witness statements for family members

[neilbittles]

Hi Guys,

I am applying for an unmarried partner visa for my fiance. I am 26 and a UK citizen, she is 25 and is Australian. We met in Australia in March 2009 and have been living together in the UK since Oct 2009. Firstly we were livin g togther with my parents up until January 2011. Since January 2011 we have been living in our rented apartment. We have had a joint bank account since she got her and lots of photographs etc so I think we have a lot of evidence.

I will have to get witness statements from my parents and her parents but I am not too sure about the format of them? is there anywhere online that provides good examples? or do any of you guys have any advice?

Help will be much appreciated as I am thinking about making the application in person. Thanks

Neil

[sweetmissy]

Hi Neil,

My husband and I submitted family statements for our spouse visa.
I asked our lawyer what was the format and what info they cshould include. Here is what i was told:

Confirming how you both met

How long you have been together

maybe give an example of when they first met your girlfriend? if they talked to her on skype etc

Why in their opinion it is better that she come and settle with you here in the UK. You have good career prospects here etc

I'm sure others can give examples too. But we were told all our personal statemenst by friends and family all had enough info in them.

Good Luck!!

[neilbittles]

Hi Neil,

My husband and I submitted family statements for our spouse visa.
I asked our lawyer what was the format and what info they cshould include. Here is what i was told:

Confirming how you both met

How long you have been together

maybe give an example of when they first met your girlfriend? if they talked to her on skype etc

Why in their opinion it is better that she come and settle with you here in the UK. You have good career prospects here etc

I'm sure others can give examples too. But we were told all our personal statemenst by friends and family all had enough info in them.

Good Luck!!

Hi Sweetmissy!

thanks for replying. The thing is we aren't going through a lawyer and plan to submit the FLRM form in person in Belfast as it is only two miles up the road from us. Do you think this is a disadvantage?
They say that if you do it by post it can take up to six months. My fiance doesnt want to be without her Australian passport for that long as we have a couple of trips planned.
My parents spoke to her on skype when we were both living in australia and she lived with them for over a year here in belfast before we moved into our own apartment. I think we have all the necessary evidence, we just need it all looking professional if you know what i mean. Where you successful in your application? did you use many photographs? we have lots of photos together as my fiance brings her camera with her everywhere lol!

[sweetmissy]

Hey,

No problem at all.

There is not disadvantage to applying without a lawyer. We only used one, as my husband has immigration history and we needed guidance.

The info about living with the parents and skyping will be good to show. They don't need to be long and drawn out, but as long as they include the generic terms that i told you, should be fine.

What else do you need to submit for unmarried partner?

Yes we had to put in photographs. not hundreds, just a number of sets consisting of about 8 photos in each, dated.

I bought some handy little plastic envelopes from tesco to put each set in and then labelled on the outside. made it look very neat.

We are currently on day 43 (in working days) my husband submitted in Cairo.. can take up to 60 working days....

so we are still waiting..

[neilbittles]

Hey,

No problem at all.

There is not disadvantage to applying without a lawyer. We only used one, as my husband has immigration history and we needed guidance.

The info about living with the parents and skyping will be good to show. They don't need to be long and drawn out, but as long as they include the generic terms that i told you, should be fine.

What else do you need to submit for unmarried partner?

Yes we had to put in photographs. not hundreds, just a number of sets consisting of about 8 photos in each, dated.

I bought some handy little plastic envelopes from tesco to put each set in and then labelled on the outside. made it look very neat.

We are currently on day 43 (in working days) my husband submitted in Cairo.. can take up to 60 working days....

so we are still waiting..

Hi Sweetmissy!

for an umarried partner visa we have to provide two years of evidence that we have been living together e.g bank statements, joint bank account, tenants agreement, photos, also witness statements etc. We will have two years worth of joint bank account statements when we apply in Sept/Oct. The good thing about the unmarried partner visa is that you can make the application in country, so my fiance does not have to return to OZ to make the application. Also we have to provide 6 months worth of payslips. We are both working so that shouldnt be a problem. Im just a bit dubious of when we go to make the application that no-one will have checked it for me? thats why i was thinking about going through a lawyer.

I would rather we made the application in person same day service as they could take her passport of her for up to 6 months, so i think we would be better going with the premium service. What would you suggest? do you think you will be successful? I hope we are as its a lot of money

[sweetmissy]

Thats interesting to know all the things that you have to produce for a unmarried partner visa... I see the attraction to that for sure... Well you seem to be very organised with it all. To be honest, so many pople have had successful visa applications simply by talking to the people on this forum. The moderators are very good with advice, like Batleykhan and Vinny... very knowledgable people...

I think you will be fine without a lawyer, but at the end of the day thats your decision to make.. your application seems to be very staright forward.

With regards to the same day fast track thing... i am unable to comment as our visa is so different..

The moderators would best advise you on that one.


Well i am hopeful every day that our application will be sucessful.. i hope that no news means good news... as someone who applied after us has already been refused... but you just never know.. i leave it to God.

Talk about expenses... in total my husband and I have spent nearly £2000 with lawyer expenses and the actual visa.. but inshallah it will be worth it.