FLR (M) following on from Tier 5 YOM

[awilson]

Hi,

wondered if anyone can help with this. My partner is in the UK on a Tier 5 YOM visa which expires in Jan. We got married last month and are applying for her spouse visa with a premium appointment at Croydon on the 18th Dec. One query I had was that we met in July 2015 when she was travelling in London and before she had got her Tier 5 YOM visa. She had always planned on doing the Tier 5 thing long before we met. However it just suddenly occurred to me that when we show proof of our relationship which stretches back to before her Tier 5 started, will it look like she only got her Tier 5 as step towards her spouse visa?? That really wasn't the case, as we certainly didn't know we were going to still be together after 2 years, let alone married. However you hear stories of people being questioned and not believed by caseworkers etc.

Is this something to be concerned about at all? My partner will write a covering letter on her application stating how we met and stayed in contact etc, but I worry that it'll bring attention to the fact that we met before she chose to actually get a Tier 5.

Any advice greatly appreciated! Thanks.

JUst to clarify - I'm a British citizen living and working in the UK.

[CR001]

You are overthinking it. It should not be an issue at all. Many Tier 5 people switch to spouse visa.

[awilson]

Thank you CR001 for your quick response. I thought that I probably was overthinking it, but seen as most of the Tier 5 to Spouse visa cases or read about have been relationships that began during the Tier 5 visa, I thought I'd seek reassurance! And you gave it to me, so I appreciate it!

I've possibly over-thought this next question to (apologies if I have). With regards correspondance to both of us at our shared address, I understand the 6 items in both our names bit (we have joint bank account but first statement wasn't until 6 months after she moved in with me as our bank messed up the account application twice). I get that it needs to be from 3 different sources, but how strict are they with he documents being evenly spread over our time living together? I have struggled to get anything addressed to me within the first 4 months of living together... We don't have utility bills as they are paid straight to landlord at same time as rent. My partner has one document we found within the first month of her moving in. After the first 6 months we have loads (joint bank account; GP letter for her; council tax for me and her; personal bank statements for me and her; TV licence for me). But first 6 months, not so much...

Finally, some of the documents have our flat number on and some just have the building number. Same post code, obviously, but could that look like we live in the same building but not the same flat?? I get that I may be overthinking that one...

Thanks

[CR001]

Not as mandatory if you are recently married than if you were applying as unmarried partner or for a spouse visa extension.

Submit what you have.

[awilson]

Hi,

I apologise if this has been covered elsewhere on this forum - I searched but couldn't find anything. My partner is applying for spouse visa, using the FLR (M) form. She is already in the country on a Tier 5 YOM visa. We are both self-employed sole traders so we are going down the self-employed route to meet financial requirement. Her earnings alone meet the requirement, so we aren't involving mine at all. Our premium same day appointment is on Dec 18th.

I believe we have got all the necessary documents:
- copy of tax return for 16/17 tax year;
- printout of tax calculation (SA302);
- bank statements covering tax year with income from self-employment highlighted;
-recent bank statements and letters from 2 organisations currently engaging partners self-employed services to show ongoing self-employment

The final thing required is unaudited accounts and accountants letter of confirmation from accountant registered with ICAEW (or similar). I spoke to an accountant (we don't usually use one as our accounts are straightforward) and first of all they said unaudited accounts is just a profit & loss sheet, and secondly that there's no such thing as a "certificate of confirmation". They thought it must mean "accountants report". So, they did the job they thought was right and we now have a "Profit & Loss" statement, literally listing income and expenses and, ergo, taxable income. We also have an "Accountants Report" which is on their headed paper and is basically a paragraph which says something along the lines of:

"Based on the Profit & Loss accounts of (partners business), and based on information provided, I can confirm that the figures are correct and taxable income is (etc etc)."

Is that what UKBA are looking for?? Is that what they mean by "certificate of confirmation"?? I bloody hope so! Seems strange that none of the accountants I spoke to (which was around 4) knew what "certificate of confirmation" was. You'd think there'd be some communication between government bodies and the ICAEW around the nature of certain documents.

To anybody in the know, if what we have is equal to a certificate of confirmation, do we have all the documents necessary along with the ones I listed above?

Thanks!

[awilson]

Thank you for replies CR001, really appreciate it.

I had another question with regards my partners application using self-employment to meet financial requirement. It's a separate question to the one on this thread, so didn't want to post it here, and I don't want to double-post! So, I posted the question here:

general-uk-immigration-forum/flr-m-self ... 44888.html

If you know anything about self-employment category F, then I'd really appreciate your thoughts! Thanks again.