Moving to UK without Residence

My UK wife and I both live in the US. We are moving to the UK, but don't as yet have a place to live. We are planning on staying with her mother until we find a place of our own. Will this suffice for the application section asking for where we are living?

thanks!

My UK wife and I both live in the US. We are moving to the UK, but don't as yet have a place to live. We are planning on staying with her mother until we find a place of our own. Will this suffice for the application section asking for where we are living?

thanks!

Provided the accommodation won't be overcrowded, this is fine.
You will need to provide the land registry document, a recent mortgage statement and a letter of permission from her mother. If her mother is renting the property, you would need to obtain written permission from the landlord.

Yes, this should be fine.

You do have to meet an accommodation requirement for the visa, showing that you have a suitable place to live in the UK, but you can do this in one of 3 ways:

- by already owning property in the UK that you will live in together
- by already renting property in the UK (a lease must already be in place and permission given by the landlord for the visa holder to live there)
- by staying/living with friends or family.

If you will be living with her mother, you will need to provide:

- a letter signed by her mother giving you both permission to live in the property, and stating that it will not be overcrowded
- Her mother's Land Registry document showing that she owns the property (can be downloaded from the Land Registry website for a small fee)
- Her mother's latest original mortgage statement (if she has a mortgage)

Thanks for the replies! My wife's sister owns the house and is renting it to her mother. I assume then we will need all this from the sister!

Thanks for the replies! My wife's sister owns the house and is renting it to her mother. I assume then we will need all this from the sister!

Yes, the permission comes from the homeowner, and the letter will need to state the number of bedrooms and living rooms in the property, along with the total number of people living in the house... to show it won't be overcrowded.

You can read more about overcrowding and the accommodation requirements here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maintenance-and-accommodation-maa/maintenance-and-accommodation-maa--2#maa6-accommodation-general-requirements

Do you think we will be rejected?  After I went to my biometric appointment, we thought we had two weeks to submit our application. When we found out we only had five calendar days, we scrambled to get our accommodation documents in place.  My UKC husband's cousin in London agreed for my husband and I and our two children to stay with her until we sort out permanent housing. We got a signed letter from her detailing number of rooms to show no overcrowding. However she was not willing to provide sensitive financial information such as mortgage statements.  Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to find other people.  In the end, we provided a snapshot of a mortgage statement with only her name and address plus the bank's name. We also provided a snapshot of one utility bill with only her name and address plus the utility company's name.

Do you think this is sufficient?  Will they contact us to provide additional paperwork or will they just do a denial?  I am so nervous thinking about this. They received our non priority application on 8/17 and we received the email confirmation on 9/20.

You may be okay with the mortgage statement and the utility bill, but really it's the Land Registry document that you need, as it lists the owner of the property, which is available publicly and does not contain sensitive information. It can just be downloaded from the Land Registry website for about £3.

I think you'll just have to wait and see what happens now - if they contact you for more information, you can send the Land Registry document, but they might accept what you have sent.

Just a note here that this is the very reason why we advise not to even submit the online application until you have every single document in your hands and are completely ready to mail everything to Sheffield... as the date you submit the online application is the official application date, and also, it means you won't be scrambling around to get documents sorted out after the biometrics appointment. Even when you did have 2 weeks to submit after biometrics, we still advised not applying online until you had all the documents, as you can't necessarily account for delays in getting them all delivered and ready.

So does one need a copy of the mortgage statement or not? Will the Land Registry and letter from the owner suffice? Why is there a need for the mortgage statement??

So does one need a copy of the mortgage statement or not? Will the Land Registry and letter from the owner suffice? Why is there a need for the mortgage statement??

What you need is:

- evidence of homeownership
- permission from the homeowner to live there.

The Land Registry document shows who owns the house. The mortgage statement can be used as an optional extra on top of the Land Registry, to show that the homeowner is keeping up with their payments on the house.

Utility bills do not show homeownership, as anyone's name can be on them, so they are not needed.

Thank you ksand24 for your quick response. If they decide a mortgage statement is acceptable, do you think it would be problematic that we didn't provide the full statement?  We only provided a snapshot of her name/address and bank name/address.

Thank you ksand24 for your quick response. If they decide a mortgage statement is acceptable, do you think it would be problematic that we didn't provide the full statement?  We only provided a snapshot of her name/address and bank name/address.

I really don't know, to be honest.

The guidance states that every document has to either original or a certified copy and that photocopies are not acceptable, so I don't know what they will do with a snapshot of only half of a bill.

It may be that, since a mortgage statement is not an absolutely required document, they will accept it, but if there's also no Land Registry either, they might decide they don't have enough information/documents to meet the accommodation requirement.

As I said, all you can do is wait and see now. If they contact you for more information, then you can provide it. If not, then you'll just have to see what happens when you get the documents and passport back.

You'll likely be fine but there's never a guarantee.

We just had a member be refused today for not providing divorce decrees.  While a required document, other members have not submitted decrees in the past and been okay.  Unfortunately this member was not contacted for them and simply refused.  UKVI said they are not satisfied that their marriage is legal as they didn't show the prior marriages were dissolved. 

Accommodation is a bit more of a grey area as most of the documents are listed as 'optional'.  UKVI needs to be satisfied that the homeowner has granted permission.  Hopefully what you sent will suffice.  No point in worrying until you have something to worry about.  Worst case scenario, you reapply.

KFdancer and ksand24, thank you both for your quick replies.  I guess we will just have to wait and see.