Thanks for posting about your experience
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Just a few comments on the documents required:
Cover letters: These need to be written individually and independently. It doesn’t matter if they contain almost exactly the same information. That is expected and inevitable because after all you are both telling the same story. DO NOT look up examples online or you will fall into the trap of following its format which will be identified by the immigration officer and will make alarm bells go off. Make sure it is personal, not official/robotic and make sure you are honest with yourself (and talking more to the gentlemen here) make sure you talk about love and what you both hope for the future. Sponsors should also reiterate that they support the application and that they intend to support the applicant financially. A note for sponsors, I signed my letter, scanned it as a PDF and sent it for the applicant to print out and there were no issues with that.
Actually, the applicant writes an OPTIONAL cover letter, simply listing the visa applied for, the documents included and explaining any complicated circumstances surrounding the application (previous overstays or refused visas, criminal convictions etc.). It does not need to include anything about the relationship as this is covered in the sponsor letter.
The sponsor must write a MANDATORY confirmation of support of the application. It should state their employment, accommodation, a bit about the relationship and the documents they are including.
If there is no sponsor letter, the visa will be refused.
If there is no applicant letter, it makes no difference at all to the visa decision.
Copy of sponsors passport: Cover to cover. That means every page, even if they are blank.
No, it doesn't.
You only need to include a copy of the photo page of the passport. Nothing more. I've never heard of anyone including all the pages, and I've seen hundreds of fiance/spousal visa applications be approved.
In fact, pretty much everything can be sent by email apart from the signed sponsors declaration and decree absolute if applicable.
Actually, almost everything should be an original document. If it's not original, it should be notarised/certified. Plus you have to include photocopies of everything.
Decree absolute: This, apart from the applicant passport, is the only original document that we sent. With photocopies of course.
I'm very surprised your visa was granted, because the UKBA website states explicitly that EVERY document must be original and photocopies are not accepted.
Evidence of a lasting relationship: You have to have met and be able to provide evidence of this with photos together, with friends, with family.
Not necessary. Only 1 or 2 photos of just the couple is required. No friends or family should be in the photos.
Think about Facebook because it is open source information that the UKBA can check and nearly everyone uses it, so if you are shown as engaged to each other on there, provide that too.
Facebook evidence should be avoided at all costs. It is not a reliable source of evidence and is risky to send. There have been cases in the past where visas have been refused due to Facebook evidence not being considered substantial enough.
Evidence of wanting to get married: I would like to dispel a myth that I found on a lot of forums… IT IS POSSIBLE TO BOOK A WEDDING LICENCE APPOINTMENT. It can be a real pain to do, but I managed it. You will have to contact a designated registry office for this, and some of them won’t let you. For instance, Leicester won’t, but Dartford will. Some counties require you to have a wedding venue booked already, but some venues won’t let you book a wedding until the wedding licence appointment is booked. The easiest thing to do is find a designated office that will let you make the booking for the licence and get married there too. They will provide you with an email with confirmation which is worth its weight in gold in your application. If you struggle with getting your wedding licence appointment, you can request a letter from the superintendent registrar which will prove that you have enquired but that they aren’t able to provide you with the appointment until the applicant arrives in the UK. Beyond this, include photos or receipts for rings, invoices for wedding receptions, wedding cakes, dresses, tuxedos, etc.
All you need for this evidence is an email from a register office enquiring about possible dates for a ceremony.
You don't need to book anything for definite and so the email confirmation is not 'worth its weight in gold for the application' because you don't even need it to get the visa.
Sponsors financial evidence: 6 months of payslips and 6 months of bank statements. Mine were all available online in PDF format so I just emailed them to the applicant. I also included a P60, but it wasn’t required. Again, nothing was notarised, just printed on an inkjet printer. I was told by the UKBA that if I didn’t have 6 months of payslips that I could include a letter from my employer stating my terms of employment and my salary. I didn’t ask anything about that because it wasn’t applicable to me. Make sure you attach explanatory notes to the front of your bank statement to explain any unusual transactions or movements of large quantities of money. Do not worry if you go into your overdraft each month. I was doing this by up to £400 on some occasions, but as long as it is cleared each month when you get paid I think it will be ok.
Be careful with this because everyone will be qualifying for the visa under different financial categories and so they will be required to send different documents.
What you included may not be suitable for another person to include, due to their personal income and financial situation.
Sounds like you applied under Category A of the financial requirement, but not everyone will be doing this- there are 6 other possible categories to apply under, all requiring different documents, plus certain circumstances where you can be exempt from the financial requirement all together.
Sponsors accommodation: I think this is simple enough. A land registry printout if you own your home, which is available on the land registry website and doesn’t cost much. Other forms of evidence would be a mortgage statement, council tax bill, or tenancy agreement if you are renting. There seems to be some debate over addresses being over crowded or not fit for purpose. If this is the case for you, I would suggest you have other issues and should look at other peoples’ posts about obtaining official reports about your accommodation.
For accommodation the following is required:
If renting:
- original tenancy agreement
- letter from landlord giving applicant permission to live there
If you own:
- land registry document
- mortgage statements
If you are living with family:
- letter from homeowner giving permission to live there and confirming that the home will not be overcrowded
- land registry document
- mortgage statements
Council tax and utility bills can be included, but they are not required and are unlikely to make a difference to the visa decision.
Worldbridge: I used them and it meant the turn around on it was just 20 days. I have no idea if using worldbridge means that the application is put under any less scrutiny and I cannot tell you how long your application will take to process. All I can offer is my experience, what I did and that it led to a successful application.
You don't USE Worldbridge - they don't provide a service, they just let you buy UKBA's service on their website.
So, Worldbridge themselves didn't speed up your application, UKBA were the ones who sped it up.... because you paid them $300 to do so.
All that your Worldbridge purchase of priority service did was get your application put to the front of the processing line to be opened first. That's it.
