Relationship subsistence

[paradoxical]

Dear all,

I am currently on a Tier 2 dependent visa living in the UK. My wife and son (16 months) have just applied for Tier 2 Dependent visa and today we received a letter from "VISAINFO.SHEFO@fco.gov.uk" that the online application has been received. I have been looking at some forum threads related to marriage subsistence. I was not aware that it is also one of the requirements to show subsistence of marriage and hence we did not provide much evidence on this front. Some background of my case:
We have been married for 4 years and my wife has previously held a Tier 2 dependent visa which expired in August last year. Since my wife has a full-time job back home in Pakistan, she has been living there while I have been in the UK in these 4 years. She has visited me in the UK several times, usually in the summers. And I have mostly travelled in the winters during Christmas break (but I have not mentioned this in the application). The last visit of my wife to UK was in June 2015-August 2015. At that time, my son was 6 months old and he came to UK on a child visitor visa. He is born in Pakistan. Now in my head, we had already provided wedding photographs etc. the first time we were applying for Tier 2 dependent in 2013, we did not provide any photographs of wedding. All we have provided is a birth certificate for my son, a marriage certificate to show the wedding (4 years old), and 3 family photographs showing me, my wife and son (one on his first birthday, one on a trip, and one during a lunch). In my cover letter, I did not mention about my wife's job or history of our relationship as I did not think it was necessary sadly. Given that my wife previously had Tier 2 dependent visa, and in those applications, I have mentioned our situation, and the fact we have a 16 months baby with the birth certificate and showing only 3 pictures, do you think this would suffice? If I knew, I could provide a lot more detail, more pictures, or evidence of communication, but I did not find any such requirement in here " https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... ENERAL.pdf ". Can someone please advise me on this and how do I rectify this in case this might be a problem? It does seem ridiculous that people who have genuine relationships still need to be worried to convince that it is indeed the case..

[iworker]

i personally think it depends on the case worker. There is no particular requirement within the pbs documents which says that you have to provide these docs, however, generally these are provided and hence some visas are rejected for not sending these docs. You might get lucky in getting their visas.

However, there is something else.. are u planning to apply for ilr for yourself and family in future. Cos if you are, you should have made sure that your wife extended her pbs leave in the uk before it expired. That would have helped her keep her continuous stay in the uk, even if she is living in pak and has a job there. Now her 5 years clock will start again from when she gets the new leave.

[paradoxical]

Thanks for the reply. This is really worrying to know that it can depend on chance. It is quite unfair to expect extra documents (like communication record etc.) when no such thing is mentioned in the PBS documents. I would have imagined that a birth certificate, marriage certificate and my cover letter wanting them to come here since they are my wife and son, and I am working here as Tier 2 should suffice.
As for tier 2 extension for my wife, we did not extend it at the time since we thought that she has not been living in the UK for most part during marriage and would not fullfill the 5 year requirement. If we stay long enough, then the counter of 5 years will start once she moves here with me and quits her job in Pakistan.

[iworker]

it wouldnt have mattered that she was not living here as the pbs dependent's days outside the country are of no concern to ilr application. for nationality yes, but not for ilr.

[paradoxical]

iworker, how much of my case would depend on chance? My wife's passport has my name as husband, my child's passport has my name as father, the birth certificate has both parents names, the marriage certificate obviously has my and my wife's name, and for their application, I have written a cover letter that I want them here while I work in the UK, and I have provided all the maintenance requirement (my UK bank statement)...and since my baby is 16 months old, the picture we submitted, there is a cake with a '1' suggesting that we were celebrating his first birthday together. Lastly, the previous travel in my wife application shows last 5 visits in the UK with reason stating 'husband visit'...Also both my son and my wife visited me last year during summers and so the application for my son shows previous travel to uk to visit father...Don't you think it should be blindly obvious that it is a genuine relationship? your first reply that I might get 'lucky' worried me a lot ...

[paradoxical]

As for the ILR, it is too late now sadly..I did not know that there is no time requirement :/

[iworker]

you are correct about everything.. however, there are some sad cases.

[paradoxical]

Dear all,
I am considering sending additional documents to Sheffield via royal Mail with a cover letter explaining that the requirement of providing evidence for subsistence was not mentioned and hence I did not submit any proof for that. I am thinking of submitting some pictures, and emails, and whatsapp screenshots etc. and explaining that my wife is living in Pakistan because she has a job there.
I called the UK number (who charged me £1.37/minute) and the advisor said that we are under no obligation to ask for additional documents and that you should not submit additional documents. I asked my university immigration office and the person had said that it is better to wait for the decision as sending more documents would only confuse the ECO.
The experts here, what do you guys suggest? Should I just wait or proceed and prepare a pack and send it to Sheffield? The worst that can happen is that they will not consider the documents, but there is a chance that they do consider them. I have seen conflicting suggestions on the forum and most of them too old...Anyone with advice please, especially the experts here...please

[paradoxical]

I ended up not submitting any further documents as I was advised against it. Anyway, just to update, my wife and son got the tier 2 dependant visa. The total time it took from submitting documents to getting passports was 14 days!