Hi,
I'm a US citizen, married to a brit and have been here for 2.5 years on a spouse visa. This is my experience in applying for the FLR(M) extension of my visa to remain here a further 2.5 years!
I went along to the Premium centre in Liverpool yesterday and was granted 30 months FLR(M) extention of my spouse visa- This is to share my experience!
Our appointment was at 9:30am, and we arrived early at 9:00am. They have you pass through security (metal detector) and give you a number and we took a seat in the Waiting room.
At 9:25am, a caseworker called us up and we presented our documents. She asked for the appointment confirmation/checklist, and also for our passports. She told us that (I believe due to new legislation?) if we did not meet the financial requirements then our visa would not be denied, but rather put on a hold and dealt with in a case by case basis. This took about 5 minutes.
We sat down in the waiting area again whilst she went through our paperwork to make sure all was in order.
Around 10:10, I was called up and given a sheet and my passport and was told that I was to have my bio-metrics taken, and to wait for my number to be called. At 10:35 my number was called and they took my fingerprints and photograph, a process which took about 2 minutes. Then, back to the waiting room.
We waited then, until 12:30 when we were called up by the caseworker and told that our application had been successful. I I thought I had made copies of the proof of address documents, but evidently I had not as I saw the caseworker make copies of those documents- the waiting process may have been shorter had I remembered! I was told that my BRP would be posted to me in 7 working days time.
All together, we were there for 3 hours and 30 minutes.
Overall, it was a very pain free experience. I wish that they could have told us that the wait would bee approx 1 or 2 hours as I was starving! But aside from this, I cannot complain.
Below are the documents I had presented for my FLR(M)
Initial Documents:
• Appointment Booking Checklist
• Application Payment Confirmation
• Immigration Health Surcharge number & Payment Confirmation
• Completed FLR(M) – Signed and Dated with attached passport sized photographs (Applicant x 2, Sponsor x 1)
Group 1: Personal Documents
• Applicant’s Passport
• Applicant’s previous passport with current visa
• Sponsor’s Passport
• Sponsor’s previous passport
• Applicant’s birth certificate
• Sponsor’s birth certificates
• Original Marriage Certificate
Group 2: Financial and Accommodation Documents:
• Financial Documents
o Sponsor’s current employment certification letter x 2 copies
o Sponsor’s original contract dated 13th March 2013
o Sponsor’s original wage slips x 13 (March 2016 - March2017) & copy
o Sponsor’s original bank statements for the following timeframes & copy:
15th February 2016 – 15th August 2016
11th January 2017 – 15th March 2017
o Sponsor’s bank statements printed and validated in-branch for the following timeframes & copy:
15th August 2016 – 11th January 2017
3rd January 2017 – 10th April 2017
• Accommodation Documents
o Original assured tenancy agreement of sponsor and applicant’s privately rented flat
o Original deposit protection services letter
Group 3: Evidence of Relationship, proof of address
• Jointly addressed (2):
o Water Bill dated 10th January 2017
o Council Tax Bill dated 6th March 2017
• Addressed to Applicant (5):
o NHS Cardiology referral letter dated 7th November 2015
o Halifax bank statement dated January 2016
o O2 mobile contract letter dated 1st June 2016
o Yorkshire Bank statement dated 2nd August 2016
o HMRC Tax letter dated 26th January 2017
• Addressed to Sponsor (5):
o Vodafone direct debit confirmation dated May 2015
o Santander Bank statement dated 6th September 2015
o FundSmith ISA Investment Summary dated 8th April 2016
o Npower Bill Summary dated 17th May 2016
o HMRC Tax letter dated 8th March 2017
• Proof of Relationship
o X3 photos of us over the past few years
o The certified affidavit letters from our previous original spouse visa application (application made from the USA) for good measure
Hope this is helpful to someone, and wishing everyone the best of luck with their Visas!
