Some advice on uk spouse application...

[binglebongle]

hi there,

i'm from the uk (and live there currently), my partner is from the philippines and lives there currently. we're getting married in PH in september, and i'm over there till mid october. i'll presumably be flying back to the UK solo as her application won't have been decided if we apply right after the wedding (probably mid september).

we're wanting to do the spouse application so she can live with me in the uk. my questions are these:

1) while i've read through the forms she has to fill in, we're still a bit confused as to how / what she does with my documents. i assume she can't submit them online, so would i need to bring certified copies of all the originals with me to PH for her to submit in person?

2) I only just found out while searching on forums for something else that you need to maintain a balance of £800 in your bank account at all times. I can't find anything about this on the UK Gov website, forms or anything else yet it seems to keep popping up.

As we get married in september, I just bought the flight ticket and my balance went down to about £690 / £730 (ish, off the top of my head) for about 4 days. I always have a decent chunk of money in my savings at all times, but was unable to move money over to top it up due to travel commitments.

As I went below this £800 "requirement" even for a few days, would we now be rejected automatically? Or would they look at the amount in my savings and see that I have more than enough money available, just kept in a related savings account? I'm not sure if it's a continual, "rolling" process or just goes off whatever arbitrary amount ends up as your closing balance for the month on the printed statement.

If this scuppers us, we'd have to wait till early november to apply because I'd need to get hold of my october bank statement to make up the 6 months without dipping below £800 (M J J A S O). In which case, how would I get her the most recent bank statements / wage slips etc while being in the UK? Fedex / similar?

Thanks for any advice you can give!

/ edited to add - After digging around on here some more, I see lots of people making spouse visa applications or asking about doing so, and being told that even being overdrawn doesn't matter as long as everything is in order - so where is this "don't go below £800" thing coming from? :S

[WR1]

There is no requirement to have £800 in the account. However, you must show that you are earning at least £18,600 per year in order to sponsor your spouse.

[binglebongle]

There is no requirement to have £800 in the account. However, you must show that you are earning at least £18,600 per year in order to sponsor your spouse.

i do indeed, thanks i actually just noticed this seems to be a requirement of a form of work visa - more than a few people have seemingly mixed up requirements between that and spouse

well that's a relief

[binglebongle]

I'm back with a few more questions, hopefully they can be answered:

1) I intended to get married in PH then have my partner apply online while I'm still over there (as I don't fly home for about 2 to 3 weeks after the wedding. However I've seen this a couple of times now:

"The settled person must be physically present in the UK at the time of the application, unless they are accompanying or joining the applicant and wish to make the UK their home."

Does this mean I need to head back to the UK alone, send her the newest wage / bank statement (bc I reckon she'd need new ones by then) via fedex and she does it online without me? I suppose by the time the original marriage cert is given to us, I'd have flown back by that point anyway but just checking.

2) for the last few years i've lived with my mother after a previous relationship went wrong. the house is 3 bedrooms, a (room where you make cups of tea, for some reason the forum is turning the food preparation room into the word "spam"?), bathroom, 2 living rooms and more than big enough to take another person. the only thing i'm concerned about is the tenancy is in her name - she can have relatives live here with no problems and i'm registered with the company who owns the property as living at this address, but in terms of actual names on tenancy she's the main tenant, not me.

I pay the rent, gas / electric etc but she pays the council tax at present.

It looks like I can get a joint tenancy with my mother prior to making the spouse visa application, but i'm currently unsure about it being able to be transferred to me fully until we speak to the housing corporation.

Does it seem like it might be a problem if I have a joint tenancy, or (worst case scenario) the tenancy remains soley in my mothers name?

thanks again.

[Rayking]

Your proofs of financial requirement mustn't be more than 28 days because that can cause a refusal and your employer's letter must clearly state your income in the last 6 months or whichever category you want to use. That means staying over there can affect the visa,most especially if they try contacting you and you're incommunicado.
Secondly, your accommodation should be fine,provided your mum can get a letter from your landlord or agent that your wife is allowed to stay in the house in addition to your mum's tenancy agreement. She can then include a letter that she's happy to have your wife too.
This last one isn't compulsory but might be necessary, you can also include inspection report of the house, just to prove to whoever is going to deal with your application that the house is big enough and not overcrowded.

[SoHopeful]

I'm back with a few more questions, hopefully they can be answered:

1) I intended to get married in PH then have my partner apply online while I'm still over there (as I don't fly home for about 2 to 3 weeks after the wedding. However I've seen this a couple of times now:

"The settled person must be physically present in the UK at the time of the application, unless they are accompanying or joining the applicant and wish to make the UK their home."

Does this mean I need to head back to the UK alone, send her the newest wage / bank statement (bc I reckon she'd need new ones by then) via fedex and she does it online without me? I suppose by the time the original marriage cert is given to us, I'd have flown back by that point anyway but just checking.

You can complete the application whilst you are with your partner and it will be saved for 30 days on the system (well that was the case in 2013). Or you could complete and pay for the application before returning to the UK and book the appointment for submitting the documents for date by which your wife should have received the marriage cert and the latest payslip/bank statement.
2) for the last few years i've lived with my mother after a previous relationship went wrong. the house is 3 bedrooms, a (room where you make cups of tea, for some reason the forum is turning the food preparation room into the word "spam"?), bathroom, 2 living rooms and more than big enough to take another person. the only thing i'm concerned about is the tenancy is in her name - she can have relatives live here with no problems and i'm registered with the company who owns the property as living at this address, but in terms of actual names on tenancy she's the main tenant, not me.

I pay the rent, gas / electric etc but she pays the council tax at present.

It looks like I can get a joint tenancy with my mother prior to making the spouse visa application, but i'm currently unsure about it being able to be transferred to me fully until we speak to the housing corporation.

Does it seem like it might be a problem if I have a joint tenancy, or (worst case scenario) the tenancy remains soley in my mothers name?

You don't need a joint tenancy - just a letter from your mother and your landlord giving permission for your wife to live there.

thanks again.

[binglebongle]

fantastic, thanks everyone - really appreciate the advice.

just visited the offices and they did indeed confirm there's no problem with doing it the way you've advised. they don't do the floorplans or house inspection so i'll dig around to see how to get those done.

i suppose my last question (maybe!) is: does the "nothing outside 28 days" rule also apply to anything other than wage slips and bank statements? if so it would have some impact on time available / best times to book in the house inspection, get the tenancy letters from mother & owners and everything else required so just want to make sure. thanks again

[binglebongle]

Hello!

I didn't want to create multiple threads all over the place so thought I'd better put this one here.

While gathering up my docs, I realised for a lot of the flights (if not most) that I've done since 2012, I only have etickets / itineraries - back then, we had no idea we'd be going down this path or should start gathering up documents / slips / bits of paper all over the place (and certainly no idea what ones we'd be keeping, if at all).

As a result, I can only confirm for sure that I have actual boarding passes from the two upcoming trips to PH (if that makes sense, because now I know they're helpful I'll be ensuring I bolt them somewhere safe) and my last trip to the US / PH with her at the start of the year. For everything else, it's probably a case of etickets in my email prior to me flying and entry / exit stamps from my visits to PH in my passport.

As nobody stamps my passport in England when I return home, I'm not sure if this is suddenly a big problem or not (do they need some form of "proof" I returned to the UK after each trip? Because as it stands, I definitely have no old boarding passes. No idea if this will cause issues, particularly with the evidence required for showing contact between myself and my partner). Help appreciated

[singhsaab]

Hello Binglebongle,

If you intend to show the trips together as part of proof of your relationship history, you don't need to attach any boarding pass with your application. Eticket prints are good enough. Just like you, I had not saved any boarding pass either, and attached etickets/itinerary printed from inbox to show visits made to see my spouse, for my wedding and for our honeymoon trip. I did attach passport pages with in and out stamps for my wedding trip, just to provide more evidence to proof I was where I said I was and the marriage happened where i said it happened. Did it help? I am not sure, but it doesn't hurt.

As for your passport stamps on returning to the UK, am sure they do scan your passport and log in data of your incoming. All they need to do is put your passport number in Big Brothers' data server and see what you been up to

Good luck!

[SoHopeful]

fantastic, thanks everyone - really appreciate the advice.

just visited the offices and they did indeed confirm there's no problem with doing it the way you've advised. they don't do the floorplans or house inspection so i'll dig around to see how to get those done.

i suppose my last question (maybe!) is: does the "nothing outside 28 days" rule also apply to anything other than wage slips and bank statements? if so it would have some impact on time available / best times to book in the house inspection, get the tenancy letters from mother & owners and everything else required so just want to make sure. thanks again

Only financial information needs to be within 28 days and ideally the employment letter too.

Hello!

I didn't want to create multiple threads all over the place so thought I'd better put this one here.

While gathering up my docs, I realised for a lot of the flights (if not most) that I've done since 2012, I only have etickets / itineraries - back then, we had no idea we'd be going down this path or should start gathering up documents / slips / bits of paper all over the place (and certainly no idea what ones we'd be keeping, if at all).

As a result, I can only confirm for sure that I have actual boarding passes from the two upcoming trips to PH (if that makes sense, because now I know they're helpful I'll be ensuring I bolt them somewhere safe) and my last trip to the US / PH with her at the start of the year. For everything else, it's probably a case of etickets in my email prior to me flying and entry / exit stamps from my visits to PH in my passport.

As nobody stamps my passport in England when I return home, I'm not sure if this is suddenly a big problem or not (do they need some form of "proof" I returned to the UK after each trip? Because as it stands, I definitely have no old boarding passes. No idea if this will cause issues, particularly with the evidence required for showing contact between myself and my partner). Help appreciated

I just printed e-tickets from previous trips and details of the trip I would take to be present with my spouse when he applied.

[binglebongle]

thank you both

I did a bit of digging before i flew out to visit my partner (sitting in the airport now!) and actually found a bunch of return boarding passes so I suppose that helps either way

one final thing i think i'm slightly confused about - assuming our application is accepted, do we ever have to get married in england at some point? and if so, will there be additional hoops to jump? or is the PH marriage certificate acceptable for whatever the duration of our spouse visa stay turns out to be? (ie hopefully the entire probationary period and beyond).

Cheers