Further docs request - 2 year unmarried partner requirement

[philipp1_3]

Hi there! Could anyone share their experience on proving 2-year cohabitation in relationship akin to marriage?

My unmarried partner (dependent) and I (main applicant) have applied for Skilled Worker + PBS dependent visa. Today my partner received the following email from the DMC:

The UK Decision Making Centre is currently assessing the application submitted by the above named. We are unable to conclude the application at this time as we require additional information.
Please provide the following documents:
Paragraph SW 29.2. (a) states - If the applicant and their Skilled Worker partner are not married or in a civil partnership they must have been living together in a relationship similar to marriage or civil partnership for at least the two years before the date of application
• Please provide further official documentation to evidence that you have been living with your partner in a relationship similar to marriage or civil partnership for a period of at least 2 years.

On our application, we have provided numerous documents (around 50) to demonstrate our cohabitation over the past two years (most of the documents are addressed either to me or my partner, though all had our residential address shown). The documents included:

- bank letters / statements, including the letter stating that my partner has full access to funds on my bank account
- power of attorney authorising my partner to act on my behalf, including in respect to the apartment we live in
- utilities invoices issued to me (as the apartment is owned in my name) and payment orders from my partner - basically my partner has been paying for utilities over the past years
- various letters from medical providers to either of us (medical check results, COVID test, quarantine docs etc.)
- delivery invoices
- a bunch of documents showing that we've been going on vacations to different countries together

We are now trying to gather additional bank statements, contracts and other formal documents, but I am not sure if we will have much more. So the questions are:

1) What else could we provide to the DMC to ensure that our relationship is demonstrated, based on your experience?
2) Would it be worth submitting our social media posts?
3) It is possible that the caseworker got confused with these 50 documents we have submitted initially as we have not provided any kind of explanatory note? I reckon it may be beneficial to send such a note.
4) A bit of absurd but still - is there a chance that the part of all of the documents somehow did not reach the caseworker? We have uploaded these cohab documents in both of our applications.

Any useful information on the above would be much appreciated!

[ywlgy]

On documents you provided,
Statements: Is your partner also the addressee? Having access to your account does not mean the person lives with you.
Power of attorney: does not seem an official document to me
Utility bills are only addressed to you so cannot prove your partner living with you.
Medical letters seem fine
Delivery invoices are not that official
Documents showing you went to holiday together do not prove you live together.

Also are the documents submitted span evenly across the last two years?

[philipp1_3]

Thanks a lot, @ywlgy !

On the statements, either my partner or I are the addressee. Here in Russia no joint bank accounts exist so no bank statements could be ever addressed to two people.

Power of attorney - this is a document certified by the public notary and entered on the state register. It gives my partner the right to act on my behalf in any matters, so she, for example, can dispose of any property I own in my own name with this PoA

Re utility bills - in this country I believe it is impossible to have any bill to be addressed to two persons, whether they live together, own the property together etc. This is why we provided utility bills addressed to me and payment orders issued by my partner - this shows that she has been paying the bills.

The document span evenly across 2 years.

We are now trying to gather more documents that are official (bank statements address to either of us, medical contracts / documents, payslips from the employer) and preparing a cover letter to explain what we’ve already provided and what we will additionally provide.

We are also thinking about further providing social media posts and info about our dog which we are bringing over with us, although we understand that these likely won’t be taken into account.

[ywlgy]

Hi philipp,

I saw on another post that your partner's visa got approval? Congrats!

It would be very helpful for other forum members if you can share what additional documents you provided.