Spouse Visa - Advice/Reassurance + AfterApplication?

Me (British Citizen) and my Ecuadorian fiancee will be getting married in Florida at the end of September. Shortly afterwards we will submit a Spouse Visa applicaiton at the British Embassy in Quito, Ecuador. I've contacted the Embassy and explained our situation. They said if we submit in the morning, if a interview is needed we should be seen in the afternoon - load permitting. Sounds pretty good!

- I've included a list below of the documents that we will be supplying, are there any obvious omissions?

- When we arrive in the UK do we need to complete any forms/registrations? My fiancee intends to work and study, are there any forms required for this?

- She isn't allowed access to public funds and this isn't a problem, i'll be able to provide for the both of us with my job. But will she be intitled to full NHS care, or will I need to look into private health care?

Appreciate any help/comments!

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Documents
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Application

• Application Form
• Passports
• Birth certificates

Employment & Finance

• Bank Statements – Me
• Bank Statements – Her
• Letter of Employment – Me
• P60 – Me (evidence of last years income. evidence of regular overtime availability)
• 6 months payslips – Me (further evidence of income and regular overtime availability)
• 6 months payslips – Her (evidence of past employment)
• Letter of support from parents

Education & Qualifications, Job Prospects

• Degree certificate - Me
• High School Diploma – Her
• CV – Me
• CV – Her
• Job Adverts
• Reference from work – Her
• Reference from work – Me


Accomadtion

• Mortgage document
• Solicitor document
• Layout of house
• Photos
• Letter explaining joint mortgage with dad
• Explanation of how will afford the property

Relationship

• Emails
• Telephone Bills
• Details of skype/msn chats
• Photographs
• Personal Statements
• Flight tickets

Marriage

• Marriage certificate
• Photos
• Flight details
• Hotel details
• Ring Receipts

Exemplary list and deserves to be a sticky for others on the forum to see what needs to be submitted.

- I've included a list below of the documents that we will be supplying, are there any obvious omissions?

Only thing I would add is a utility bill to supplement the housing/ residential aspects e.g. council tax or gas bill.

- When we arrive in the UK do we need to complete any forms/registrations? My fiancee intends to work and study, are there any forms required for this?

She needs to fill out a landing card at the relevant port of entry which asks for various bio data as per her travel document - the Immigration Officer will take her through the card were there to be any issues.

- She isn't allowed access to public funds and this isn't a problem, i'll be able to provide for the both of us with my job. But will she be intitled to full NHS care, or will I need to look into private health care?

She may avail of the NHS at no cost. You may wish to consider private health care as an added security to any health matters.

Your preparation means things should go well but do keep us updated on progress. By the way the spouse visa you then wife will receive enables her to work in the UK. The moderators and I am sure forum members wish you all the best of for the wedding and the future.

Good luck

Kayalami wrote:Exemplary list and deserves to be a sticky for others on the forum to see what needs to be submitted.

Why thank you, but the credit should go to the users of this forum as i've managed to compile such a list by lurking around for the past few months.

Only thing I would add is a utility bill to supplement the housing/ residential aspects e.g. council tax or gas bill.

The reason for not submitting any bills is that I am purchasing the property at the moment and only expect to have the keys a couple of weeks before flying out to Florida.

She needs to fill out a landing card at the relevant port of entry which asks for various bio data as per her travel document - the Immigration Officer will take her through the card were there to be any issues.

Easy enough then..

She may avail of the NHS at no cost. You may wish to consider private health care as an added security to any health matters.

Yes, I think I'll be converting my medical cover policy at work to include us both.

Your preparation means things should go well but do keep us updated on progress. By the way the spouse visa you then wife will receive enables her to work in the UK.

Ahh, so the visa stamp will contain the all important info for her to work, excellent. I had been wondering what we might need to do in terms of NI numbers, but i'm sure we can get help from the local Job Centre if required.

The moderators and I am sure forum members wish you all the best of for the wedding and the future.
Good luck

Appreciate your good wishes, thanks all !

Just a note that often they don't return the evidence so make copies of all documents that you want to keep. Don't need to get them certified if you have the originals with you as well.

We had copies of most things such as marriage cetificate, birth certificates, passports but had to go out and get copies of bank statements because they wanted to keep them on file. They did give our evidence back but kept the copies and a few selected documents.

All the best.

Just to agree with what ilm has said. When my husband applied for his spouse visa at the British Embassy in Tirana (Albania) they specifically asked for a photocopied set of all the documents to keep on file.

They also asked for passport photos of my husband and me, may be worth taking some with you, the visa will be issued with your wife's photo scanned onto it.

The application asks for a passport photo of just the applicant. We put in a passport photo of me just because we had one.

Completely forgot, but having mentioned it Marie B, I now realise mine was kept by the ECO. Would certainly recommend being prepared and having passport photos of each of you.

OK, photocopies and photographs - i'll get that sorted.

In our extended family we've had a little experience with brits getting married to indians. I've been told i shoud supply a written 'sponsorship declaration' which details such things as my passport details, my employment, my savings, property, promise to maintain/accommodate my wife etc. Basically a quick summary, all on one side of A4.

Anyone have any experience with such document?

This might be a bit late, but in answer to your question:

I wrote a supporting statement for my husband's spouse visa application which I refered to in the final section of his VAF2 form (the bit where they ask if you have any additional information you would like to add, I just wrote 'see supporting statement attached'). In it I outlined my education, work experience, future prospects, earnings, accommodation, my husband's work experience and prospects and how and when we met. At the bottom of each section of the statement I listed the relevent supporting documentation I had to back it up which included letters from friends and relatives, photographs, cards and correspondence, and all the financial/accommodation stuff. My statement was about four A4 pages long.

Still very useful! I fly out on Monday and then two weeks after that I'll be at the embassy. thank you.

Just got married this weekend!

We'll be seeing the British Embassy in Quito this Friday - wish us luck!!

Well today was the day we visited the embassy in Quito and it was all really easy.

We got there just before 9am, spent 15 minutes handing over the documents (they asked us to remove all the paper work from the folder we had prepared) and then were asked to wait for about 30 more minutes. My wife was then called in for an interview which lasted about 5 minutes asking only general questions like, how we met, what she likes about me, what she intends to do in england... nothing at all complicated. I was then called in and asked the same questions.. She did ask if we had photocopys of the documents but said it was ok that we didn´t as they only raelly want copies when they might reject. They also initially asked if my wife had her previous passport, we didn´t have it, they said they could proceed anyway and we could get a fax sent over... but in the end on reviewing the supporting documents they didnt´require it.

I guess having a well prepared application with all the supporting documents really made things easy for us. Big thank you to all that have helped.

Now a little more fun in Ecuador and then back to England!