Guidance on Living Together statement

[geoeng]

Currently we are living with family. I assume we will need a letter stating we have permission, and can confirm that to be true (dated no older than 28 days before we submit the online application)?

Yes. You will also be asked for evidence of any housing costs (rent and council tax), if any.

I am not sure what documents we will need in both of our names (I've read that there's 6 docs that you need with our names on it? Not sure if that all applies in our case?), right now we have no bills/utilities in both our names, as it is in our family members name and do not yet have a joint bank account. Will we run into problems currently when it comes to submitting our application?

Per paragraph E-LTRP.1.10 of Appendix FM, this requirement appears to apply only to applications for further leave to remain as a partner where the previous visa was also under this category. You can also use items of correspondence addressed to each of you individually (6 each) instead of joint correspondence. You do, however, need to prove a genuine and subsisting relationship and any proof you have of living together would be helpful in this regard. You will have to provide this evidence of cohabitation for the next visa application, so would suggest starting to plan for that now.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration ... ly-members

Are document submissions 100% online, or will we need to do it at the biometrics appointment time?

The document submission is done online, so you can do it yourself. Alternatively, for an additional fee, you can have the third-party company (Sopra Steria) that administers the biometric appointments scan the document for you. Details on available services at the website below.
https://www.ukvcas.co.uk/home-internal

[seagul]

I am not sure what documents we will need in both of our names (I've read that there's 6 docs that you need with our names on it? Not sure if that all applies in our case?), right now we have no bills/utilities in both our names, as it is in our family members name and do not yet have a joint bank account. Will we run into problems currently when it comes to submitting our application?

You might have documents other than utility bills from hmrc, nhs, dvla, local council or any source which can be used.

[voarsh]

Yes. You will also be asked for evidence of any housing costs (rent and council tax), if any.

As I've stated, currently living with family so do not have any housing costs, council tax is paid on our behalf by family, where we are staying.
Basically, to have utilities, rent, broadband, etc, council tax in our names, we'd need to move out ASAP, get the join account ASAP.....

Per paragraph E-LTRP.1.10 of Appendix FM, this requirement appears to apply only to applications for further leave to remain as a partner where the previous visa was also under this category. You can also use items of correspondence addressed to each of you individually (6 each) instead of joint correspondence. You do, however, need to prove a genuine and subsisting relationship and any proof you have of living together would be helpful in this regard. You will have to provide this evidence of cohabitation for the next visa application, so would suggest starting to plan for that now.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration ... ly-members

Currently they're on a Tier 5, moving looking to go the 5 year route as a civil partner.
You're saying that after the 2 year visa, we'd need documents in both our names, when applying for an extension?

Also, 6 items of correspondence, is it within the last 6 months? Or can items be used from any reasonable timeframe? If that is the case, many of these documents would be posted at a different address.

[/quote]

The document submission is done online, so you can do it yourself. Alternatively, for an additional fee, you can have the third-party company (Sopra Steria) that administers the biometric appointments scan the document for you. Details on available services at the website below.
https://www.ukvcas.co.uk/home-internal

Thanks. Will consider both options.

[geoeng]

Currently they're on a Tier 5, moving looking to go the 5 year route as a civil partner.
You're saying that after the 2 year visa, we'd need documents in both our names, when applying for an extension?

When you go to apply for an extension to the spouse visa, you will need to provide proof of having lived together. This takes the form of 6 items of correspondence from official sources addressed to you jointly or one item of joint correspondence can be replaced by one item each of correspondence addressed to you individually. So if you went with entirely individually addressed correspondence, you would need to provide 12 items total (6 each) from at least 3 different sources with dates spread roughly evenly over the previous couple years.

Also, 6 items of correspondence, is it within the last 6 months? Or can items be used from any reasonable timeframe? If that is the case, many of these documents would be posted at a different address.

When you go to apply for an extension to the spouse visa, these need to be covering the period since the last visa was granted (i.e. 30 months). For your current application, these items of correspondence are not necessarily a requirement, but would likely strengthen your application by demonstrating a genuine and subsisting relationship and they will likely appear on the documents checklist generated by the online application as the form is the same as is used for all spouse visa extension applications. As seagul noted, there are many possible acceptable sources for these items of correspondence and they don't necessarily have to be at your current address if you have lived together elsewhere in the previous couple years.