How Much Communication Evidence Is Enough?

[cnrlln]

Good Evening everybody,

I'm hoping that someone in this forum can help us, we have been following many posts in this forum for advice and guidance and we are glad that we stumbled across others who have walked in our shoes.

I am assisting my wife with her application to join me in the UK. I am a naturalised British citizen and my wife is Bhutanese and was studying in the UK for 5 years.

We are filling out the application and have come across a question that has left us in some confusion. The question reads 'Have you been deported, removed or otherwise required to leave any country including the UK in the last 10 years?'. My wife voluntarily left the UK on 22 August 2016 after applying for an extension on her student visa at the time which was refused, she was offered the right to appeal but was informed by her legal advice at the time that it would be unlikely that the decision would be overturned. She was then issued a document regarding her options in leaving the UK (voluntary departure or collection by Capita).

We are wondering whether we would need to mention this in accordance to this question, or leave it to the question below (Have you ever voluntarily elected to depart the UK?)? She chose to leave the UK at her own expense, but only after she was given the aforementioned notice by Capita. We have read in previous posts about the urgency to make sure everything is true and correct when applying and the problems it can cause when things go wrong.

At this moment in time I'm leaning towards marking this first question as 'Yes', and mentioning the above conditions in the Additional Information section; however my wife believes we should only mention it in the second mentioned question.

Has anyone here had first-hand experience with this?

Many Thanks.

[KatieWills]

Hubby also left voluntarily and when we applied for his spouse visa we answered yes for both questions and just added a small note in the space available underneath to explain. It's poorly worded but we gave as much info as possible to be as upfront as we could, your wife may have paperwork with a HO ref number or a port number, she could inlude that.

[cnrlln]

Good Evening everybody,

I was just wondering if somebody could give mine and my wife's table of contents a once over and let us know how it looks? I think we haven't done too badly but as always I have the feeling I may have missed something.

Thanks; please see below.




Table of Contents:

Part 1 – Applicant
A.Letter of Introduction
B.Completed Online Application Form with Appendix 2 Financial Requirement Form
C.Current Passport and Previous Passport
D.Two Colour Passport Sized Photographs
E.Confirmation of Biometrics
F.Evidence of English Language Requirement (IELTS Life Skills A1 Speaking & Listening Certificate)
G.Evidence of Accommodation in UK (Please see Part 2, Section F)

Part 2 – Sponsor
A.Letter of Introduction
B.Completed Sponsorship Undertaking Form SU07/12
C.Copy of Passport Photo / Bio Page
D.Original & Copy of Birth Certificate
E.Financial Information
i.Evidence of Employment (Contract from *employer*, dated 10 March 2014)
ii.Payslips from *employer* (29 July 2016 – 28 February 2017) (Monthly)
iii.Bank Statements from Barclays Bank PLC (09 June 2016 – 06 March 2017) (Monthly)
F.Evidence of Accommodation
i.Letter of Agreement from Mr. X & Mrs. X (Father and Mother of Sponsor)
ii.Copy of Mortgage Agreement
iii.Copy of Deed

Part 3 – Relationship of Applicant & Sponsor
A.Marriage
i.Marriage Certificates & Copy (Dated 26 September 2016)
ii.Selection of Photographs from Wedding Ceremony (10 October 2016)
iii.Copy of Vowels from Wedding Ceremony (10 October 2016)
iv.Mock Certificate from Wedding Ceremony, gifted by Celebrant (dated 10 October 2016)
B.Evidence of Relationship (Pre & Post Marriage)
i.Facebook Chat History (Starting from 11 July 2015)
ii.WhatsApp Chat History (Starting from 15 July 2015)
iii.iMessage Chat History (Applicant UK Number) (Starting 02 December 2015)
iv.iMessage Chat History (Applicant iCloud Address) (Post UK Departure) (Starting from 28 August 2016)
v.Screenshots & Photographs Pulled from Social Media (Facebook, Instagram) (Includes Holidays, Days Out, Events with Friends & Family)
vi.Travel Confirmations & Boarding Passes from Visitations & Holidays Spent Together (Flight, Hotel, Airbnb Bookings)
vii.Gift Receipts (Includes Receipts for Engagement Ring, idiot-phone 6S)
viii.Engagement and Wedding Cards from Friends & Family

[CR001]

Table of Contents:

Part 1 – Applicant
A.Letter of Introduction
B.Completed Online Application Form with Appendix 2 Financial Requirement Form What about your IHS fee paid confirmation?
C.Current Passport and Previous Passport
D.Two Colour Passport Sized Photographs
E.Confirmation of Biometrics
F.Evidence of English Language Requirement (IELTS Life Skills A1 Speaking & Listening Certificate)
G.Evidence of Accommodation in UK (Please see Part 2, Section F)

Part 2 – Sponsor
A.Letter of Introduction
B.Completed Sponsorship Undertaking Form SU07/12 NOT required for a spouse visa.
C.Copy of Passport Photo / Bio Page
D.Original & Copy of Birth Certificate Not required.
E.Financial Information
i.Evidence of Employment (Contract from *employer*, dated 10 March 2014)
ii.Payslips from *employer* (29 July 2016 – 28 February 2017) (Monthly)
iii.Bank Statements from Barclays Bank PLC (09 June 2016 – 06 March 2017) (Monthly)
F.Evidence of Accommodation
i.Letter of Agreement from Mr. X & Mrs. X (Father and Mother of Sponsor) Is this for accommodatio??
ii.Copy of Mortgage Agreement
iii.Copy of Deed

Part 3 – Relationship of Applicant & Sponsor
A.Marriage
i.Marriage Certificates & Copy (Dated 26 September 2016)
ii.Selection of Photographs from Wedding Ceremony (10 October 2016)
iii.Copy of Vowels from Wedding Ceremony (10 October 2016) Not required as far as I am aware
iv.Mock Certificate from Wedding Ceremony, gifted by Celebrant (dated 10 October 2016)
B.Evidence of Relationship (Pre & Post Marriage)
i.Facebook Chat History (Starting from 11 July 2015)
ii.WhatsApp Chat History (Starting from 15 July 2015)
iii.iMessage Chat History (Applicant UK Number) (Starting 02 December 2015)
iv.iMessage Chat History (Applicant iCloud Address) (Post UK Departure) (Starting from 28 August 2016)
v.Screenshots & Photographs Pulled from Social Media (Facebook, Instagram) (Includes Holidays, Days Out, Events with Friends & Family)
vi.Travel Confirmations & Boarding Passes from Visitations & Holidays Spent Together (Flight, Hotel, Airbnb Bookings)
vii.Gift Receipts (Includes Receipts for Engagement Ring, idiot-phone 6S)
viii.Engagement and Wedding Cards from Friends & Family

[cnrlln]

Thanks @KatieWills, it's good to know we're on the right track.
Looking at submitting everything next week; nail biting stuff.

[cnrlln]

@CR001, thanks for getting back so quickly and bunching my posts together, makes them much easier to find!!

Wouldn't HO already have track of the IHS payments as it is paid for along with the application?

Also I had no idea that a SU07/12 form wasn't required, that's another piece of unwanted/needed paperwork for the shredder.   :lol:

The letter of agreement is indeed for accommodation as we are going to be living with my parents whilst we save up for a mortgage deposit. Do you know if a property inspection report is 100% necessary?

Agreed, Copy of Vowels is probably not required, along with most of our 1000+ page chat history.   :lol:  :roll:

Thanks again.

[CR001]

Wouldn't HO already have track of the IHS payments as it is paid for along with the application? Yes, but best to take it with you in case they ask (systems could be down for example)

Also I had no idea that a SU07/12 form wasn't required, that's another piece of unwanted/needed paperwork for the shredder.   :lol: This is only required for adult dependent (older dependents, i.e. parents etc)

The letter of agreement is indeed for accommodation as we are going to be living with my parents whilst we save up for a mortgage deposit. Do you know if a property inspection report is 100% necessary? Probably wouldn't to prove there will be no overcrowding.

Agreed, Copy of Vowels is probably not required, along with most of our 1000+ page chat history.   :lol:  :roll:

Thanks again.

[cnrlln]

Good Afternoon ladies and gents, I'm hoping someone could possibly shed a quick bit of light.

My wife is applying for her spousal visa from Bhutan. As there is no British Embassy / High Commission there she is having to use services at her local VFS office.

She's booked her appointment for 11:30 tomorrow morning (17:30 UK time). Upon booking her appointment at the VFS office, she was told that she had to make copies of all of our evidence and supporting documents (which totals well over 1000 pages), as some documents would be sent to Sheffield and some would be sent to Delhi. Now she is in a mad rush trying to make copies of everything. Upon her submission of her supporting evidence tomorrow, VFS will apparently scan the documents and send them to Sheffield / Delhi electronically. Something doesn't sound right here. She has also been told by VFS that she will have to handle her own secure shipping to Sheffield and Delhi for the documents that are going to be sent and not scanned, rather than VFS assisting, after paying a fee to apply through them.

Has anyone ever heard anything like this before? I know that her local VFS have never really dealt with a spousal visa application before (maybe once or twice, but nothing over the last year or two at least).

[SoHopeful]

Was it not made clear during the online process?

My understanding is that for countries who are now processing settlement applications in Sheffield, the applicant must send ALL documents there. The exception is if it's a priority application, then the local office processes it.

[cnrlln]

Was it not made clear during the online process?

My understanding is that for countries who are now processing settlement applications in Sheffield, the applicant must send ALL documents there. The exception is if it's a priority application, then the local office processes it.

As I thought as well, but apparently her local VFS aren't clued up enough.
We've cleared it up now, all documents are headed to Sheffield tomorrow, but my wife is still insistent that a copy of her application form is going to Delhi.

Thanks.

[cnrlln]

Afternoon everyone.

We're finally submitting our application and supporting documents tomorrow!! We're extremely excited to move on to the next step and hopefully a little bit closer to being back together again.

We're just wondering as per the topic subject - just how much communication evidence is sufficient? We're currently sitting on just over 1000 pages worth of Facebook chat logs, WhatsApps, iMessages and Skype logs. As my wife is having to send all of this from Bhutan to Sheffield (even though I only sent it out to her 2 weeks ago, at a cost of £97 ). This is our entire chat log spanning the just-over 2 years we have been together.

As we're having to send it back and cover the costs of this, we're wondering whether we really need to supply 2 big folders worth of comms? If you have supplied communication evidence in the past, how much did you submit?

Hopefully we can refine it down a bit and slash our shipping costs, as well as the ECO's workload.

Thanks.

[SoHopeful]

Was it not made clear during the online process?

My understanding is that for countries who are now processing settlement applications in Sheffield, the applicant must send ALL documents there. The exception is if it's a priority application, then the local office processes it.

As I thought as well, but apparently her local VFS aren't clued up enough.
We've cleared it up now, all documents are headed to Sheffield tomorrow, but my wife is still insistent that a copy of her application form is going to Delhi.

Thanks.

Ha!! She sounds like me three years ago!

Afternoon everyone.

We're finally submitting our application and supporting documents tomorrow!! We're extremely excited to move on to the next step and hopefully a little bit closer to being back together again.

We're just wondering as per the topic subject - just how much communication evidence is sufficient? We're currently sitting on just over 1000 pages worth of Facebook chat logs, WhatsApps, iMessages and Skype logs. As my wife is having to send all of this from Bhutan to Sheffield (even though I only sent it out to her 2 weeks ago, at a cost of £97 ). This is our entire chat log spanning the just-over 2 years we have been together.

As we're having to send it back and cover the costs of this, we're wondering whether we really need to supply 2 big folders worth of comms? If you have supplied communication evidence in the past, how much did you submit?

Hopefully we can refine it down a bit and slash our shipping costs, as well as the ECO's workload.

Thanks.

I went overboard with communication also, thinking better to have too much than not enough. But now little wiser I would suggest examples for every couple of months over the course of the relationship. Just screenshots in colour as opposed to actual message/call logs would be better.

[cnrlln]

Was it not made clear during the online process?

My understanding is that for countries who are now processing settlement applications in Sheffield, the applicant must send ALL documents there. The exception is if it's a priority application, then the local office processes it.

As I thought as well, but apparently her local VFS aren't clued up enough.
We've cleared it up now, all documents are headed to Sheffield tomorrow, but my wife is still insistent that a copy of her application form is going to Delhi.

Thanks.

Ha!! She sounds like me three years ago!

Afternoon everyone.

We're finally submitting our application and supporting documents tomorrow!! We're extremely excited to move on to the next step and hopefully a little bit closer to being back together again.

We're just wondering as per the topic subject - just how much communication evidence is sufficient? We're currently sitting on just over 1000 pages worth of Facebook chat logs, WhatsApps, iMessages and Skype logs. As my wife is having to send all of this from Bhutan to Sheffield (even though I only sent it out to her 2 weeks ago, at a cost of £97 ). This is our entire chat log spanning the just-over 2 years we have been together.

As we're having to send it back and cover the costs of this, we're wondering whether we really need to supply 2 big folders worth of comms? If you have supplied communication evidence in the past, how much did you submit?

Hopefully we can refine it down a bit and slash our shipping costs, as well as the ECO's workload.

Thanks.

I went overboard with communication also, thinking better to have too much than not enough. But now little wiser I would suggest examples for every couple of months over the course of the relationship. Just screenshots in colour as opposed to actual message/call logs would be better.

Ahaha, don't get me started!! We've gone so overboard with this but we're just doing it so we can leave as little room for error / refusal as possible.

I was thinking of just providing alternate months, that should trim it down by a fair amount. We currently have full logs with dates, times and everything; we'll most likely use these as we're submitting in about 18 hours!! Alternate months it is, as I guess I should write a letter to attach to explain this?

Thanks again!!