asking about the documentation required for a settlement visa, please don't try and complicate matters.
The guidance from the UKVI is very clear, in the event that a couple are married, and they meet the financial requirement, the suggested evidence includes "a marriage certificate, a civil partnership certificate, a divorce certificate or a death certificate".

At the end of the day it's for the OP to decide what documentation is required to satisfy the ECO that he and his wife are married, he may decide that a Western Union transaction does little more than prove that he's sending cash to a woman in Thailand, it doesn't actually prove they are married.

[Warunee79]

Thank you all for your help, 

Very much appreciated.

I will re-post the eventual outcome and hope others can learn from my experiences with this

[7by7]

19 hours ago, 7by7 said:

I would not worry too much about the previous visit refusals as she is applying for settlement, not a visit and so the criteria are different. You can briefly mention them in your sponsor's letter with a brief explanation that you and she made mistakes due to inexperience and poor advice, if you like; but I wouldn't go further than that.

 

18 hours ago, Richard W said:

I would view them as evidence of an ongoing relationship - they should count positively for a settlement visa.

 

That she has made previous visit visa applications, refused or not, is evidence of an ongoing relationship.

 

Those applications must be mentioned on the application form where it asks about previous visa applications!

 

But I didn't say not to worry too much about previous applications, I said not to worry too much about previous visit visa refusals!

 

Strictly speaking, since the abolition of the primary purpose rule in the 1990s (iirc) all that should be necessary to prove the relationship is a marriage certificate. However, the immigration rules do say

Quote

E-ECP.2.5. The applicant and their partner must have met in person.

E-ECP.2.6. The relationship between the applicant and their partner must be genuine and subsisting.

So I agree that some evidence of the relationship other than just the marriage certificate should be provided.

 

Unfortunately, neither specified evidence appendix nor the guide to supporting documents give any examples!

 

Personally, I believe evidence of contact whilst apart and of when, how often and how long for the sponsor has visited the applicant carry more weight than showing that the sponsor has sent money to some person in Thailand.

[rasg]

As said, you cannot, for some reason, combine savings and income from self employment, so evidence of your savings is irrelevant; unless you have over £62,500 and so can use that to meet the requirement instead of income.

 

It is to do with counting the same money twice. Once as part or all of your profits and then sticking it in a savings account and using the same money again as savings. I found out on my browsing travels a couple of weeks ago.

[7by7]

That's part of the excuse given by UKVI, true. from the appendix

Quote

9.3.11. Current cash savings cannot be combined with income under Category F or Category G. The only practical and fair means of evidencing income from self-employment, or as a director of a specified limited company in the UK, involves the provision of information and documentation relating to tax returns.  Therefore, all the income that is counted towards the financial requirement must be drawn from the last one or two full financial years. It would not be appropriate to combine that past income with current cash savings held at the date of application. To do so would not be an accurate indicator of the real level of financial resources available to the couple. It could also lead to the same money being counted twice, once as earnings and later as savings.

 

Easily overcome, I would have thought, by requiring those who combine self employed income and cash savings to show that they held the savings before the start of the relevant financial year(s).

[rasg]

Maybe but you can aggregate two years too if you are self employed if your previous year was poor but I agree with you. There should be a way but UKVI don't currently offer one.

[Richard W]

On 14/08/2016 at 1:03 AM, theoldgit said:

It's not a turn round at all, the OP is not asking about a family permit he's asking about the documentation required for a settlement visa, please don't try and complicate matters.
The guidance from the UKVI is very clear, in the event that a couple are married, and they meet the financial requirement, the suggested evidence includes "a marriage certificate, a civil partnership certificate, a divorce certificate or a death certificate".

At the end of the day it's for the OP to decide what documentation is required to satisfy the ECO that he and his wife are married, he may decide that a Western Union transaction does little more than prove that he's sending cash to a woman in Thailand, it doesn't actually prove they are married.

Being married is not enough, as 7by7 has pointed out.

 

A WU transaction does not prove that cash is being sent to just any woman in Thailand.  It proves that it is being sent to a specific woman.  The wife's documents will show that she is that woman.

[Rob180]

On 8/15/2016 at 7:48 AM, Richard W said:

Being married is not enough, as 7by7 has pointed out.

 

A WU transaction does not prove that cash is being sent to just any woman in Thailand.  It proves that it is being sent to a specific woman.  The wife's documents will show that she is that woman.

 

Personally. I agree with you there Richard. I think WU transactions prove commitment to the relationship/marriage as well as obviously ongoing contact. The amounts don't matter too much because people may not be able to afford to send too much, but if somebody is sending absolutely zero then that could raise questions about how genuine the relationship/marriage is. I mean why if the marriage/relationship is genuine would the sponsor not even send 1000 baht a month?

[Richard W]

On 12/08/2016 at 0:14 AM, theoldgit said:

Relationship:

Marriage certificate

Certificate Surname change

Certificate Marriage registration

Marriage addendum

House particulars marriage NO

Wedding photos NO

photos of us together over 1.5 years NO

Birthday/Valentine/wedding cards. NO

Transcript of communication 10 pages taken from each month. NO

Screen shots of FB wall showing our story. NO

Hotel/Flight tickets/bookings together. NO

 

 

On 14/08/2016 at 11:22 AM, 7by7 said:

Strictly speaking, since the abolition of the primary purpose rule in the 1990s (iirc) all that should be necessary to prove the relationship is a marriage certificate. However, the immigration rules do say

So I agree that some evidence of the relationship other than just the marriage certificate should be provided.

 

Unfortunately, neither specified evidence appendix nor the guide to supporting documents give any examples!

Actually, the 'guide to supporting documents' does make some suggestions, on p3, as to supporting documents for a subsisting relationship:

• This could be a letter from your sponsor confirming your relationship and that

  they are supporting your application along with copies of:

• photographs of your wedding, civil partnership ceremony or other time spent

  together

• phone records

• emails, letters or cards

Possibly a bit late for the OP, but one omission I hadn't noticed was a letter of permission from the mortgage lender for the wife to reside at the property.

 

[7by7]

Missed that!