HELP!!! Employer letter

Hi all, sorry in advance if I am posting this in the incorrect place.

I am a US citizen hoping to join my husband by applying for the UK spouse visa in a couple of weeks. I just have a few things I am hoping to get answers for as I collect the last documents.

My husband works for a large retail company on a 30-hour a week contract. However he also always works overtime on top of these base hours. His 30 hour contract only comes to £14,820 per annum (before the London living wage as well.) We are planning to apply under category A. My understanding of the Appendix is that contracted hours are considered salaried employment and overtime is averaged for the 6 month period and added on to the salaried amount.

"5.5.7. Overtime, payments to cover travel time (e.g. for a care worker travelling between appointments), commission-based pay and bonuses (which can include tips and gratuities paid via a tronc scheme registered with HMRC) will be counted as income from employment where they have been received in the relevant period(s) prior to the date of application. Sometimes the person will receive the same amount of income from overtime each month; sometimes overtime payments will vary, with different amounts (if any) each month. All overtime in salaried employment will be calculated based on the approach to income from non-salaried employment. This will be an annualised 6-month average for the overtime which will be added to the level of the gross annual salary."


So I just want to be sure of how we calculate this.

His contracted hours x12 =14820
The average of his overtime (6 months/6 x 12) =5663.28
Where both together comes to 20,483.

Would this be the correct way? This is also before the London living wage is added. How does that come in to play? It is all separated on the pay stubs, but the gross pay for all of them is above the 1550 mark. Or am I meant to just average the 6 months at the gross pay?


We also just had his work email us back the employer's letter and unfortunately although we asked they did not include any say of overtime.

"RE: SIMON XXX

To whom it may concern,

This is to confirm that the above employee has been permanently employed at XXX since 13/09/17. His current job title is a XXX and his employment is continuous.

His current salary is £14,820 per annum (excluding London Weighting).
In accordance with Company Policy, only the above information is disclosed for
employees and is always presented on XXX standard letterhead. The
Company does not provide any further information."


It is on company headed paper, and is signed and dated. Will this suffice? They are not willing to say anything about overtime. I worry if I am supposed to average the 6 months gross pay it will not match the amount they gave for the contracted hours.



And one last question, when I arrive we are planning to stay in my Husband's family home which is owned by his parents. They have agreed to us staying there and are prepared to write a letter supporting this as well as the deed. The house has 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a Spam, and 1 living room. Currently he lives here with his mom and dad as well as his sister. So when I arrive it would be 5 of us living there. I have read the rules of overcrowding and this seems to be fine for accommodation correct? Would it be necessary to have a property inspection done or can we do without as we are running out of time?



Thank you so much in advance for any clarifications and advice, I apologize for such a drawn out post.

brittysmiles wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2019 7:00 pm

So I just want to be sure of how we calculate this.

His contracted hours x12 =14820
The average of his overtime (6 months/6 x 12) =5663.28
Where both together comes to 20,483.

Correct calculations. Try to explain same in your covering letter/additional info section of form to caseworker instead let him/her do it for you.

brittysmiles wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2019 7:00 pm

We also just had his work email us back the employer's letter and unfortunately although we asked they did not include any say of overtime.

"RE: SIMON XXX

To whom it may concern,

This is to confirm that the above employee has been permanently employed at XXX since 13/09/17. His current job title is a XXX and his employment is continuous.

His current salary is £14,820 per annum (excluding London Weighting).
In accordance with Company Policy, only the above information is disclosed for
employees and is always presented on XXX standard letterhead. The
Company does not provide any further information."


It is on company headed paper, and is signed and dated. Will this suffice? They are not willing to say anything about overtime. I worry if I am supposed to average the 6 months gross pay it will not match the amount they gave for the contracted hours.

Employer letter must state about overtime or the average income of last 6 months.

brittysmiles wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2019 7:00 pm

And one last question, when I arrive we are planning to stay in my Husband's family home which is owned by his parents. They have agreed to us staying there and are prepared to write a letter supporting this as well as the deed. The house has 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a Spam, and 1 living room. Currently he lives here with his mom and dad as well as his sister. So when I arrive it would be 5 of us living there. I have read the rules of overcrowding and this seems to be fine for accommodation correct? Would it be necessary to have a property inspection done or can we do without as we are running out of time?



Thank you so much in advance for any clarifications and advice, I apologize for such a drawn out post.

should be fine. Home Inspection report might not need because there is none who is non-related adult in property.

Thank you so much for your help seagul.

The HR office was adamant that they would not disclose any more information in their letter so I am really unsure of what to do. Do you think if we had a manager from his store write another letter to include that overtime is available that that would be sufficient? (If they were more willing than HR.)

Thank you again. I appreciate it.

brittysmiles wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2019 8:39 pm

Thank you so much for your help seagul.

Do you think if we had a manager from his store write another letter to include that overtime is available that that would be sufficient? (If they were more willing than HR.)

Thank you again. I appreciate it.

Yes store manager can give an employer letter but better to include the overtime confirmation in the same employer letter instead attaching additional letter for overtime.

Tried to reach out and get the overtime included but they are refusing as it is "non-contractional." They revised the letter but only to state it was a 30-hour contract and his pay was some odd £16,000 (now including the London Allowance.) His pay slips clearly state his base pay every month and then his overtime hours and pay for those, but I am so concerned this will not be considered because of they employee letter not mentioning it.

An employer letter is very important to include all income from that employment and few members got refusal even earning sufficiently in their payslips but their employer letter stated the income below £18600.

Just want to break down everything I will be including in my packet, if anyone is willing to look over to make sure I am not missing anything or offer any tweaks I would really appreciate it!

I am a US citizen married to a UK citizen and we are hoping to apply for the spousal visa within the next few days. My husband has been with his employer for over 6 months so we are applying under category A. For accommodation, we will be staying with his parents in the home they own. Marked in red are ones that will need to be done at the time of the application, but as for the supporting documents I have them printed and ready. As far as shipping, we are planning on purchasing the round trip service offered through the VFS.

-Applicant's one and only passport
-VFS priority receipt
-Applicant's cover letter (brief relationship history and contents list and stating I did take husband's last name but passport still shows maiden name and therefore so do travel documents-1 page)
-Physical copy of online application
-Stamped biometrics confirmation
-Appendix 2 (my husband is non salaried so I averaged the gross amount for the 6 most recent payslips to reach his annual salary amount.[1727.17+1728.48+1608.72+2127.45+1788.68+1625.15]=10,605 [10,605/6]=1,767.60 [1767.60*12]= £21,211.30 this is the amount I put in the annual salary box in 3.11 and I broke down this calculation on the additonal information box)
-Receipt of IHS payment
-Sponsor's letter (Stating relationship history and how UK citizenship/financial/ and accommodation requirements are met)
-Copy of sponsor's passport photo page and stamped pages
-Letter from employer dated April 8th,2019 on letterhead paper and signed (states sponsor is nonsalaried, hourly rate, job title, date employment started and that it is permanent and on-going)
-6 months of original payslips (OCT-MAR) most recent dated 28/03/2019 (Each payslip covers the entire month before, so for example March payslip is for dates 01/02-28/02- should this be enough?)
-7 months of bank statements stamped and dated for April 3rd by local branch (Statements come out on the 18th of each month, so for March 19th-April 3rd the bank printed a "mini statement." To ensure that there is a full 6 months, we have included 7 (SEPT- MAR mini statement)
-Parent's letter of accommodation, stating number of rooms (3 bedrooms, 1 other room) people who will be living there (sponsor and his mother, father, and sister.) and that they are happy to accommodate me and that the sponsor and I will have one of the bedrooms for our own use. Signed by both parents.
-Land registry showing sponsor's parents ownership
-Marriage certificate (Original and copy)
-Plane tickets/Coach Tickets/Hotel bookings (Most of these were e-tickets so we just printed them off, for the few actual plane stubs we had we scanned them in and printed the copies and will also be including the actual stubs as well)
-Screenshots of messages/facetime calls while apart
-Photos together


Phew. Sorry for the long list. I believe that is everything! Would appreciate if anyone has seen something stress-brain is making me overlook!! Thank you in advance.

I am a US citizen applying for the UK spouse visa in the next few days, I am leaving the UK on Monday with all the documents I have collected ready to apply as soon as I land home. However, I just realized there is a problem with the employer letter. According to the appendix it should state ALL of the following (b) A letter from the employer(s) who issued the payslips at paragraph 2(a) confirming: (i) the person’s employment and gross annual salary; (ii) the length of their employment; (iii) the period over which they have been or were paid the level of salary relied upon in the application; and (iv) the type of employment (permanent, fixed-term contract or agency).


Our letter has all of that EXCEPT how long they were paid the level of salary relied upon in the application. I am now terrified this will be detrimental to our application but as im leaving Monday to apply there is no way we can get HR to post an updated one to us before we leave. I'm sure they could email us an electronically signed one as this is what they did when they were drafting the letter for us, but its seems electronic signatures are not accepted and they need to be wet signatures.


Here is the wording of the letter we have: " RE: SPONSORS NAME This is to confirm that the above employee has been permanently employed at xxx since 13/07/17. His current job title is xxx ad his employment is continuous on a 30 hour per week contract. He is non salaried and his current hourly rate of pay is xxx."


Any suggestions on what we can do? Is it true that electronically signed documents will not be accepted?
Please help I'm in panic mood, I appreciate it

brittysmiles wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 13, 2019 7:03 pm

I am a US citizen applying for the UK spouse visa in the next few days, I am leaving the UK on Monday with all the documents I have collected ready to apply as soon as I land home. However, I just realized there is a problem with the employer letter. According to the appendix it should state ALL of the following (b) A letter from the employer(s) who issued the payslips at paragraph 2(a) confirming: (i) the person’s employment and gross annual salary; (ii) the length of their employment; (iii) the period over which they have been or were paid the level of salary relied upon in the application; and (iv) the type of employment (permanent, fixed-term contract or agency).


Our letter has all of that EXCEPT how long they were paid the level of salary relied upon in the application. I am now terrified this will be detrimental to our application but as im leaving Monday to apply there is no way we can get HR to post an updated one to us before we leave. I'm sure they could email us an electronically signed one as this is what they did when they were drafting the letter for us, but its seems electronic signatures are not accepted and they need to be wet signatures.


Here is the wording of the letter we have: " RE: SPONSORS NAME This is to confirm that the above employee has been permanently employed at xxx since 13/07/17. His current job title is xxx ad his employment is continuous on a 30 hour per week contract. He is non salaried and his current hourly rate of pay is xxx."


Any suggestions on what we can do? Is it true that electronically signed documents will not be accepted?
Please help I'm in panic mood, I appreciate it

In my view the wording of letter is absolutely fine if there has been no pay rise since 13/07/17 because wording automatically giving the information "how long they were paid the level of salary". However, if you still wish then may get another letter highlighting it a bit more clearer for satisfying your overthinking.

There was a pay rise starting this past week to match the London living wages. His payslips we are including were before this rise was introduced but the letter does state the the hourly rate after this pay raise was enacted. We do have another letter sent out to all employees informing them of the change in pay rate, do you think it would suffice to include this? I am leaving the UK tomorrow so I am unable to get an updated sletter posted before I leave. The only other option we would have is to get an electronically signed one.

brittysmiles wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 14, 2019 6:11 pm

There was a pay rise starting this past week to match the London living wages. His payslips we are including were before this rise was introduced but the letter does state the the hourly rate after this pay raise was enacted. We do have another letter sent out to all employees informing them of the change in pay rate, do you think it would suffice to include this? I am leaving the UK tomorrow so I am unable to get an updated sletter posted before I leave. The only other option we would have is to get an electronically signed one.

I don't think there will be any issue since the employer letter and recent payslip is not older than 28 days but don't include any other letter than employer letter. Also no harm to precisely explain it in additional info section.