Document problem for FLR(M) application

[GrahamD85]

Hi all,

Less than 3 weeks to go until my girlfriend (US citizen) and I (British citizen) go to our in-person appointment for the Unmarried Partner visa! Everyone on this board has been so helpful and I'm hoping I can get some opinions on an issue I'm having on the document side of things at the moment.

We have lots of individual and joint documents spread over the 2 year period (around 60+ documents from 8 sources) but there is a gap between May 09 and Sep 09 where there is nothing addressed to me (something addressed to my girlfriend for each month and one joint bill but it's from a source we have a lot of). I called 3, the mobile phone company, I asked if they could send me paper versions of my eBills from that period and they said they could for a charge. Two weeks later and there are no sign of these bills so they are now saying they will email me the bills instead. They've sent one of them and they look exactly the same as the paper bill would be - correct address, date, name etc for that time period. There is no difference between the bill they've emailed me and the one I would be sent in the post back then if I'd had paper bills.

I want to do things the official way and the right way and this is why I need some opinions on this.

Do I:

A) Print the bills out and take them with me as originals because the only thing different from the ones that would have been sent back in that period is the type of paper they were printed on? Do the officers look out for things that aren't printed on a certain kind of paper and would they know if something wasn't?

B) Print the bills and take them with me and include a note from 3
about them? When I spoke to 3 they said they couldn't do this but someone in one of their stores could. I did pop in a local branch and a member of staff there looked over the bills, printed a branded receipt and wrote on it "Bills authorised + checked by ---- ------ @ 3Store Altrincham, 31/08/10" and signed it. Is this official enough?

The only thing I'm worried about with option B is that the officer will be wondering why I don't have any bills from that 4 month period when there are things addressed to my girlfriend and why I've had to get these eBills re-printed - it almost looks like I wasn't living there. At the same time I certainly don't want to mislead the officer and cut corners in any part of the process.

Any and all opinions welcome!

[GrahamD85]

If someone could please offer an opinion on this I would be very grateful as I've just called UKBA and had two different answers from them.

The first guy I spoke to said print the bills, take them to a 3 store and have them sign each one with their name, location of the store, date etc and sign a receipt too and that would be fine. I called back just to make sure the advice I was getting was correct, and the second guy told me this can be done but as the application is in person it meant it was very likely there would be no decision on the day as they would need to do further checks.

I have no idea what to do now as we can't risk not getting it approved on the day as my girlfriends job requires she travels a lot and needs her passport. It's so frustrating as the bills they've emailed me to print out are exactly the same as the ones they send in the post, but if I print them myself and take them isn't that seen as false representation even though they're the same except for the type of paper?

[ElenaW]

The first guy I spoke to said print the bills, take them to a 3 store and have them sign each one with their name, location of the store, date etc and sign a receipt too and that would be fine. I called back just to make sure the advice I was getting was correct, and the second guy told me this can be done but as the application is in person it meant it was very likely there would be no decision on the day as they would need to do further checks.

Hey Graham,

I agree with the first guy. Get signatures and dates from people in the store to verify that they're not of your own creation

[Kitty]

I don't think you need to worry: it doesn't matter that the only document you have for the May - September 2009 "gap" is one from a source you have a lot of already. It still counts.

I would suggest using the "3" you have bills with the signed confirmation you got in-store.

[GrahamD85]

Thanks guys. I just don't want my girlfriend to get in trouble with her new job because she can't organise and attend the events she travels to out of the country. From the way the second guy was talking he was pretty much saying if you submit anything of that sort that has been signed by a company to prove its legitimacy,they will have to verify those documents and won't make a decision on the day.

It almost makes me wonder if it's worth leaving the eBills from 3 entirely. It makes the months of April 09 - Sep 09 a little sparse but I suppose then our documents will all be ones we've received in the post by the companies...

It's insane to think our future together might depend on a mobile phone bill.

[tahnyuh]

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