potential issue for first FLR(M) - mail

Hi All!
We are gathering and organising things and we have hit a couple of snags I was hoping to get advice on. On this post, I am asking solely about mail. So our timeline right now is: current visa expires September 10th 2017 - want to apply no later than July 10th 2017. (I arrived Jan 30th, 2015)

My husband added my name to the utility bills and requested paper bills addressed to both of us, but our provider just wasn't doing it for a long time. We finally started hounding them about it, but we don't have any from my first year here. Thankfully, I am on all three of the last council tax bills, the first of which is only a month after I got here. I also have mail in my name and mail in his name right off. We currently have addressed to both of our names:
March 2015 - Council tax bill
September 2015 - English Heritage letter confirming direct debit for our join membership (don't know if this counts)
March 2016 - council tax bill + utility bill
Sept 2016 - utility bill
Feb 2017 - utility bill
March 2017 - council tax bill

With my name only, I have
Feb 2015 - letter that came with National Insurance application
April 2015 - employment contract
July 2016 - employment contract (i work casual jobs that get renewed)
Aug 2016 - employment contract
Sept 2016 - employer pension letter
Oct 2016 - bank letter for opening second saving account
Nov 2016 - bank statement via mail
Jan 2017 - student loan tax form from my American loan provider
Feb 2017 - pension letter
March 2017 - letter that came with my CSCS card (construction related skills)
April 2017 - letter from American loan provider
I think I have a few NHS letters somewhere - just haven't found them yet.

In husband's name only:
Feb 2015 - NHS letter
April 2015 - HMRC self-assessment check
May 2015 - NHS letter
June 2015 - letter from AA (would this count?)
Sept 2015 - bank credit card statement
Sept 2016 - pension letter
Oct 2016 - letter from AA
December 2016 - letter from AA

There are plenty of other things addressed to my husband at our house, plus all of his pay slips are addressed here. And there is plenty of mail from March 2017 onward as we are trying to buy a house.

Like I said about the utility bills - we tried, but they would not send them to us unless we harassed them and its been a very difficult two years for us. We can get all of the statements off our account online that has our names on them - but I don't know if they will be acceptable? Would it be acceptable if we harassed the utility company into sending us official copies of old statements? Same with bank statements - I can get those sent to us from my account which was opened in April 2015 I think.
If anyone has any advice about this, I'd greatly appreciate it. I spent most of my first year here in a very deep depression, so I didn't really keep up on making sure to get this stuff mailed to us. Thank you all so much for your help!

Okay, so you only need to cover the 2 years from July 2015 to July 2017.

From what you've listed, it looks like you have tons of stuff from before July 2015 (which doesn't count) and loads of stuff from July 2016 onwards, but not much at all from July 2015 to March 2016

It looks like you are missing official mail from July 2015 to March 2016. When are your NHS letters dated for? Could you use bank statements for these periods? What about phone bills, HMRC or DVLA letters? How about phone bills, TV licence or TV package/internet bills?

Also, you will need to include something from the next couple of months as well, when you get it (April-June 2017).

My suggestions from what you have listed:

1. July-Oct 2015 =  ? (bank statement from each of you?)
2. Nov 2015-Feb 2016 = ? (bank statement from each of you?)
3. Mar-June 2016 = March 2016 - joint council tax bill
4. July-Oct 2016 = Sept 2016 - joint utility bill
5. Nov 2016-Feb 2017 = Feb 2017 - joint utility bill
6. Mar-June 2017 = ?

As always, ksand24, you are amazing. Thank you for your help. Would you mind a few follow-up questions?

- I thought I had to have evidence for residing with my husband since I arrived in the UK, not just the last two years?

- Are bank statements acceptable then? I am assuming they would want official statements from the bank themselves? The thing is, we don't currently have official statements as we weren't thinking and didn't opt out for online only statements. So we could get them, but they would not be from the time of the statement. :-(

- We are going to call the utility company to see if they can send us copies of old statements. Would this count?

I'm sure my husband has mail from that time period. Like I said, all his payslips are addressed to him here. But for me - all my payslips were online and didn't say my full address and I just did not receive any mail during that time. Neither of us have phone bills as we both use giffgaff. The internet bill is in my husband's name and its online as well. :-(

As always, ksand24, you are amazing. Thank you for your help. Would you mind a few follow-up questions?

Not at all .

- I thought I had to have evidence for residing with my husband since I arrived in the UK, not just the last two years?

At the moment, we're not sure how much you will need for ILR (which is why we recommend saving everything), but for FLR(M), it should be up to a maximum of 2 years.

From the FLR(M) application form:

Six items of correspondence addressed to you and your partner at the same address as evidence that you have been living together since your last grant of leave in this category, or from the date you first started living together up to a maximum of two years. See Note 11.

- Are bank statements acceptable then?

Of course they are acceptable . You need at least 3 different sources of documents - so if you already have joint council tax bills and utility bills, you can use bank statements as the third source.

The list of acceptable documents states:

Examples of acceptable items of correspondence
• Letters or other documents from government departments or agencies, for example HM
Revenue and Customs, Department for Work and Pensions, DVLA, TV Licensing.
• Letters or other documents from your GP, a hospital or other local health service about
medical treatments, appointments, home visits or other medical matters
• Bank statements/letters
• Building society savings books/letters
• Council tax bills or statements
• Electricity and/or gas bills or statements
• Water rates bills or statements
• Mortgage statements/agreement
• Tenancy agreement(s)
• Telephone bills or statements

I am assuming they would want official statements from the bank themselves? The thing is, we don't currently have official statements as we weren't thinking and didn't opt out for online only statements. So we could get them, but they would not be from the time of the statement. :-(

How are you meeting the financial requirement? You MUST have official bank statements for the financial requirement anyway. Online statements are not accepted.

From the application form:

Your Finances
Specified evidence of meeting the financial requirement, or if not required to meet the income threshold element, evidence of your finances including; Bank statements, building society savings books, pay slips or other formal documents as evidence of you and your sponsor’s ability to maintain and accommodate yourselves and any dependants without recourse to public funds. See Note 8.

Note 8 We do not accept internet or cashpoint statements as evidence of finances. Specified documents that you need to submit are listed in Appendix FM-SE of the Immigration Rules.

- We are going to call the utility company to see if they can send us copies of old statements. Would this count?

Yes, they should do, as long as they have the original issue dates on them. Remember you need 3 different sources of documents though.

I'm sure my husband has mail from that time period. Like I said, all his payslips are addressed to him here. But for me - all my payslips were online and didn't say my full address and I just did not receive any mail during that time. Neither of us have phone bills as we both use giffgaff. The internet bill is in my husband's name and its online as well. :-(

You really should be receiving EVERYTHING as paper statements and not online, because you will need them for all your visas (one of the main things we advise after arriving in the UK is to turn on paper statements for everything as soon as possible).

So, anything that you still have as online only at the moment, I would change to paper billing ASAP... it will make your life much easier, as you will need the same evidence for ILR in 2.5 years as well.

Thanks about the bank statements! As long as they don't mind me going to the bank now to print out statements from 2015-2016, we should be fine. My husband was also just able to find another utility bill from August 2015, as well as a bunch of other other things from the first 4 months I was here....which sadly don't count. Seems we were really good with this when I got here and then we went through that really bad patch with my depression.
Thank you for letting me know about needing evidence from three different sources. We have been so wrapped up with house buying issues that I haven't gone that far in reading through the instructions yet. I've just been filling in the easy bits first.
I do have a second bank account for savings that I made sure to get paper statements for. Thank you so much for your help!


Quick side question - my husband decided to opt out for a TV license this past year because we got rid of active TV. We also got rid of BBC IPlayer and such. We've just used netflix, amazon prime, and our own movies and such. We were planning to go without one until our current tv dies (8 years old so no built-in Free View) and we get a new one. I know its getting more and more complicated, so I'm not sure if we should just go ahead and get a tv license now to cover ourselves so that we don't risk it being brought up with the visa.  Thoughts?

Quick side question - my husband decided to opt out for a TV license this past year because we got rid of active TV. We also got rid of BBC IPlayer and such. We've just used netflix, amazon prime, and our own movies and such. We were planning to go without one until our current tv dies (8 years old so no built-in Free View) and we get a new one. I know its getting more and more complicated, so I'm not sure if we should just go ahead and get a tv license now to cover ourselves so that we don't risk it being brought up with the visa.  Thoughts?

I've never heard of a TV licence, or lack of one, being brought up in relation to a visa application.

As long as you are not actively watching 'live' TV broadcasts on any TV channel or online TV service, or BBC iPlayer, you don't need a TV licence.

This is what the TV licence website says about online services like Amazon and Netflix:

Do I need a TV Licence to watch paid-for subscription channels?
Subscription channels like Netflix, Amazon Prime/Instant Video and Now TV are television services that are normally paid for on a monthly basis via cable, satellite or the internet.
You will need a TV Licence if you watch live TV on a subscription channel. But you don’t need a TV Licence to watch on demand programmes (other than those on BBC iPlayer) on paid-for subscription channels.

(http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/watching-online-and-on-mobile-devices-TOP14)

Thanks so much, Ksand24!

Just looking ahead for ILR - (as of now) is it still 1 piece of mail over every 3 months or so? I ask because we will be calling to get utility bills and/or bank statements for those gap periods and I'm just wondering if we should just get as many months as possible or if 1 per 3ish  month period will be fine. Oh, and sadly my husband explained that we can't get electricity paper bills because we have OVO and they strictly don't do it (its apparently how they keep prices low?).

I am definitely taking better control of this again though. Everything we have that we can't use for FLR(M) is going into a special folder for the next saga. :-)

Thanks so much, Ksand24!

Just looking ahead for ILR - (as of now) is it still 1 piece of mail over every 3 months or so?

We really don't know yet. No one will qualify to apply for ILR under the 5-year rules until July 2017, and they haven't updated the requirements yet.

The current SET(M) form is still for the 2-year path from before July 2012, for which 2 years of mail are required.

We don't know yet if ILR under the 5-year path will only require 2 years of mail, or 2.5 years, or if they will want the full 5 years of mail.

I ask because we will be calling to get utility bills and/or bank statements for those gap periods and I'm just wondering if we should just get as many months as possible or if 1 per 3ish  month period will be fine. Oh, and sadly my husband explained that we can't get electricity paper bills because we have OVO and they strictly don't do it (its apparently how they keep prices low?).

Basically, you should be saving every single piece of mail you get for the entire 5 years you spend on your spousal visa and FLR(M)... that way you will have all of it to choose from when it comes to each visa application.

So, personally, I would get every month you can, just to be on the safe side. It's better to have more than you need and to only include some of it than to not have enough to meet the requirement.

Thanks about the bank statements! As long as they don't mind me going to the bank now to print out statements from 2015-2016, we should be fine. My husband was also just able to find another utility bill from August 2015, as well as a bunch of other other things from the first 4 months I was here....which sadly don't count. Seems we were really good with this when I got here and then we went through that really bad patch with my depression.
Thank you for letting me know about needing evidence from three different sources. We have been so wrapped up with house buying issues that I haven't gone that far in reading through the instructions yet. I've just been filling in the easy bits first.
I do have a second bank account for savings that I made sure to get paper statements for. Thank you so much for your help!


Quick side question - my husband decided to opt out for a TV license this past year because we got rid of active TV. We also got rid of BBC IPlayer and such. We've just used netflix, amazon prime, and our own movies and such. We were planning to go without one until our current tv dies (8 years old so no built-in Free View) and we get a new one. I know its getting more and more complicated, so I'm not sure if we should just go ahead and get a tv license now to cover ourselves so that we don't risk it being brought up with the visa.  Thoughts?

I'm surprised! My wife has moaned at how difficult it is NOT to get a TV license, even when there's no TV in the house. How did you manage it?

I'm surprised! My wife has moaned at how difficult it is NOT to get a TV license, even when there's no TV in the house. How did you manage it?

We canceled it over a year ago, before they expanded what it covers. We had to tangle with them over the phone for awhile, but they eventually let us go because we told them we were canceling our cable via Sky to save money, and our television was 8 years old (meaning it didn't have an interior antenna w/automatic free view) and that we were intending on getting the license again when ours died and we had to get a new one. If you've bought a television within the last 3 or so years, you can't get away with it :-(

So I called to order bank statements from those time frames and they came in the mail. This should be ok, right? Or should I go to the bank to get them stamped or something?

So I called to order bank statements from those time frames and they came in the mail. This should be ok, right? Or should I go to the bank to get them stamped or something?

No, those are official, original documents. You're fine! Just check the dates to make sure they match up.

No, those are official, original documents. You're fine! Just check the dates to make sure they match up.

They are real and original when it comes to being used as evidence for the financial requirement, but if they list a date of when they were printed (which is recent), they wouldn't be evidence of living at your residence in the past because of the recent date on them.

I had to request a resend from my utility company, as we I had switched to paper statements and it had never actually happened. They sent me a new copy of the statement that showed the original printing date on it, which was the month I needed. I don't know if that's possible with bank statements. The statements we printed at home list the date they were downloaded from the website and I'm pretty sure my requested bank statement from the bank for the 6 months I needed had a printing or requested date on them and they looked NOTHING like the original bank statement I have since we switched to paper.

Thanks so much, Ksand24!

Just looking ahead for ILR - (as of now) is it still 1 piece of mail over every 3 months or so? I ask because we will be calling to get utility bills and/or bank statements for those gap periods and I'm just wondering if we should just get as many months as possible or if 1 per 3ish  month period will be fine. Oh, and sadly my husband explained that we can't get electricity paper bills because we have OVO and they strictly don't do it (its apparently how they keep prices low?).

I am definitely taking better control of this again though. Everything we have that we can't use for FLR(M) is going into a special folder for the next saga. :-)

Ovo does paper bills, they're our gas and electric company and I have a stupid number of bills. You lose out on 90GBP over the year by getting them as paper, but you get a bill EVERY month.

They're the ones I requested they resend the missing bill after I switched to paper statements. I thought I had set it up with paper statements when we signed up, but it hadn't.

They are real and original when it comes to being used as evidence for the financial requirement, but if they list a date of when they were printed (which is recent), they wouldn't be evidence of living at your residence in the past because of the recent date on them.

Ah, good catch! I was only thinking of financial documentation.