Online Document Upload

[Katt]

Hi everyone,

I am just filling in the visa application for an unmarried partner & I am confused by a couple of the questions & document requirements...hoping I may find some guidance on them here (I am likely just being a bit dense & overthinking it). Hopefully this is OK but please let me know if it is not.

Bit of background/context, I am Canadian & have been living in England with my partner (British Citizen) on a Tier 5 Youth Mobility visa for nearly 2 years. We originally met in Australia when we were both living there & moved in together May 2016.

Documents
So my first questions are regarding the documents you need to provide.

We clearly need to provide our lease, bank statements, and council tax bills as a requirement for a few sections. Do these documents count towards the 6 joint documents that you require (i.e. 3 more joint)? Or do you need these plus an additional 6 joint documents (i.e. 9 total joint)?

I've also had someone tell me recently to provide notarised letters from friends/family stating that the relationship is genuine as it was required for their application (slightly different situation for them as it was a long distance relationship & they married after 1 year). What are your thoughts on providing these letters? I haven't done any yet & want to apply ASAP but will look to get some if people think they are worthwhile.

Application Qs
The application questions I have queries on are all under the UK Immigration Status section. My main problem is that I feel like they are all asking the same thing & I have currently just put T5 Youth Mobility as my answer for each, but surely there must be more to it...

What type of visa, leave to enter or remain or other permission do you have to be in the UK?
Options are Visit, Work, Study, Family, EEA Residence, Settlement, Other.
I've put 'Other' & then just T5 Youth Mobility visa as I feel like that falls under Visit & Work? But there's an option for 250 characters so not sure if I should elaborate...Should I continue on about how I came here to get to know my partner's family/friends better & see what life was like in England?

What is the start date of your current visa or leave to remain?
For this, should I put the date I actually entered the country & my 2 year clock began or the date on the entry form in my passport (which is a few weeks early & the date as of which I could have legally entered on the visa?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much!

Kind regards,

Kat

[geoeng]

We clearly need to provide our lease, bank statements, and council tax bills as a requirement for a few sections. Do these documents count towards the 6 joint documents that you require (i.e. 3 more joint)? Or do you need these plus an additional 6 joint documents (i.e. 9 total joint)?

I used those documents for the joint cohabitation evidence as well and had no issues.

I've also had someone tell me recently to provide notarised letters from friends/family stating that the relationship is genuine as it was required for their application (slightly different situation for them as it was a long distance relationship & they married after 1 year). What are your thoughts on providing these letters? I haven't done any yet & want to apply ASAP but will look to get some if people think they are worthwhile.

You have to prove a genuine and subsisting relationship; however, it does not specifically have to be in the form of letters and, personally, I believe proof of having lived together and photos together would carry more weight in this regard than letters from family and friends.

What type of visa, leave to enter or remain or other permission do you have to be in the UK?

I was previously on the youth mobility scheme visa as well and answered "work" for this question as the Tier 5 category is typically for temporary workers. I suspect "other" would be an acceptable answer too though. Wouldn't worry too much about elaborating on the answer, it's really just asking for a visa type.

What is the start date of your current visa or leave to remain?
For this, should I put the date I actually entered the country & my 2 year clock began or the date on the entry form in my passport (which is a few weeks early & the date as of which I could have legally entered on the visa?

I put the start date shown on my BRP, which I believe should be the same as the passport vignette as this would technically be the start date of the current visa.

[seagul]

I am Canadian & have been living in England with my partner (British Citizen) on a Tier 5 Youth Mobility visa for nearly 2 years.

12. SET5.12 Assessing whether the relationship has subsisted for two years
‘Living together’, should be applied fairly tightly, with a couple providing evidence that they have been living together in a relationship akin to marriage or civil partnership which has subsisted for two years or more.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... artnership

[Katt]

We clearly need to provide our lease, bank statements, and council tax bills as a requirement for a few sections. Do these documents count towards the 6 joint documents that you require (i.e. 3 more joint)? Or do you need these plus an additional 6 joint documents (i.e. 9 total joint)?

I used those documents for the joint cohabitation evidence as well and had no issues.

Good to know - thanks!

I've also had someone tell me recently to provide notarised letters from friends/family stating that the relationship is genuine as it was required for their application (slightly different situation for them as it was a long distance relationship & they married after 1 year). What are your thoughts on providing these letters? I haven't done any yet & want to apply ASAP but will look to get some if people think they are worthwhile.

You have to prove a genuine and subsisting relationship; however, it does not specifically have to be in the form of letters and, personally, I believe proof of having lived together and photos together would carry more weight in this regard than letters from family and friends.

Thanks for confirming, that's what I thought. I will be including the latter with two letters from our mothers (we also lived with each of them for short periods).

What type of visa, leave to enter or remain or other permission do you have to be in the UK?

I was previously on the youth mobility scheme visa as well and answered "work" for this question as the Tier 5 category is typically for temporary workers. I suspect "other" would be an acceptable answer too though. Wouldn't worry too much about elaborating on the answer, it's really just asking for a visa type.

I switched this to 'work' as well as that makes sense.

What is the start date of your current visa or leave to remain?
For this, should I put the date I actually entered the country & my 2 year clock began or the date on the entry form in my passport (which is a few weeks early & the date as of which I could have legally entered on the visa?

I put the start date shown on my BRP, which I believe should be the same as the passport vignette as this would technically be the start date of the current visa.

I had already submitted this with the date of entry as I have a government letter which quoted that date for collecting my BRP...hopefully it is alright!

Thanks so much for all the info & help Geoeng! Really appreciate it!

[Katt]

I am Canadian & have been living in England with my partner (British Citizen) on a Tier 5 Youth Mobility visa for nearly 2 years.

12. SET5.12 Assessing whether the relationship has subsisted for two years
‘Living together’, should be applied fairly tightly, with a couple providing evidence that they have been living together in a relationship akin to marriage or civil partnership which has subsisted for two years or more.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... artnership

We have lived together since May 2016 (originally in Australia) so 3.5 years overall, just nearly 2 years in the UK.

[Katt]

Hey everyone,

I am currently uploading my documents on the UKVCAS website ahead of my biometrics appointment.

I am a bit confused as to whether or not I should be uploading documents to specific categories where relevant or just upload all documents to the 'Other' folder.

Options are as shown below:


On my Document Checklist it simply lists 'Mandatory Documents' (basically just the passports & declaration fall into that) & 'Other Documents.'

Would it be safest to just put all non-mandatory documents into the 'Other' folder (i.e. all relatively unorganised & dozens of documents together )? Or try to split them up into the relevant categories? My concern is that they will not look into the more specific categories as they aren't specified on my application.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Kat

[Katt]

For context, I've put my Contract of Employment and letter of confirmation from my employment under the 'Employment' section (clearly), along with the relevant payslips...

Payslips could also be considered finance though so this is where I am wondering if it would be best for all to be in one place since it wasn't specified to do otherwise...

[geoeng]

Thoughts?

I tried to match documents to the categories available as best as possible (employment contracts and payslips into employment, bank statements into financial, etc.) and then put whatever was left into "other". I like to think the officers are competent enough to look for things where they should be first and then where else they could be, especially if the file names clearly state what documents are contained in them relevant to the requirement they are intended to meet, but there also seems to be cases here where they have missed something that probably should have been obvious. Suppose if it's something you're concerned about you could always put together a page listing where each document was uploaded, but that's really just an unnecessary file they would have to go through. Wouldn't worry too much about the visa start date question as this is realistically information they already have access to from other documents submitted as well as the previous application.

[Katt]

Thoughts?

I tried to match documents to the categories available as best as possible (employment contracts and payslips into employment, bank statements into financial, etc.) and then put whatever was left into "other". I like to think the officers are competent enough to look for things where they should be first and then where else they could be, especially if the file names clearly state what documents are contained in them relevant to the requirement they are intended to meet, but there also seems to be cases here where they have missed something that probably should have been obvious. Suppose if it's something you're concerned about you could always put together a page listing where each document was uploaded, but that's really just an unnecessary file they would have to go through.

Thanks for that! I would also like to think that they are competent enough to look, but there's always those horror stories of rejection simply from providing documents in the wrong order (take them with a grain of salt, but still). I was actually thinking of putting together a 'Table of Contents'

Mostly just wanted piece of mind that I wasn't making a massive mistake with the uploading - which sounds like I haven't from your experience and other info on the internet! We have a really straightforward application, but I am such a worrier so every little deal is stressing me out (unnecessarily I'm sure). Thanks again so much for your input - really appreciate it!

[AmazonianX]

Thoughts?

I tried to match documents to the categories available as best as possible (employment contracts and payslips into employment, bank statements into financial, etc.) and then put whatever was left into "other". I like to think the officers are competent enough to look for things where they should be first and then where else they could be, especially if the file names clearly state what documents are contained in them relevant to the requirement they are intended to meet, but there also seems to be cases here where they have missed something that probably should have been obvious. Suppose if it's something you're concerned about you could always put together a page listing where each document was uploaded, but that's really just an unnecessary file they would have to go through.

Thanks for that! I would also like to think that they are competent enough to look, but there's always those horror stories of rejection simply from providing documents in the wrong order (take them with a grain of salt, but still). I was actually thinking of putting together a 'Table of Contents'

Mostly just wanted piece of mind that I wasn't making a massive mistake with the uploading - which sounds like I haven't from your experience and other info on the internet! We have a really straightforward application, but I am such a worrier so every little deal is stressing me out (unnecessarily I'm sure). Thanks again so much for your input - really appreciate it!

In your cover letter, you can create a list of what document is uploaded under what heading on the website. With this the ECO can be looking at this while searching for whatever documents.
Also, for a scenario which we hope does not happen, should HO come back to saw a document is missing you can easily defend this by saying not only was it uploaded but it was also annotated in the cover letter.

[Katt]

Thanks so much for all of the above information. I really appreciate you taking the time to reply & help guide me through this stressful process. I am happy to update that I've successfully been granted my visa!

For anyone who reads this thread in the future, this is what I provided/did in regards to my previous queries:

• Changed my current visa to 'work visa' instead of 'other'

• Added a 'Possible Amendment to Application' letter regarding the potentially incorrect BRP dates

• Did not provide a cover letter covering where documents were uploaded

• Supplied 2 letters from our mothers as we both lived with them at different times, but no other friend/family letters about the relationship

• Uploaded a bunch of pictures

My documents were uploaded to the categories as follows:
Residence in UK
Lease agreements for the property we are renting, council tax bills, energy statements, water bills, letter from my mother-in-law stating that we lived with her in the UK for a period. I also bulk uploaded a series of documents for my partner & myself with other correspondence at each address (i.e. for me at my mother-in-law's I bulk uploaded credit card statement, letter from professional body, DWP NINo letter, and NHS letter together oldest first)

Finances
UK bank statements from past 6 months

Life Events
Pictures of us spread throughout the duration of the relationship. Tried to make sure there were plenty of different places & people included.

Sponsors/Employment
Original contract of employment, letter from my employer confirming employment/salary/genuine payslips, 6 months payslips (each with the corresponding bank statement page attached with the payment in highlighted & signed by employer as the paid date differs on my actual payslips - probably overkill but whatever)

Other
Lease agreement from our rental in Australia from 2016, joint Australian bank statements from May 2016 through to August 2017, international movers quote & paid invoice showing that we moved joint belongings to the UK, letter from my mom stating we lived with her in Canada, bank statements to us at my mom's address (basically all proof of living together from outside the UK)

Thanks again for all the input & best wishes to anyone else starting this journey!

[AmazonianX]

Congratulations