Spouse Visa App - Supporting documents + certification

[75JohnUK]

Hi all,

I got married on the 6th Agust 2011 to a Russian woman. We are soon to be applying for our Spouse Visa. She has taken (and passed)
her IELTS English exam and she is now waiting for her international passport to be changed. However, neither us are sure on how we should present our evidence for the supporting documents.

We were seeing each other regularly over a period of 18 months before we got married so we have accumilated a lot of evidence (which I'll list in a later). My questions are these:

- Will the Visa centre except copies of everything (rather than originals)?
- If I do supply copies, do all or any of them have to be certified by a solicitor? Which ones?
- Is there anything else I need to get done with my documents before they are submitted?

The documents I have supplied are below. Do you think anything else will be key to submitting a successful application?

- Supporting letter detailing our relationship and circumstances.
- 100 + photos of time spent together
- Skype conversations (1 random conv taken from each month since we met)
- Copies of cards and letters we have sent each other
- Last 9 payslips
- Bank statement detailing all savings accounts
- Copy of a will (I was left a lump of money and wanted to prove where it had come from)
- Employment contract from the school where I work
- Teaching Qualification + degree
- Passport + all visa pages from my travel to Russia and joint holidays
- Driving License
- Rent agreement

Thanks in advance for any advice given. I think we have covered all the bases, but I would like to put my wife's mind at rest!

[batleykhan]

Hi all,

I got married on the 6th Agust 2011 to a Russian woman. We are soon to be applying for our Spouse Visa. She has taken (and passed)
her IELTS English exam and she is now waiting for her international passport to be changed. However, neither us are sure on how we should present our evidence for the supporting documents.

We were seeing each other regularly over a period of 18 months before we got married so we have accumilated a lot of evidence (which I'll list in a later). My questions are these:

- Will the Visa centre except copies of everything (rather than originals)?
- If I do supply copies, do all or any of them have to be certified by a solicitor? Which ones?
- Is there anything else I need to get done with my documents before they are submitted?

The documents I have supplied are below. Do you think anything else will be key to submitting a successful application?

- Supporting letter detailing our relationship and circumstances.
- 100 + photos of time spent together
- Skype conversations (1 random conv taken from each month since we met)
- Copies of cards and letters we have sent each other
- Last 9 payslips
- Bank statement detailing all savings accounts
- Copy of a will (I was left a lump of money and wanted to prove where it had come from)
- Employment contract from the school where I work
- Teaching Qualification + degree
- Passport + all visa pages from my travel to Russia and joint holidays
- Driving License
- Rent agreement

Thanks in advance for any advice given. I think we have covered all the bases, but I would like to put my wife's mind at rest!

The above are fine. You do noy need to send your degree, driving license etc. Only everypage of your passport needs to be certified by a solicitor.. All otehrs must be originals. Is your rent agreement a valid assured shorthold tennacy agreement valid for at least 3-6 months?.

[75JohnUK]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, this is an assured shorthold tenancy agreement. The ladylady has also said she will write me a covering letter if I need one.

So everything apart from the passport should be originals? I dropped off copies of all these documents last time I was in the country. Do I now need to send her my original birth cerficate, copy of will, payslips etc etc Knowing the Russian post, this could take over a month to get there