Fiancee visa approved - next application advice

[olliep]

Hi all, I hope you are all well.

A quick bit of background about our story: I am a British citizen and my partner is American. We met online in August of 2018 and first met in person (I flew to the US on an ESTA) in November 2018. After I flew back home at the end of November, my partner flew to the UK on Christmas day (because of cheaper tickets) and was denied entry due to the fact that border control were not convinced she was going to leave after our stated visit period of a few months, so I flew back with her on boxing day. She was then denied a visitors visa so we just felt completely stuck. I went to visit every few months and eventually we got engaged and decided to go for the fiancee visa.

Anyway! The fiancee visa got approved and my partner and I are now living together in the UK.

So, on to my question(s):

We spent a lot on a lawyer to prepare our fiancee application and of course also paid for all Home Office fees. We're getting married on the 24th February and want to submit the spousal application with the super priority on the same day because she really wants to start work and is getting cabin fever on workdays when I have to leave.

Does anyone have a recommendation for the structure of the application if we were to do it ourselves? Our fiancee application was enormous and had a lot of detail including 4 family/friend statements, a statement from each of us (about 8 pages long each), a housing surveyor's report to prove where we were living was big enough, all of my work contracts/bank statements to prove I earn enough etc. etc. etc. Is the spousal visa just a formality at this point? I would assume that we just have to prove that we actually tied the knot like we said we would, or am I being naive?

If anyone has any recommendations as to how the spousal application should look for our circumstance we would be hugely grateful. It would save us a ton in lawyer fees!

Thank you in advance!

[TODMATT]

You do not need to pay any lawyers to do your application as you can do it yourselves with the help of the forum and research.

Here is my advice.

Letter from relatives is NOT needed.
Ask your partner to include your name on his bills although it is not mandatory to proof this since you recently just came into the UK.
Housing report is also not needed except if your partner lives with non related adult.
You must meet the financial requirement and submit the important documents such as payslips, bank statement and employment letter.

[olliep]

You do not need to pay any lawyers to do your application as you can do it yourselves with the help of the forum and research.

Here is my advice.

Letter from relatives is NOT needed.
Ask your partner to include your name on his bills although it is not mandatory to proof this since you recently just came into the UK.
Housing report is also not needed except if your partner lives with non related adult.
You must meet the financial requirement and submit the important documents such as payslips, bank statement and employment letter.

Thanks very much for your advice.

So, in short, our application should consist of:
- Work contract (to prove we meet financial threshold)
- Letter from employer to confirm I work there
- Bank statements (for what period? we did 6 months for the fiancee visa)

Hopefully we can build this list as we go to get a really strong application.

Thanks again!

[CR001]

So, in short, our application should consist of:
- Work contract (to prove we meet financial threshold)
- Letter from employer to confirm I work there
- Bank statements (for what period? we did 6 months for the fiancee visa)

Contract no.
Employer letter yes.
You need 6 months payslips and 6 months corresponding bank statements.

[TODMATT]

You do not need to pay any lawyers to do your application as you can do it yourselves with the help of the forum and research.

Here is my advice.

Letter from relatives is NOT needed.
Ask your partner to include your name on his bills although it is not mandatory to proof this since you recently just came into the UK.
Housing report is also not needed except if your partner lives with non related adult.
You must meet the financial requirement and submit the important documents such as payslips, bank statement and employment letter.

Thanks very much for your advice.

So, in short, our application should consist of:
- Work contract (to prove we meet financial threshold)
- Letter from employer to confirm I work there
- Bank statements (for what period? we did 6 months for the fiancee visa)

Hopefully we can build this list as we go to get a really strong application.

Thanks again!

-Work contract is optional.
-6 months payslips should suffice to apply under CAT A salaried or Non salaried(calculated differently)
-6 months bank statements.
- Your partner is exempted from meeting the English language requirement.

I would advice you to play around with the online application form to see what is required. I will also write a small cover letter to state you are switching from fiancée visa to spouse visa this is due to a recent request from a caseworker asking for proof of cohabitation.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... form-flr-m

[olliep]

Thanks for your replies!

In terms of payslips, I switched jobs in October which we fully disclosed within our fiancee application. I got a letter from my old and new employer explaining the switch i.e. there was no period where I wasn't employed. Should I re-submit the payslips from the old job that cross over the 6 month mark? The lawyers we worked with said that the 6 months of payslips had to be consecutive from the same employer. Hopefully this isn't the case for the spousal?

I should add as well that there is no way I'd be able to get cooperation from my old employer if I needed another letter or something, so I really hope this isn't needed!

Thanks again!

[geoeng]

Should I re-submit the payslips from the old job that cross over the 6 month mark? The lawyers we worked with said that the 6 months of payslips had to be consecutive from the same employer. Hopefully this isn't the case for the spousal?

The rules are the same for the spouse visa. You will have to provide proof of meeting the financial requirement at the application date, which means new payslips. If you have been with your current employer for less than 6 months at the application date, you could apply using Category B (see the link below for the guidance document on meeting the financial requirement). In this case you would have to prove that your current salary and total income in the 12 months prior to the application date both meet the financial requirement.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... -ext_1.pdf

I should add as well that there is no way I'd be able to get cooperation from my old employer if I needed another letter or something, so I really hope this isn't needed!

If the letter your old employer previously provided met the requirements (i.e. stated the person’s employment and gross annual salary, the length of their employment, the period over which they have been or were paid the level of salary relied upon in the application, and the type of employment), then you could probably get away with re-using that.

[TODMATT]

Thanks for your replies!

In terms of payslips, I switched jobs in October which we fully disclosed within our fiancee application. I got a letter from my old and new employer explaining the switch i.e. there was no period where I wasn't employed. Should I re-submit the payslips from the old job that cross over the 6 month mark? The lawyers we worked with said that the 6 months of payslips had to be consecutive from the same employer. Hopefully this isn't the case for the spousal?

I should add as well that there is no way I'd be able to get cooperation from my old employer if I needed another letter or something, so I really hope this isn't needed!

Thanks again!

You will need to apply under CAT B since you have been less than 6 months with your current employer assuming you can fufil 2 conditions.

1. £18,600
2. have earned £18,600 in the last 12 months.

You will require payslips in the period 12 months and as long as you can satisify the 2 conditions above.

[olliep]

Thanks for the info about Cat B, I had no idea! I think I can tick both those boxes, however I was self employed until March last year - but since being "traditionally" employed since march I have earnt over that threshold over 10 months, with the payslips to prove it. Will this suffice?

Thanks again

[TODMATT]

Thanks for the info about Cat B, I had no idea! I think I can tick both those boxes, however I was self employed until March last year - but since being "traditionally" employed since march I have earnt over that threshold over 10 months, with the payslips to prove it. Will this suffice?

Thanks again

Yes I believe so since the Appendix fm Financial requirement states for second condition should be last 12 months read from page 24

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... -ext_1.pdf

“Second, the person must in addition have received in the 12 months prior to the date of application the level of income required to meet the financial requirement”

Your income from March last year is within last 12 months so that should meet the requirement for second condition of CAT B.

[olliep]

Hi all, I am posting a new thread as I cannot reply to the original one.

My partner entered the UK in November 2019 on a fiancee visa. We got married last week and have the marriage certificate. We are currently filling out the online application to switch the fiancee visa to the spousal one.

This is currently the checklist I have for evidence to provide, can anyone give advice to things we're missing / things that could be taken out? (to clarify, I am the British citizen and my partner is American on the fiancee visa)

• Both of our passports (gov application said to include ALL pages, including blank ones)
• My British driving license (gov application seemed to suggest this was proof of long-term address for me?)
• All of my payslips (from 2 different companies) since March 2018 (when I started full-time employment)
• Bank statements covering that period to show even though I switched jobs, I still earn over the threshold
• Letter from employer confirming my current annual gross salary / copy of my employment contract
• Marriage certificate
• Cover letter explaining how we lived with my parents when my partner arrived, but have since moved to new address (I thought this would be beneficial as the online application makes it quite confusing in terms of addresses you have lived at and are currently living at)
• Proof of address (gov application says it requires 6 bills/statements/etc. with both our names as proof of address. I think we would struggle to get together this many as we have only been living at our new address for a month. Any advice on this?)

Any advice or feedback you have on this list is greatly appreciated. We have planned to fly back to the US next Friday as we were under the hope of doing the super-priority visa for next-day approval... but I'm starting to think we're going to have to push those dates back if we need more time to gather address evidence

[geoeng]

Proof of address (gov application says it requires 6 bills/statements/etc. with both our names as proof of address. I think we would struggle to get together this many as we have only been living at our new address for a month. Any advice on this?)

Per E-LTRP.1.10. of Appendix FM, the evidence of cohabitation is not required when switching from a fiancee visa to a spouse visa. Unfortunately, as the application form is the same for all spouse visa applications, it prompts this as supporting evidence even when it's not required.

All of my payslips (from 2 different companies) since March 2018 (when I started full-time employment)

Even if applying using Category B (less than 6 months with current employer), you don't need payslips or bank statements going back that far, only the period covering the 12 months prior to the application date.

You will also need proof of adequate accommodation at your current address (tenancy agreement, property deed, mortgage statement, etc.) and I would expect the form also prompts you for evidence of housing costs (rent/mortgage and council tax). Don't think the driving licence will help much, but perhaps the form has changed since I last did it.

[olliep]

Per E-LTRP.1.10. of Appendix FM, the evidence of cohabitation is not required when switching from a fiancee visa to a spouse visa.

This is great to hear as I'm really not sure how we would get together 6 pieces of joint evidence. We will be getting a letter from the council soon confirming that I've added my partner's name to the council tax bill - would this be useful at all or can we omit completely the evidence of cohabitation?

You will also need proof of adequate accommodation at your current address

Would simply the signed tenancy agreement be enough for this? Both of our names are on the agreement and my bank statements would reflect the rent that we've paid for the past 2 months.

Thank you so much for your advice.

[geoeng]

Would simply the signed tenancy agreement be enough for this? Both of our names are on the agreement and my bank statements would reflect the rent that we've paid for the past 2 months.

Should be sufficient if both your names are on it and you are the only ones living there.

We will be getting a letter from the council soon confirming that I've added my partner's name to the council tax bill - would this be useful at all or can we omit completely the evidence of cohabitation?

It's not required but probably wouldn't hurt to include.

[olliep]

Thanks again.

Should we go back and edit our application and uncheck the box that says we are providing evidence of cohabitation? The description of that checkbox demands 6 items and if we can only provide 1 then I wouldn't want it to get into trouble based on that. What do you reckon?

[olliep]

*EDIT:* We've just been back and it won't actually let us uncheck that option So do we just check it and then provide the one piece of council tax evidence?

[billybig]

May I ask... what the visa type said on the Vignette in the passport visa ?

We think we have a "fiance" visa but the Vignette says "D - PARTNER (STANDARD) standard [my name]"

It ALSO says in the endorsements "WORK PERMITTED"

It's a 6 month visa.

I think the rules changed last year maybe...

What your vignette states is exactly what is on a spouse visa....only that there is no 6-month spouse visa. You will need to clarify this with HO because it appears while you applied for a fiance visa HO granted you spouse visa but with validity of fiance visa.

Did you clarify this? It seems very peculiar.

[olliep]

Did you clarify this? It seems very peculiar.

This was someone else's query as they posted a completely separate question on my original thread. Hopefully they can get their issues solved too but maybe in a separate one if a mod could move it?

[geoeng]

So do we just check it and then provide the one piece of council tax evidence?

Doesn't seem like there's much else you can do really. Maybe make it clear in a cover letter that you're applying for FLR(M) for the first time from a finacee visa.

[olliep]

So do we just check it and then provide the one piece of council tax evidence?

Doesn't seem like there's much else you can do really. Maybe make it clear in a cover letter that you're applying for FLR(M) for the first time from a finacee visa.

We'll make it very clear in our cover letter what our movements have been since she arrived (e.g. how we moved from my parents house to a new apartment) and include proof of this. Hopefully that will be enough to understand that we live together and additionally explain why we lack 6 whole pieces of cohabitation evidence.