Best is the best way to upload documents?

[Dorota01]

Hiya;

Can someone nice help me with a question which i found difficult to deal with, please.

My situation:

I am 35 years old Polish national (female). I am still married to a Spanish guy but we are not together any longer. We decided to end our relationship 6 years ago but we are still legally married. I never was married before (only to this Spanish guy). I am in a new relationship now. My 13 yo daughter lives with my husband, they decided to move back to Spain to live with his parents. So - my ex lives with my daughter in Spain but I am in UK and trying to appy for British Citizenship.

Can someone nice help me to answer the below questions, please?

What is your relationship status? - Married or Seperated
like i said, i am still married but we are not together, we are also not legally seperated, we are simply not together anymore. We think to get divorced in the future but not yet.

Have you previously been married or in a civil partnership? Yes or No

Do you have any children whose birth parent is not your partner? Yes or No

Those questions are very confusing for me. I need your help.. please, please

[secret.simon]

What is your relationship status? - Married or Seperated
like i said, i am still married

You have answered your own question. Marriage is a legal status, irrespective of whether you live together or not.

Have you previously been married or in a civil partnership? Yes or No

Apart from this marriage, have you been married before? You have suggested that you have not.

Do you have any children whose birth parent is not your partner? Yes or No

This can be tricky, as this asks about your partner, not about your husband or your civil partner (the equivalent of spouse). I would suggest answering No to this question, providing that your current partner is not dependent on you for their immigration status.

[Dorota01]

What is your relationship status? - Married or Seperated
like i said, i am still married

You have answered your own question. Marriage is a legal status, irrespective of whether you live together or not.

Have you previously been married or in a civil partnership? Yes or No

Apart from this marriage, have you been married before? You have suggested that you have not.

Do you have any children whose birth parent is not your partner? Yes or No

This can be tricky, as this asks about your partner, not about your husband or your civil partner (the equivalent of spouse). I would suggest answering No to this question, providing that your current partner is not dependent on you for their immigration status.

Thank you so much for getting back to my questions.
Regarding my relationship status - we haven't been living together and had no relationship for 6 years, the only contact we had it was regarding my daughter. If I choose "Married" then in further questions they are referning to my ex as my partner (thinking that we are still together) but as I mentioned, I am with someone else at this moment who is my current partner. Can I get a bit more advice on that, please? Thank you

[Dorota01]

Hello
I would like to ask what would be the best way to upload the evidence documents, please?
I am planning to upload 4 or 5 different documents as proof for each year of my residency in the Uk.
Do you think it will be acceptable if I combine all documents from each year to only one PDF file?
Meaning, will Home Office accept my Council Tax, water bill, HMRC and hospital and employment letters on only one PDF document? I am thinking of doing that for each of the 5 years. Of course, I will make sure that all the files are less than 6mb in size. Or in your opinion, I should upload all the documents separately? That means uploading around 25 different documents to prove my residency plus all other needed documents.
I am thinking of doing the same for employment and medical evidence. I would appreciate your help, please. Thank you

[Dorota01]

Also, may I ask about document date validity, please?
I have LITUK Exemption form signed by my doctor about 2 months ago. Will Home Office still accept it, or do I need to get another once with a more recent date? The only problem is that due to the COVID-19, it would be super tricky for me to get the doctor to sign this form again. BTW, what is the max document validity date vise before Home Office refuses it? It is 1, 2 or 3 months old? Thank you once again.

[alterhase58]

Hello
I would like to ask what would be the best way to upload the evidence documents, please?
I am planning to upload 4 or 5 different documents as proof for each year of my residency in the Uk.
Do you think it will be acceptable if I combine all documents from each year to only one PDF file? Should be ok
Meaning, will Home Office accept my Council Tax, water bill why ??? not needed, HMRC and hospital and employment letters on only one PDF document? I am thinking of doing that for each of the 5 years. Of course, I will make sure that all the files are less than 6mb in size. Or in your opinion, I should upload all the documents separately? That means uploading around 25 different documents to prove my residency plus all other needed documents. Again shouldn't be a problem - but why all these diffeent documents per year? One type is sufficient.
I am thinking of doing the same for employment and medical evidence what is this?. I would appreciate your help, please. Thank you

[Dorota01]

Hello
I would like to ask what would be the best way to upload the evidence documents, please?
I am planning to upload 4 or 5 different documents as proof for each year of my residency in the Uk.
Do you think it will be acceptable if I combine all documents from each year to only one PDF file? Should be ok
Meaning, will Home Office accept my Council Tax, water bill why ??? not needed, HMRC and hospital and employment letters on only one PDF document? I am thinking of doing that for each of the 5 years. Of course, I will make sure that all the files are less than 6mb in size. Or in your opinion, I should upload all the documents separately? That means uploading around 25 different documents to prove my residency plus all other needed documents. Again shouldn't be a problem - but why all these diffeent documents per year? One type is sufficient.
I am thinking of doing the same for employment and medical evidence what is this?. I would appreciate your help, please. Thank you

@alterhase58 - thank you for getting back to me.

1. OK - I will upload only one document as you are suggesting. Can you kindly advice which document from the above I listed should I use as a prove of my residence in the UK, please?

2. I need to provide medical evidence (letters from Hospital etc) because I cannot pass the LITUK test and also I need to prove that I was sick in the first 1.5 years of my 5-year qualifying time (lawful residency)

3. May I also ask you: will Home Office approve LITUK Exemption form (Waiver) and Referee forms that are older than 2 months?

[alterhase58]

1. OK - I will upload only one document as you are suggesting. Can you kindly advice which document from the above I listed should I use as a prove of my residence in the UK, please?

Ideally the employment letters, and for gaps in employment probably Council Tax and HMRC should be sufficient.

2. I need to provide medical evidence (letters from Hospital etc) because I cannot pass the LITUK test and also I need to prove that I was sick in the first 1.5 years of my 5-year qualifying time (lawful residency)

OK

3. May I also ask you: will Home Office approve LITUK Exemption form (Waiver) and Referee forms that are older than 2 months?

Can't comment on this as this is a very rare occurance and whilst it's not the first time this has been discussed here I don't recall any feedback as yto the outcome.

[Dorota01]

@alterhase58 - thank you once again, greatly appreciated

In fact I am asking is the documents I listed above have to be dated within the last 3 months from the date I submit the application ot just 28 days? As far as I understand, the 28 days rule applies to documents like bank statements, payslips, or employment letters in a situation when the applicant needs to prove his earnings (minimum income), which doesn’t apply to me, I think. However, there are general documents like LITUK exemption forms, Referee declaration forms, a letter from my employer, etc Can they be older than 1 or 2 months from the date we submit the application?

[alterhase58]

@alterhase58 - thank you once again, greatly appreciated

In fact I am asking is the documents I listed above have to be dated within the last 3 months from the date I submit the application ot just 28 days? As far as I understand, the 28 days rule applies to documents like bank statements, payslips, or employment letters in a situation when the applicant needs to prove his earnings (minimum income), which doesn’t apply to me, I think. However, there are general documents like LITUK exemption forms, Referee declaration forms, a letter from my employer, etc Can they be older than 1 or 2 months from the date we submit the application?

There is no 28 days rule - that relates to visa applications. Documents should be reasonably dated close to the application, though of course a P60 or a council tax bill could be dated from up to five ago. You don't need to prove earnings for naturalisation. Employers letters should be fine as you will have to spend some time getting them together (just a fact of life). Note for naturalisation the major requirements are residency, good character, English/(LITUK).

[Dorota01]

@alterhase58 - thank you once again, greatly appreciated

In fact I am asking is the documents I listed above have to be dated within the last 3 months from the date I submit the application ot just 28 days? As far as I understand, the 28 days rule applies to documents like bank statements, payslips, or employment letters in a situation when the applicant needs to prove his earnings (minimum income), which doesn’t apply to me, I think. However, there are general documents like LITUK exemption forms, Referee declaration forms, a letter from my employer, etc Can they be older than 1 or 2 months from the date we submit the application?

There is no 28 days rule - that relates to visa applications. Documents should be reasonably dated close to the application, though of course a P60 or a council tax bill could be dated from up to five ago. You don't need to prove earnings for naturalisation. Employers letters should be fine as you will have to spend some time getting them together (just a fact of life). Note for naturalisation the major requirements are residency, good character, English/(LITUK).

@alterhase58 - Understood. Thank you for all your help. You have just allowed me to breathe a bit.

[alterhase58]

You are welcome - we appreciate completing these applications and then waiting can be a trying time - we have been trough it.
For any further questions continue posting in this thread.

[Dorota01]

With the help of the members of this forum I've already submited the online application, waiting for the biometrics appointment now. I have a quick question for someone who would be willing to help me out a bit more, please: in one of my qualifying years (3 years ago), I have been getting ESA due to my health issues (being in the support group) and during this time I had a few short trips abroad to my home country (22 days in total in the space of 1 year). Short trips, I mean maybe 2 or 3 days each time I traveled and only once 14 days. At the time I never thought that I need to inform DWP about those and now I am worrying that this could be a massive problem for my application. I never received any warning from DWP or call - at the end I stopped getting this benefit as I started working again. Can you advice, please? Thank you

[alterhase58]

Not familiar with ESA - presumably you were unable to work for health reasons so was there still a requirement to be available for work, or some kind of regular signing in? Perhaps you are overthinking this? Your absences are within the permitted numbers and I can't imagine UKVI matches up days to your circumstances.

[Dorota01]

Not familiar with ESA - presumably you were unable to work for health reasons so was there still a requirement to be available for work, or some kind of regular signing in? Perhaps you are overthinking this? Your absences are within the permitted numbers and I can't imagine UKVI matches up days to your circumstances.

Yeah.. I was excluded from work at the time (I didn't have to sign in at all) because I was getting this Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and was placed in the Support Group, which meant I couldn't work at all. In the worst-case scenario, Home Office can question me why I was traveling abroad when I was sick (on ESA) and that could lead to another question if I informed DWP about my trips just to make sure I haven't committed any fraud (if they look for an excuse to refuse my application). Perhaps you are right, I may be overthinking this a bit but then again what if.. thank you @alterhase58 for your feedback and for easing my pain a bit.