Help - UK spouse visa application documents issue.

[MorgulWarg]

Hey everyone,

Hope you're all well. Just a pre-warning that this post will be fairly long, but I appreciate anyone that reads to the end and could possible offer some guidance. I'm making this post in hopes somebody may be able to put my mind at ease with some advise, or at least that they may have had a similar experience with their spouse visa application and things turned out okay in the end.

I'm a British self-employed electrician and my wife is from Thailand. We were married this year on the 2nd of March after being in a relationship for 10 years. And we made our application for her spouse visa on 26th of March this year. We paid for the standard application, not priority. On the 12th of this month my wife received an email confirming that our application was now at the "UK Decision Making Centre", this was the first piece of correspondence we have received since the initial application. Fast forward to today and while I'm at work my wife receives another email regarding our application and documents that need to be provided to them. I will post the email below for you all to read.

Dear (APPLICANTS NAME),

Regarding Visa Application: (APPLICATION NUMBER)

For: (APPLICANTS NAME)

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:

In respect of self-employment in the UK as a partner, as a sole trader or in a franchise all of the following must be provided:

(a) Evidence of the amount of tax payable, paid and unpaid for the last full financial year.

(b) The following documents for the last full financial year, or for the last two such years (where those documents show the necessary level of gross profit as an average of those two years):

(i) annual self-assessment tax return to HMRC (a copy or print-out); and

(ii) Statement of Account (SA300 or SA302).

(c) Proof of registration with HMRC as self-employed if available.

(d) Each partner’s Unique Tax Reference Number (UTR) and/or the UTR of the partnership or business.

(e) Where the person holds or held a separate business bank account(s), bank statements for the same 12-month period as the tax return(s).

(f) personal bank statements for the same 12-month period as the tax return(s) showing that the income from self-employment has been paid into an account in the name of the person or in the name of the person and their partner jointly.

(g) Evidence of ongoing self-employment through the provision of at least one of the following: a bank statement dated no more than three months earlier than the date of application showing transactions relating to ongoing trading, or evidence dated no more than three months earlier than the date of application of the renewal of a licence to trade or of ongoing payment of business rates, business-related insurance premiums, employer National Insurance contributions or franchise payments to the parent company.

(h) One of the following documents must also be submitted:

(i) (aa) If the business is required to produce annual audited accounts, such accounts for the last full financial year; or

(bb) If the business is not required to produce annual audited accounts, unaudited accounts for the last full financial year and an accountant’s certificate of confirmation, from an accountant who is a member of a UK Recognised Supervisory Body (as defined in the Companies Act 2006) or who is a member of the Institute of Financial Accountants, The Association of Authorised Public Accountants, The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, the Association of International Accountants and The Association of Accounting Technicians;

(ii) A certificate of VAT registration and the VAT return for the last full financial year (a copy or print-out) confirming the VAT registration number, if turnover is in excess of £79,000 or was in excess of the threshold which applied during the last full financial year;

(iii) Evidence to show appropriate planning permission or local planning authority consent is held to operate the type/class of business at the trading address (where this is a local authority requirement); or

(iv) A franchise agreement signed by both parties.

(i) The document referred to in paragraph 7(h) (iv) must be provided if the organisation is a franchise.

Please send this document as a scanned attachment within 10 working days to (Return Email Address) quoting your application reference in the subject line.

Kind regards,

UK Decision Making Centre

So as you can see it reads as though they are asking me to provide all of the financial documents needed for a self-employed contractor. However, I have already provided these in the initial application. I know they were provided because I uploaded them to the VFS Global website myself. Why would they be asking me to submit documents that I already have? Is there a possibility that during the processing of our application these documents were lost? Hence why they are requesting them again? Or have I royally messed something up here and the documents I provided are incorrect? If it were the case and I've messed up would they bother requesting these documents again like this, or would they just deny the application? The wording on these things are quite vague and so I'm going around in circles in my mind trying to figure out what may be the issue.

I know my only real course of action is submit the documents again and hope for the best but I cant help but be concerned about it. If there was a specific issue with the documents I've already provided a little guidance on what exactly is the issue would at least allow me to try and rectify things. I found a phone number on gov(dot)uk for help regarding visa applications, but it states that they are unable to help with "personal circumstances" so I suppose calling them for advise would be pointless. Does anyone know if you get only one opportunity to upload documents like this? Or could they potentially email again requesting something else and being a bit more specific if the financial documents themselves are wrong?

I'll write a small list below for each piece of evidence requested and what I provided during the initial application in hopes someone might be able to highlight if there is some issue I've missed. As our application was made on 26/03/2024 and it states evidence must be provided for the last FULL financial year the documents I provided were for the financial year 06/04/2022 - 05/04/2023.

(a) For this I provided my Annual tax summary 2022-23 downloaded from the HMRC portal.

(b)(i) For this I provided my self-assessment tax return 2022-23 (SA100)

(ii) For this I provided my SA302 (Tax calculation) + Tax year overview 2022-23 downloaded from the HMRC portal.

(c) For this I provided a headed letter I received from HMRC confirming I am registered as self-employed, I had to call up to request this.

(d) I didn't provide anything specific for this as my UTR number is on numerous documents already provided in other sections.

(e) I didn't provide anything for this as I don't have a specific business bank account.

(f) For this I provided personal bank statements covering the same 12 months as my tax return, that showed regular incoming payments from employment.

(g) For this I provided a bank statement for 22/01/2024 - 20-02-2024 (within 3 months of application) that showed continued employment with a payment from an employer.

(h)(i)(bb) For this I provided unaudited accounts for 2022-23 produced by my accountant (ACCA registered), as well as a certificate of confirmation from him.

Can anyone see anything obvious from what I've provided that may be causing an issue? Or something I have forgotten? Or is it really the case that these documents may have been misplaced and I just have to provide the same ones again. Like I said before any input on this from some of you more experienced posters would be thoroughly appreciated. As you all know these things are super stressful to begin with and now this has happened and I just have a massive knot in my stomach about all of it.

Thanks for taking the time to read, hope you guys have a good day.

[Ticktack]

Sometimes, these things happen. If you have all their asking for, just provide them again. You prolly already have them saved somewhere.

You haven't messed things up yet.

[MorgulWarg]

Sometimes, these things happen. If you have all their asking for, just provide them again. You prolly already have them saved somewhere.

You haven't messed things up yet.

Thanks for your reply. I know all i can do is provide them again and hope for the best. I just wish they could be a little clearer in their emails in regards to what exactly the issue is. If they just clearly stated that they never recieved the documents at all then i'd feel a little better about it.

If they did recieve the documents that i uploaded initially and this is their way of saying there's an issue with them then it's definitely not clear in the email and there's no way i can remedy anything.

[Theunknownusername]

People post about having to resend documents all the time. Maybe a pdf was corrupted, maybe they somehow lost it, maybe they want to test the applicants to see if they submit the same documents. Who knows.

Just pretend that they lost them, resend and forget about it! Definitely nothing to worry about.

[AmazonianX]

Sometimes, these things happen. If you have all their asking for, just provide them again. You prolly already have them saved somewhere.

You haven't messed things up yet.

Thanks for your reply. I know all i can do is provide them again and hope for the best. I just wish they could be a little clearer in their emails in regards to what exactly the issue is. If they just clearly stated that they never recieved the documents at all then i'd feel a little better about it.

If they did recieve the documents that i uploaded initially and this is their way of saying there's an issue with them then it's definitely not clear in the email and there's no way i can remedy anything.

You will be amazed how they are the ones who royally messes things up.
While it becomes a point of worry being needless asked for what was provided without clarity on if it was received or the lost or messed it up. As others said ,provide the requested documents and hope for the best