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My husband is applying for his ILR after 5 years on spouse visa. I am a British citizen and have been a director of my limited company as a contractor for several years. My tax year runs from April to March and i've done this year's company accounts.

My questions are below please:

1) Visa granted – 28 June 2016.
Date of entry – 18 July 2016
BRP expiry date - Oct 2021.

Please confirm that we can apply 28 days before 18 July 2021 i.e. 20 June 2021?


2) There is a mismatch in my payslips and bank statements for April – July 2020. I was on Maternity leave during this time. My statutory maternity pay was paid to my company by HMRC in March 2020 and I then paid myself the total SMP as a lump sum in April 2020. Therefore the monthly salary amount in my payslips for this period does not appear monthly in my bank statements as i had paid myself the lump sum from the SMP.

I'm not sure whether the caseworker will take the time to figure this out on their own so i plan to include a cover letter explaining as i have above. Is this ok?

3) The previous company year was a loss on account. This is shown in the company’s accounts for the current year. The reason for this is that i took some time off contracting when i fell pregnant due to some complications. I was still taking a salary during this period but the company had no income. I then went on maternity leave when baby was born. After I returned to work, my income is not so much over the 18600 requirement compared to the previous years we had applied for the spousal visa - due to 4 months out of the year on maternity, and also i have taken on less work because of the new baby.

I’m not sure if the caseworker will question any of this so i was thinking of including an explanation the cover letter. Is this necessary, or am I overthinking things as i'm not actually relying on the previous year to meet the requirement?

4) Do we still need the bank statements stamped by the bank or are digital copies sufficient?


Many thanks!

Anyone please?

My advice:

I'm using digital copies of bank statements as advised here. We applied within 28 days prior to BRP expiry as our further leave remain letter said that you can only apply before the end of authorised stay but not more than 28 days and application may be refused if you apply earlier.

Thank you Mishima.

It's a little confusing because I've read that there are different rules depending on the type of visa you hold. I was hoping for clarification because the type of visa he holds is supposedly 28 days from point of entry.
 
We would preferably like to apply now as we have plans over the next few months so would like to get it sorted out now.

Ok so i dug out the previous further leave to remain letter and it says - "Following a continuous period of lawful leave to remain in the UK of at least 5 years (60 months), and subject to meeting the requirements of the immigration rules at the time, you may be eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain in the UK. You must apply before the end of your authorised stay in the UK, but no more than 28 days before completing that period. If you apply earlier than that, your application may be refused".

So this is the confusing part, does the " end of your authorised stay" mean the BRP valid until date, or 5 years from date of entry into the UK?

Evelu wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:17 pm

So this is the confusing part, does the " end of your authorised stay" mean the BRP valid until date, or 5 years from date of entry into the UK?

End of authorised stay is when the leave expires, in your case in Oct 2021. You can apply any time between the 5 year anniversary (minus 28 days) and the expiration of the leave on the BRP.

Dantean wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 22, 2021 2:39 pm

Evelu wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:17 pm

So this is the confusing part, does the " end of your authorised stay" mean the BRP valid until date, or 5 years from date of entry into the UK?

End of authorised stay is when the leave expires, in your case in Oct 2021. You can apply any time between the 5 year anniversary (minus 28 days) and the expiration of the leave on the BRP.

Thank you for your reply....so that means we can apply now yay!

Did you have any thoughts on the rest of my questions please?

Evelu wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 22, 2021 7:25 pm

Did you have any thoughts on the rest of my questions please?

As mishima mentioned, digital bank statements are fine.

I'm not sure about the other things. Writing a cover letter seems like a reasonable thing.

Alternatively, do you have savings and/or does your husband have income? If you can meet the requirement with £34,600, or a combination of savings and employment, you don't have to provide documentation and explanation of your own income. Often people pick the simplest way to meet the requirements.

For example, a friend is self employed, but he hadn't done his accounting and taxes in time for the previous year, so he used a combination of savings and his partner's part-time employment to meet the requirements with less administrative effort.

Dantean wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 22, 2021 9:47 pm

Evelu wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 22, 2021 7:25 pm

Did you have any thoughts on the rest of my questions please?

As mishima mentioned, digital bank statements are fine.

I'm not sure about the other things. Writing a cover letter seems like a reasonable thing.

Alternatively, do you have savings and/or does your husband have income? If you can meet the requirement with £34,600, or a combination of savings and employment, you don't have to provide documentation and explanation of your own income. Often people pick the simplest way to meet the requirements.

For example, a friend is self employed, but he hadn't done his accounting and taxes in time for the previous year, so he used a combination of savings and his partner's part-time employment to meet the requirements with less administrative effort.

Hmm, thats interesting. I wasn't aware you could combine savings with self employed income.

My husband is also self employed, it would be more taxing and complicated to also use his income. Especially as i meet the requirements alone. Will probably go down the route of explaining everything in a cover letter and hope it goes fine.

Thanks Dantean.

Evelu wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 23, 2021 5:41 pm

Hmm, thats interesting. I wasn't aware you could combine savings with self employed income.

You cannot combine self-employed income with savings. But his partner had normal employment income which can be combined. And payslips + bank statement was easier than documenting his self-employed income. I really don't get why you can't combine self-employed and savings (at least I don't agree with the logic) but that's another topic.