Wow... Larrabee and KSand24, thanks for your replies! I figured the online application process was somewhat new but didn't realize the gold priority service had only just started. I will definitely keep everyone posted as our application makes its way through the system.
Good luck with your application
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The online application process is not new though - it was already in place when I joined the forum 11 years ago. The regular settlement priority service was introduced about 7 years ago, but the Gold one for settlement visas is brand new, introduced on 15th November 2017. The other premium services have been around for a few months or so, but this one is new.
We too felt it was a truly excessive amount of documentation but trusted our solicitor, as they came recommended from the University of Leeds, where my partner starts as faculty in January. We've been in a relationship for four years and living together for over three.
Honestly, we're a little wary of lawyers here on the forum because many people have been given extremely bad advice by them because they didn't know what they were talking about. While a lawyer recommended by Leeds University is likely to know a fair amount about work visas and student visas, they may not be as knowledgeable about an unmarried partner visa.
We included letters of support from our families, our Facebook.com/US feed, hundreds of photos captioned and dated, proof of joint travel to a dozen countries plus domestic airline tickets
Sadly, none of the above was necessary and it will only serve to clutter your application.
- They cannot consider letters of support from anyone but the UK partner, so none of those will be looked at.
- Only 1, maybe 2 photos are needed, just to prove you have met in person... any more than that is unnecessary.
- None of the travel proof is needed because all you need to show is that you have been living together at the same address for at least 24 consecutive months.
as well as bank statements, joint credit card bills, car insurance, W2s, paystubs, and other random official correspondence plus some online insurance printouts which they may just ignore.
Those are okay, but you only need maybe 3 or 4 documents each per year, approximately evenly-spaced, to show you were continuously living together for all 24 months.
I suppose this strategy could backfire since it'll take a while to go through but we figured it'd be better to go overboard. It might've been easier just to get married, but we want to do it properly and didn't want to be pushed into it for immigration purposes; moreover we thought it'd be suspicious if we did it right before applying for a visa.
While it won't affect the visa outcome, the problem with going overboard is that your important documents may get lost or overlooked amongst all the hundreds of unneccessary bits, and could potentially cause an incorrect refusal. Plus, it can take longer for your application to be processed because of all the documents they have to go through.
It's just a tick box visa... you don't get a bigger tick for sending more than you needed to. For example, they just need to tick that you sent at least one photo of you together. So, if you sent 1 photo or 500 photos, you still get just that one tick. Same for letters... they need to tick that the UK sponsor included a letter of support. You get the required tick for that letter, but you don't get a tick for any other letters.
Oh, also, I just thought of those poor people in DC who would have had to scan every one of your 800 pages to send to Sheffield!
We did get an email from Sheffield in less than 24 hours after the appointment in DC, saying:
"Your online application has been received at the UK Decision Making Centre. Your application is currently being prepared for consideration by an Entry Clearance Officer."
That's good - I guess if they scanned everything, it would have been received right away rather than having to wait for everything to be mailed to Sheffield
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Fingers crossed for a quick decision.