More questions

So!

Some of you may have seen, I'm gearing up slowly to do our visa applications for after we marry in November (Fiance in UK, my daughter and I are US citizens).

Anyhow, I've come to realize, I'm a bit nervous on regards of the validity of our relationship. For only one reason...

I had been separated from my husband for three years when I met my fiance, and the divorce only finally processed in August (it was delayed for nearly eight months due to lost paperwork).

I have the official divorce decree, certified and all, to send to them, but I'm not sure what else I should send with that.

Obviously all other types of evidence, our chats and their logs, photos, ticket stubs from the visits. But, I don't want them to think we're hoodwinking them, my ex and I were just barely in contact and he didn't want to pay for the divorce.

I do still have most of the papers from the original child support order and that was done in 2013, three years before I met my fiance, would that be a good idea to show that I was truly separated from my husband?

In regards to your previous relationship, you just need the official divorce decree to show you are legally free to marry again. That's it.

You will also need to provide evidence of sole responsibility for your daughter... for her visa application. This is usually shown either by a sole custody agreement or a signed letter from her father giving you permission to take her to the UK.

Then for the relationship requirement, you need to show evidence of your current relationship by way of a photo of you together, boarding passes from trips to see each other, letters/cards sent to each other, email inbox screenshots/phone logs etc.


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In regards to your previous relationship, you just need the official divorce decree to show you are legally free to marry again. That's it.

You will also need to provide evidence of sole responsibility for your daughter... for her visa application. This is usually shown either by a sole custody agreement or a signed letter from her father giving you permission to take her to the UK.


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Thank you! I do indeed have his permission and in our decree it states I have the sole legal right to designate her residency, with no geographic restrictions

I was just worried how it would look to them that we were dating and engaged while I was still legally married lolol

It won't look like anything . There are some people who apply for fiancé  visas as soon as their divorce is finalised and the papers come through.

All that matters is:
- the previous marriage has been legally dissolved
- your new marriage is legal (assuming you are marrying first and then applying for a spousal visa)
- your current relationship is genuine


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It won't look like anything . There are some people who apply for fiancé  visas as soon as their divorce is finalised and the papers come through.

All that matters is:
- the previous marriage has been legally dissolved
- your new marriage is legal (assuming you are marrying first and then applying for a spousal visa)
- your current relationship is genuine


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Thank you so much for putting me at ease, I'm so easily pushed into the abyss of my anxiety lol

My ex husband and I are still great friends. We were separated but in no hurry to get divorced. Then I met my now husband.  Ex and I were separated for 3 years before we filed for divorce. It was totally not an issue.

Once I realized I was going to be moving to Scotland, I gave up the lease on my apartment and I moved back in with my ex husband and kids. I lived upstairs with my daughters and my ex stayed down the stairs. (Plus he deploys as a civilian ship rider so he was gone most of the time anyway.) I was able to live there for a year rent free to save my money for visas and moving.

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It is one of those cases where we just didn't get around to it, he didn't want to pay, and I was fine with us just being apart lol.

I'm just relieved that others have some similar situations.

It is one of those cases where we just didn't get around to it, he didn't want to pay, and I was fine with us just being apart lol.

I'm just relieved that others have some similar situations.

I doubt there is a situation that exists that UKVI has not seen! This won't be anything new for them. 

I just realized they never closed my student account with Santander 

I should probably pay that off and close it before applying for visas lol.

Which reminds me, what information would I need to know about past Visas for the spousal visa?

I do believe I've kept everything in my filing folder.
...I've remembered something else.

When I divorced I changed my name, I was going to change my name on passport (when I marry I'm keeping my maiden name).

Do they give back an old passport after a name change? Because that passport will have my tier 4 visa in it from the UK.

Should I photocopy my soon to be old passport, including the visa pages?

I just realized they never closed my student account with Santander 

I should probably pay that off and close it before applying for visas lol.

Which reminds me, what information would I need to know about past Visas for the spousal visa?

I do believe I've kept everything in my filing folder.
...I've remembered something else.

When I divorced I changed my name, I was going to change my name on passport (when I marry I'm keeping my maiden name).

Do they give back an old passport after a name change? Because that passport will have my tier 4 visa in it from the UK.

Should I photocopy my soon to be old passport, including the visa pages?

You need to send your original current and previous passports, not a copy. When you apply for a new one, the canceled one is returned to you so if you change it before you apply (which is a good time to do it) you will have both to send with your application.

You need to send your original current and previous passports, not a copy. When you apply for a new one, the canceled one is returned to you so if you change it before you apply (which is a good time to do it) you will have both to send with your application.

Thank you! I wasn't sure if they sent the old one back, but I will certainly go ahead and do it ASAP since I'm keeping my maiden name

So, for evidence of our relationship...

How much should we send? I don't want to send them something that's like a year's worth of everyday texts, I'm sure they would not want to read through all that.

We have our boarding passes from visits and pics of us of course. Would they want to see like perhaps ticket stubs from dates or anything of the sort?

I'm sorry, I know I ask so many questions lol

So, for evidence of our relationship...

How much should we send? I don't want to send them something that's like a year's worth of everyday texts, I'm sure they would not want to read through all that.

We have our boarding passes from visits and pics of us of course. Would they want to see like perhaps ticket stubs from dates or anything of the sort?

I'm sorry, I know I ask so many questions lol

They do want to see evidence of how you keep in touch while you're apart but don't send pages and pages. Try to condense your texts into a couple of pages by selecting some to represent every month or so over the length of the relationship.
Boarding passes are great and send a few photos but not too many. Also physical cards are good too.
The ticket stubs won't prove anything so I wouldn't bother with those.

Thank you all again! So much!

Okay...I'm going to be making some serious gift baskets for you all...

But! I still have a question. My fiance and I lived near each other for the first six months of our relationship with my visa, is there anything extra I need to provide for that in terms of evidence?

My other half is the only one with access to our whatsapp logs, I didn't back up and have switched phones twice in the past year (though one of the phones still works, it doesn't have whatsapp on it anymore). Neither of us is clear on how you snapshot a whatsapp chat to show dates and times without showing message content.

Could someone just maybe send an example of what they sent?

So far we've been able to export it as a sort of excel/photo, and as the .txt and we're sure the .txt is probably unacceptable.

This is what the excel one looks like :
https://imgur.com/a/kdWtd

This is what the .txt looks like
https://imgur.com/a/41VKa

(These are on private on Imgur and will be coming down after this so I don't accidentally leave them floating about the internet for too long)

PAST VISA Questions:

What information will I need to provide about my tier 4 UK Visa?

Travel Questions:

So, how do we go about giving a proposed date of travel, do we just give a date, do we need one of those proposed itineraries (if so I know I was reading some very useful info on those on this forum )

I'm a bit worried about putting a date and I can only put it for up to three months in advance, or that's how I read it, and I'm frightened that the application will take longer than three months and they give me a date that's already past for my date to travel.

I figure...just let me ask the other questions I still have now and stop bothering you all with one question at a time lol.