Hi Guys, we found this board very helpful just to browse and look at what people's experiences were and any issues they had, and for a steer as to how to compile everything to present for our FLR(M) submission. We decided we would post our experience up here in case it could help anyone else too.
Our Situation:
My (now) wife is Australian and was on a Tier 5 youth mobility visa which expires in June 2017, and I am a British Citizen from birth. We met around a year and a half ago, knew pretty quickly we were right for eachother, and we decided after many months of her unsuccessfully looking for work that would sponsor her, to take the FLR option.
The biggest problem we had was that she had just signed a new lease on the apartment she rented, and so she couldn't move in with me until that finished, at which point her Tier 5 would have run out.
Problem number two was that we are on a pretty tight timescale as we would like to buy a new place to live in together before the end of this year, so it all needed to be done fairly quickly to give us the time.
We agreed that we would get married, but obviously these arent the most romantic of circumstances, and I hadn't even met her parents yet, so from our point of view we would make it as formal and dry as possible, remove any celebration from it so it's just literally signing a piece of paper for the Visa. This would allow us to do everything else as normally as possible in the future, as we both still wanted the experience of an engagement with a ring and booking a big wedding that everyone comes to.
Turns out this could have been problem number 3 reading some advice on here, but it's fine now.
What we prepared:
We made the decision to apply in around January this year (2017), so we knew we had some months to prepare, but it was still fairly tight, so GIVE YOURSELVES PLENTY OF TIME. We definitely over prepared, but we were of the opinion that it's better to have too much than have too little.
We booked in to get married April 11th at the registry office where we live. We had to give 28 days notice prior to the wedding, and we had to have an interview at the office where we were separated and asked fairly benign questions (like what's your partners parents names, jobs etc), and it also had to be approved by the home office. As soon as this was all okay and we knew the date, we booked a premium service centre appointment in Croydon for the day after the wedding. Probably cutting it a bit close, but it worked out!
We thought given the living situation we would have to prove that we were actually a couple and love each other, so we made sure to take as many pictures of ourselves at different events with friends and family, and then printed them as proper photos at boots (other services available) with the dates printed on them.
To support the relationship evidence, we also printed the plane tickets for my wife's parents coming over a month after the appointment (given that they're coming from australia it's quite an investment for them), and all the chat logs from when we first met on online dating, giving the date and all our particulars including organising our first date.
We had read that most of the refusals have been on financial grounds, so we were super vigilant with proving income. We both meet the requirements easily individually, but we provided evidence for both of us. We printed payslips covering the last 6 months, bank statements to back them up and highlighted the salary transactions, and a letter from each of our employers confirming our permanent employment, the date we started, our current salary and how long that had been running for.
To explain the living situation we were worried about, we prepared my wife's tenancy agreement showing she was locked in a contract until June, and proof of ownership of my property (where we intended to live as soon as she can do) in the form of my mortgage agreement and land registry confirmation.
We also wanted to prove that we had shared financial responsibilities to make it as watertight as we possibly could, so a few months before the application we set up a joint bank account where she put all her savings in and I redirected some direct debits to, and provided a statement from this. I am also listed as a Guarantor on my wife's tenancy agreement, so we provided another copy of this to support the financial responsibilities.
On bank statements:-
The documentation gets pretty fussy about what sort of statements they can accept. I am with Halifax, and since I am paperless I could only print my statements. They come out with their logo on though and a URL, so they look fairly official. UK Visas and Immigration were perfectly satisfied with these - I made sure to ask a member of staff when we were there. Our joint account is with Santander, and their online statements don't have any official branding on, so we took these in to our local branch to get them stamped and signed, which they were happy to do.
Organisation of documents:-
I knew that on the day we were going to be nervous and flustered, so I wanted to make everything as easy for us as possible to access, and also for the sake of the case worker section everything up as best we good in a logical fashion that's easy to flick through.
We had two folders, one box file for the main application that we knew we were going to submit, and one expandable sectioned file with copies of everything submitted in the main application and anything we might want to hand to help support. I sectioned everything up with plastic wallets into the questions that they were relating to (6.10 living situation, 7A financial requirement, etc), and put a cover page on each of the wallets detailing which section they were for, an explanation paragraph explaining why we were submitting what was in there, and a list of documents that were contained.
We had stapled pages from each bank statement together, and paperclipped any multi-page documents so they were easy to grab and file through. I had put a red tab on anything that was a copy of something that was in the main submission.
When everything was together, we realised it was a LOT of evidence, and the case worker would probably get overburdened with how much we were submitting, so
We ended up with our marriage certificate, passports, the main form and photos, and supporting documents sectioned up (Living situation, financial requirement for me, financial requirement for my wife, and proof of a genuine relationship) all in the main box file. We then had copies of everything above that wasnt a passport or marriage certificate in the expandable file, plus all the evidence we had prepared on top of that, just in case they asked for it so we would have it to hand.
I had never been more organised in my life, and most of it was completely pointless...
Our experience at the Premium Service Centre:
The centre is on the high street of Croydon. There's plenty of parking around, and there's an NCP car park directly opposite the centre that's pretty good. When you get there, you'll go through some airport-type security checks, and theres a whole wheelie-bin for knives. Christ knows who's bringing a knife into Visas and Immigration. The place you actually go to is on the 3rd floor, and the lifts were out when we were there, so there was an extra fitness test too.
Got there 10 mins before the appointment, and it was fairly quiet. The reception guys checked our appointment stuff, passports, and checked we'd paid, gave us a ticket number and asked us to sit. 2 minutes later we were called to a counter to hand our forms over and get everything entered. There's a long line of desks each with two seats and dividers in between them. Didn't seem to be enough staff to fill all the desks though.
When we sat down the lady was very nice, and asked us to hand over our passports, form and proof of payment. We had a query given that in between our appointment being booked and our actual appointment, the prices went up by 25%. They said there's like 8 weeks grace with price changes so we were fine in the end.
The woman was entering everything manually which took ages, but it gave us time to hand over paperwork. Turns out you can only hand over paper sheets. No plastic wallets. No coloured tabs. No paperclips. No dividers. We had to frantically remove everything from all it's organisation and stack it into two piles, one of originals, and one of copies. She noticed us putting photos into the pile, which was to prove the genuineness of our relationship since we arent living together, and she told us not to put them in. I told her they're pretty important for our application but she said they don't want photos in there.
After redoing everything and taking the photos out, she gave it all back to us in a large plastic folder and told us to wait for biometrics. We waited maximum 5 mins for biometrics, at which point it was explained to us that there'd been an IT issue the day before and they were working through a backlog, so it would be AT LEAST four hours wait. They told us to wait for an hour or so just in case there was any problems with biometrics, but then we were free to leave the building so we werent hanging around for a whole day, as they took our mobile numbers and said they would call if there were any problems.
After a coffee in the cafe (which is okay, but a little pricey for pretty cheap stuff) we went out to explore sunny Croydon. After a good 10 mins of this we decided to watch some Netflix in the car! We were getting fairly bored and anxious and we decided that we would rather be there at the centre to be around if there were any problems.
We went and waited in the coffee shop again which at this point was closed, and there were lots of other people also anxiously waiting. The numbers were getting higher now and my blood pressure was rising! After the photos were refused I felt sure they were going to at least ask us back for an interview and ask for more evidence.
A full 7 hours after arriving at the centre and through probably the most stressful wait of my life, our ticket was called. The whole walk from the coffee shop through to the counters I was shaking, and we walked round the corner to see a lady with our pack of documents in front of her. She asked us to sit, confirmed our ticket number, and told us "Congratulations, your application has been accepted!"
I don't remember a whole lot after this as I was in a bit of a daze and was concentrating on calling my family to put them out of their misery too, but suffice to say we were very pleased.
Final Advice:
Have all your documents sorted a good few weeks before your appointment, and make sure you know well ahead of time what you need to be collecting so you can plan for it.
In hindsight, I wouldn't have put everything in wallets again, but would have put the whole application in order in a separated expandable file, still separated in sections so you can add and remove as you see fit.
Make sure you provide copies of everything to make it easier for the case worker.
If you're worried about your application going through and you can afford it, book a premium appointment. When we were there lots of people were being called up to provide more evidence or to clarify things. This is the sort of thing that if you were applying by post, would cause your application to be returned again.
I know it's hard, but don't worry too much. If your reasons are genuine and you meet the financial requirement, it will probably be fine.
AND THANK GOD THAT'S OVER!!!
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