FLR (M)

[mmicky5050]

First, I’d like to thank all the members on this board for all their help over the years. This is an amazing resource and you guys are absolutely amazing.

I have been in the UK for roughly 2 years on a Tier 2 General which is valid till next year. I am married to a British citizen and we have a 1 month baby who is also British. I’d like to switch from Tier 2 to FLR (M) because it will give me employment flexibility with no need for RMLT etc. I know this will reset the clock for my ILR but I am happy to wait.

I have just started the application process and need help.

1. My understating is that for in country application, I can only apply online via this link:
https://visas-immigration.service.gov.u ... ily-routes

Is this correct? Am I filling the right application?

2. As I started filling the application on this link, it asked me to submit 6 joint items of correspondence covering the last 2 years. I thought this was only necessary for extension of FLR(m) not first application, which makes me think if I am submitting the right form? I have lived with my wife for 20 months, not 2 years.

3. I have paid the IHS for my Tier 2 till next year. Will I be asked to pay the IHS again for this year and next for the FLR application?

4. Is there a super premium same day service for this? I am just wondering if applying in person has better success rate.

Thank you so much
Happy New Year to everyone

[geoeng]

1. Yes, that's the correct form.

2. Yes, per paragraph E-LTRP.1.10. of Appendix FM, this requirement appears only to apply to extensions of a spouse visa an not the first application. The same online application form is used, however, so it generates items of correspondence as required supporting evidence. It's up to you whether to include them or not as you do still have to meet the requirement of being in a genuine and subsisting relationship; I included correspondence when I switched visa types and had no issues. If you can provide them, there's certainly no harm in including them.

3. Yes, you will be asked to pay the IHS fee to cover the full 30 month validity period of the visa you are applying for (currently £1,000). I do not know if there is a mechanism to try to recover unused portions of previously paid fees, but I doubt there is. See link below for further details.
https://www.gov.uk/healthcare-immigrati ... on/refunds

4. No same day service, but there is a super priority service for £800 that is supposed to process the application within a couple of working days. See link below.
https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa

[mmicky5050]

Thank you so much for the detailed response. I appreciate it

[mmicky5050]

Hi

I have another question. I am battling the difference between financial requirement Appendix FM Section 1.7 and Adequate Maintenance Section 1.7A.

I was under the impression that Adequate maintenance has to be shown by only those who are in receipt of certain benefits or allowance as specified in section 2.1.2 of 1.7A

However, the online application does not differentiate between these two and the last question in the finance section for my FLR (M) application all of a sudden brings up “maintenance”. Am I to assume that I need to fulfil both financial requirement and maintenance?

I easily fulfil the financial requirement cutoff of 18,600 but the formula for maintenance is baffling me which is A-B>C

I live in central london. My rent alone is 2k a month. So if B is rent, and C is some ambiguous income support amount, then to be on the safe side with this calculation, should I then include my wife’s payslips? She is on maternity pay right now. Will that make a difference?

Sorry for the long question. Appreciate the help.

[geoeng]

Hi

I have another question. I am battling the difference between financial requirement Appendix FM Section 1.7 and Adequate Maintenance Section 1.7A.

I was under the impression that Adequate maintenance has to be shown by only those who are in receipt of certain benefits or allowance as specified in section 2.1.2 of 1.7A

However, the online application does not differentiate between these two and the last question in the finance section for my FLR (M) application all of a sudden brings up “maintenance”. Am I to assume that I need to fulfil both financial requirement and maintenance?

I easily fulfil the financial requirement cutoff of 18,600 but the formula for maintenance is baffling me which is A-B>C

I live in central london. My rent alone is 2k a month. So if B is rent, and C is some ambiguous income support amount, then to be on the safe side with this calculation, should I then include my wife’s payslips? She is on maternity pay right now. Will that make a difference?

Sorry for the long question. Appreciate the help.

Your initial impression is correct, adequate maintenance only applies to those receiving specified benefits, no need to meet both requirements or to include your wife's payslips if you don't need them to meet the income requirement. For what's it's worth, I answered that I didn't have any other income sources I wanted to include towards maintenance. Another poorly worded and confusing question in the application form.

[mmicky5050]

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it

[mmicky5050]

Some more questions. Thanks again for the help.

1. Regarding bank statements - the guidance notes say that they must be on official bank stationery. Or alternatively electronic and accompanied by a letter confirming authenticity or bearing official stamp.

Not sure how open my bank (Santander) will be to writing a letter or stamping online statements because there are online posts saying Santander is notoriously bad at this. How should I go about getting statements that are acceptable to HO? I do have paper statements that arrive in the mail. Would these be acceptable without additional stamping?

2. Regarding payslips - the guidelines say payslips must be original formal payslips. I work for a major University that only issues online payslips that specifically state “online copy”. Will these be acceptable accompanied by a letter stating salary and period of employment etc?

[TODMATT]

Some more questions. Thanks again for the help.

1. Regarding bank statements - the guidance notes say that they must be on official bank stationery. Or alternatively electronic and accompanied by a letter confirming authenticity or bearing official stamp.

Not sure how open my bank (Santander) will be to writing a letter or stamping online statements because there are online posts saying Santander is notoriously bad at this. How should I go about getting statements that are acceptable to HO? I do have paper statements that arrive in the mail. Would these be acceptable without additional stamping?

Yes statements which arrived through the post are acceptable since they are usually printed on bank stationaries.


2. Regarding payslips - the guidelines say payslips must be original formal payslips. I work for a major University that only issues online payslips that specifically state “online copy”. Will these be acceptable accompanied by a letter stating salary and period of employment etc?

I will personally not use online copy whilst this is said some people have used it but here is what you can do, ask your employer to add in your employment letter to state that the pay slips are genuine and authentic or if they can stamp the payslips then either should suffice.

[mmicky5050]

Thank you so much. Really appreciate all the replies. Some more questions

1. There is an option to upload an employment contract (it says it’s optional). Is it ok to upload the contract from 2017? Or does the letter itself have to be recent?

2. There is no option in the online application to upload pictures or WhatsApp messages. Are they still relevant? If yes, where should I include them?

3. From what I am getting from posts here, documents are now scanned and uploaded oneself. Is this correct? When I first applied for Tier2 I was required to send my original Masters degree for English language requirement: they returned it back. For this application, do I just scan the degree and upload?

4. Is it ok to apply any time of the month after the last payslip? The payslips for Jan are dated Dec 20 - because of Christmas and New Year, the pays came earlier. If I send everything after Jan 20, (I am waiting for a few bills to arrive because I recently moved), would they object because then the Most recent payslip would be more than 30 days old?

Thank you so much

[geoeng]

Thank you so much. Really appreciate all the replies. Some more questions

1. There is an option to upload an employment contract (it says it’s optional). Is it ok to upload the contract from 2017? Or does the letter itself have to be recent?

2. There is no option in the online application to upload pictures or WhatsApp messages. Are they still relevant? If yes, where should I include them?

3. From what I am getting from posts here, documents are now scanned and uploaded oneself. Is this correct? When I first applied for Tier2 I was required to send my original Masters degree for English language requirement: they returned it back. For this application, do I just scan the degree and upload?

4. Is it ok to apply any time of the month after the last payslip? The payslips for Jan are dated Dec 20 - because of Christmas and New Year, the pays came earlier. If I send everything after Jan 20, (I am waiting for a few bills to arrive because I recently moved), would they object because then the Most recent payslip would be more than 30 days old?

Thank you so much

1. Employment contracts are not required evidence per paragraph 2A of Appendix FM-SE, so it's up to you to decide whether you want to include it or not. Assuming you're with the same employer on the same terms, it would not necessarily have to be recently dated.

2. It's the same application form as for spouse visa extensions for which such evidence would not be required (as items of correspondence are used instead). Assuming you are using this to satisfy the requirement of being in a genuine and subsisting relationship, you could probably find a category to upload it to when you get to the document upload page after submitting the application.

3. Yes, there is an online document upload page you will get directed to register for after submitting the application. Everything is scanned and submitted online, nothing physical is actually submitted.

4. Per Appendix FM-SE, "where this Appendix requires the applicant to provide specified evidence relating to a period which ends with the date of application, that evidence, or the most recently dated part of it, must be dated no earlier than 28 days before the date of application." So you should submit the application within 28 days of the last payslip being used in support of the application or wait until you receive the next one.

[mmicky5050]

Thank you so much. This was very helpful. Really appreciate it.

[mmicky5050]

Are online pdfs of bills to demonstrate cohabitation acceptable or is it must to scan the paper copy?

I have noticed that pdfs of most online bills don’t have markings and barcodes on the left side whereas paper bills do. One can easily tell them apart. Would that matter?

[geoeng]

Are online pdfs of bills to demonstrate cohabitation acceptable or is it must to scan the paper copy?

I have noticed that pdfs of most online bills don’t have markings and barcodes on the left side whereas paper bills do. One can easily tell them apart. Would that matter?

I used a couple of online bills (including a British Gas bill that very clearly did not have the markings you noted) and didn't have any issues but you could always request a paper copy if you wanted to be more sure it would be accepted. You will also have to sign a declaration that allows them to call up the company and ask for information, so they can check it that way too if they have concerns about the authenticity of the document.

[mmicky5050]

Thank you so much, really appreciate it.

[mmicky5050]

Did you scan the bills in color or black and white?

Colour scans sizes are above the 6Mb limit. So I am wondering if black and white scans are ok or did you compress colour scans.

Also, I havent yet gotten to the upload stage yet, but is the cohabitation pdf one large file or separated into 6 or more categories?

[seagul]

Did you scan the bills in color or black and white?

Colour scans sizes are above the 6Mb limit. So I am wondering if black and white scans are ok or did you compress colour scans.

Also, I havent yet gotten to the upload stage yet, but is the cohabitation pdf one large file or separated into 6 or more categories?

Try other scanner if you can as many scanners can do the same job by taking less space. Otherwise greyscale/black white should be fine which usually aren't heavier.

[geoeng]

Did you scan the bills in color or black and white?

Colour scans sizes are above the 6Mb limit. So I am wondering if black and white scans are ok or did you compress colour scans.

Also, I havent yet gotten to the upload stage yet, but is the cohabitation pdf one large file or separated into 6 or more categories?

Scanning in black in white is one of the ways the document uploads page will recommend reducing the document size. You should also be able to reduce the resolution of the scan (dpi) while scanning the documents, just make sure any text can still be read.

The document upload page will have different categories you can upload evidence under (pick the one that seems most applicable, they don't necessarily have the titles you would expect them to). If the file names clearly indicate what the document is and you keep it organised as best you can, that should be fine. I tried to combine documents into a single file as much as possible (e.g. bank statements, payslips, cohabitation documents) but sometimes due to the number of pages it had to be split into multiple files.

[mmicky5050]

This has been addressed recently in a post but there were two conflicting answers. It relates to the following question in the finance section of the application. Does continuously here refer to the total amount or the amount above the cutoff?

My wife who is a native English speaker and myself have pulled our hair on this question. We think because the comma is after continuously therefore continuous refers to the total amount irrespective of the financial requirement.

I got a slight raise in November, therefore my pay has been non-continuous but above the financial requirement (option 3). However, the answer given in a recent post for a similar situation was A and the idea was continuous refers to continuity of pay above the 18,600 cut off.

Any ideas? Thanks


What do they earn? (Required)

The same amount continuously, above the financial requirement amount

The same amount continuously, below the financial requirement amount

Not the same amount continuously, above the financial requirement amount

Not the same amount continuously, below the financial requirement amount

[geoeng]

Any ideas? Thanks

Agreed it is a poorly worded questions. My opinion is that if the old salary and the new salary are both above the financial requirement, then the answer doesn't really matter as long as you say it is above. I believe the question is meant to determine whether the amount earned each month is always the same (i.e. salaried) or is variable each month, but obviously that is open to interpretation due to the wording of the question.

[mmicky5050]

Have an urgent question. I finally have my January payslip all stamped and signed.

I am struggling with the bank statement format. I requested last 6 month paper statements from Santander and they sent them promptly by post. The issue is that I changed address in December 2019 and the statements from November backwards have my new address rather than the old address. Santander told me that it’s not possible to put old address on the statements because they are being sent to the new address in post. Will this create an issue with the ECO? I am not using the statements to prove cohabitation, however all my other utility bills from November and back have the right address which is the old address.

I also went to the local Santander branch where they printed out the statements in black and white and stamped and dated them on every page. These do have my correct address for November and back. The issue with this approach is that they cannot print me a full January statement before Feb 12, when my actual statement comes out. So instead for January, the branch gave me a stamped mini statement which looks nothing like a proper statement.

Is it possible for me to include the January statement that arrived in the post, look like they are on official bank stationary with all the bar codes, and coloured? Whereas for other months I submit the statement printed out in branch, that donot have the same bar codes, are black and white but stamped and dated on every page? Will the conflicting format raise issues? Or should I wait till Feb 12, and get the final statement to look like all the other ones from the branch?

Thank you so much
really appreciate it.

[geoeng]

Wouldn't worry about the address change on the bank statements. It sounds like both types of statements you have meet the requirements (either on bank letterhead or electronic statements stamped on every page).

[mmicky5050]

Thank you so much for all the help. I finally submitted my application and have the Biometric appointment at Croydon Center tomorrow.

I have a couple of questions about this appointment.

1. I chose to upload the documents myself on Sopra Steria. Once the pdf file has been uploaded there is no way to open and check the uploaded file. I am doing this on Chrome. I have checked the files and the names many a times but just wanted to be sure by opening the uploaded file again and checking. Is there a way to do this?

2. Do I need to bring all the original documents with me for tomorrow?

3. Any other tips for this Croydon Center appointment for tomorrow?

Thank you so much

[mmicky5050]

Two more questions:

1. Does my wife (sponsor) need to attend this biometrics appointment?

2. While the application is pending, can I apply for a Shengan Visa for Italy based on my current Tier 2?

Thanks

[CR001]

1. No.

2. Yes. However you can't travel out of the UK while you have an application pending with HO.

[geoeng]

1. I chose to upload the documents myself on Sopra Steria. Once the pdf file has been uploaded there is no way to open and check the uploaded file. I am doing this on Chrome. I have checked the files and the names many a times but just wanted to be sure by opening the uploaded file again and checking. Is there a way to do this?

2. Do I need to bring all the original documents with me for tomorrow?

3. Any other tips for this Croydon Center appointment for tomorrow?

1. Not entirely sure. I never tried to open any of the files after uploading them when I submitted my application. Just went back into my application (for some reason can still do this months afterwards) and it appears I am able to add or remove files but not view anything that has been uploaded.

2. I believe UKVCAS would have sent a confirmation email with what to bring. You don't need them necessarily but might not be a bad idea to take them as they check the quality and legibility of your scanned documents and having the originals with you would allow the opportunity to re-scan a document if they find any issues.

3. Make sure you bring the applicant's passport and print out the sheet with the QR code for the appointment. Don't bring any unnecessary friends/family as they may not let them in.