Granted ILR SETM Spouse of British Citizen Experience

[Chiligee]

Hello,
The process can be daunting but I wanted to share my experience to help others who are uncertain or may learn from my experience. ILR was granted on 18.02.2019 after an 11 week period. Documents were submitted at Sopra steira Croydon on 05.12.2018.

I've posted my timeline under ILR timelines.

Preparation.
Prepared all documents and filled the online application.

Key Area - Financial requirement
Finance was via savings only. I had savings from my previous employment and now my partner is self employed + I derive salary from the same company. I provided husband's bank statement for last 6 months and mine as well. Took print outs to Natwest who then stamped every page plus wrote a covering letter stating such and such account number has been verified as a genuine account - simple letter.

Declaration of Savings
There was a question to write a letter of how the savings were derived and I wrote this letter as below :

UK Visas and Immigration

Dear sir or madam,

Re: Declaration by Mr xxxxxxxxxx & Mrs xxxxxxxxxxx of the source(s) of the cash savings, Acct: xxxxxxxxxx

The source of cash savings in the joint select account number xxxxxxxx is primarily from (Name of account holder) salary earnings from employment over time.

===
I kept the letter very simple and if UKVI needed more information, they would write to us. I wrote the same letter for every account we had - some in Husbands name, some in joint names.

English Language Requirement
There was the uncertainty of English Language requirement. I had initially done an IELTS exam in 2013 which is when I had originally applied to enter to the UK as a spouse of a settled person. I then used the same test certificate in subsequent further leave to remain after the initial 30 months. I had a lot of queries in my further leave to remain application with several letters from Home office requesting for further information on finances etc

All the advise I got was to resit for an English test but the moderator here clarified that it is not necessary and the HO website clearly stated this. However some consultants kept stating that its always better to do another test which I found unnecessary.

Accommodation
I live in an extended family so I had a no objections letter from both my parents in law.

Checklist
I followed the checklist as issued post application at Sopra website.

I hope the above helps those applying for visas to get an indication of what we submitted and help you in getting a complete application first time. We did not get a letter asking for further information.

Best wishes to all.

Drop me a line if you need any clarification.

[nootnoot]

Hello,
The process can be daunting but I wanted to share my experience to help others who are uncertain or may learn from my experience. ILR was granted on 18.02.2019 after an 11 week period. Documents were submitted at Sopra steira Croydon on 05.12.2018.

I've posted my timeline under ILR timelines.

Preparation.
Prepared all documents and filled the online application.

Key Area - Financial requirement
Finance was via savings only. I had savings from my previous employment and now my partner is self employed + I derive salary from the same company. I provided husband's bank statement for last 6 months and mine as well. Took print outs to Natwest who then stamped every page plus wrote a covering letter stating such and such account number has been verified as a genuine account - simple letter.

Declaration of Savings
There was a question to write a letter of how the savings were derived and I wrote this letter as below :

UK Visas and Immigration

Dear sir or madam,

Re: Declaration by Mr xxxxxxxxxx & Mrs xxxxxxxxxxx of the source(s) of the cash savings, Acct: xxxxxxxxxx

The source of cash savings in the joint select account number xxxxxxxx is primarily from (Name of account holder) salary earnings from employment over time.

===
I kept the letter very simple and if UKVI needed more information, they would write to us. I wrote the same letter for every account we had - some in Husbands name, some in joint names.

English Language Requirement
There was the uncertainty of English Language requirement. I had initially done an IELTS exam in 2013 which is when I had originally applied to enter to the UK as a spouse of a settled person. I then used the same test certificate in subsequent further leave to remain after the initial 30 months. I had a lot of queries in my further leave to remain application with several letters from Home office requesting for further information on finances etc

All the advise I got was to resit for an English test but the moderator here clarified that it is not necessary and the HO website clearly stated this. However some consultants kept stating that its always better to do another test which I found unnecessary.

Accommodation
I live in an extended family so I had a no objections letter from both my parents in law.

Checklist
I followed the checklist as issued post application at Sopra website.

I hope the above helps those applying for visas to get an indication of what we submitted and help you in getting a complete application first time. We did not get a letter asking for further information.

Best wishes to all.

Drop me a line if you need any clarification.

did you choose super premium service?

[Chiligee]

I used Standard Service.