FLR(M) submitting tomorrow- final checklist

Hi everyone! I am hoping to submit by post my FLR(M) application tomorrow. I arrived on a marriage visa in December and now live with my husband, his parents, and his grandmother who owns the house. I currently have the documents organised:

General:
Application
2 UK passport photos of me (name on back)
1 UK passport photo of Spouse (name on back)
Current Passport
Previous Passports
IHS receipt
Cover Letter

Sponsor Docs:
Spouse Passport
Letter of Sponsorship
Original Job Contract

Accommodation:
Letter from Spouse’s parents (one each)
Letter from Grandmother
Land Registry

Financial:
Letter from Employer (signed and current)
6 months pay stubs(exactly 6 months)
Bank Statements from August 14th (stamped)

Relationship:
Marriage Certificate
A few photos of us
My Name on:
US Absentee voter registration
Registration Confirmation Letter for my GP (incorrectly titled Miss Full Name)Patient Summary updated with my appropriate title (amended and printed in person at -- Lodge Surgery)
Drivers License Online Application Completion Form

My Husbands name on:
Nationwide Bank Statements for December, January & February (3 statements)
Santander Account Statement for November-February (one statements)
Patient Summary for (Husband) (printed in person at -- Lodge Surgery)

 

Am I missing anything or should anything be rearranged?

Also, what specifically needs to be photocopied and included? The instructions make it seem like its just pay stubs and bank statements, can I just copy those or do I need to copy everything including the incredibly long FLR(M) application?

You don't need the following:
- cover letter (though you can include one if you like)
- sponsor letter (not required for FLR(M))

I'm just going to rearrange the documents slightly, so they are presented in the correct order:

Applicant's Documents
Cover Letter (if including)
Application
IHS receipt
Current Passport
Previous Passports
2 UK passport photos of me (name on back)

Sponsor's Documents
Photocopy of every page of sponsor's passport, including blank pages (I would NOT include the actual passport)
1 UK passport photo of Spouse (name on back)


Financial Documents
6 months pay stubs(exactly 6 months)
Bank Statements from August 14th (stamped)
Letter from Employer (signed and current)
Original Job Contract

Accommodation Documents
Letter from Spouse’s parents (one each)
Letter from Grandmother
Land Registry

Relationship Documents
Marriage Certificate
1 photo of you together

- 6 Documents addressed to both of you at the same address (should be evenly spaced over the time you have lived together, from at least 3 different official sources, and original documents received in the mail):

What dates are on your documents?
Yours and his should be dated around the same time each month if possible, so that you are proving you were both living in the house at the same time.

November:
1. You: ?
1. Him: Santander Bank statement (Source 1)

December:
2. You: ?
2. Him: Nationwide Bank statement

January
3. You: ?
3. Him: Nationwide Bank statement

February
4. You: ?
4. Him: Nationwide Bank statement

Unknown month
5. Him: GP registration...what date? (Source 2)
1. You: US Absentee voter registration... date? (Source 3 - not sure if it will be considered though as it's not on the list of acceptable documents)
2. You: Registration Confirmation Letter for my GP... date?
3. You: Drivers License Online Application Completion Form (I don't think you can use this, as it is not an official document that has been mailed to you by the DVLA)

You will also need to write a letter explaining why you don't have 6 documents in each name.

The whole point of the documents is that you show you live TOGETHER so you can't really have 5 documents in his name and only 2 (or 3) in yours. Because each one of yours has to correspond with one of his to show you were both in the property at at the same time. You may have to only include 2 (or 3) each, rather than 2 (or 3) or yours and 5 of his.

Also, what specifically needs to be photocopied and included? The instructions make it seem like its just pay stubs and bank statements, can I just copy those or do I need to copy everything including the incredibly long FLR(M) application?

You should send copies of any original evidence documents that you want to be returned to you (like bank statements and payslips).

I would make a copy of the application form for your own records (as you'll need to refer to it for the next application in 2.5 years), but you don't need to send one.

I got here in December so we have:
December 14th- My Absentee registration
December 14th- Spouses Nationwide Statement
January 14th- Spouses Nationwide Statement
February 14th- Spouses Nationwide Statement
February 22nd- Spouses Santender Statement
February 26th- My GP registration
February 27th- My Home visit summary
February 21st- My Drivers license form (DVLA mailed me this after applying for a provisional permit online, I am support to send it back with proof of identity to get a provisional license but obviously I cant do that now)
March 8th- Spouses GP summary visit

I was waiting for my BofA statement in January/February so I could open a UK bank account and it never came (they sent several) so I never ended up getting any official mail. In my cover letter I have written about the missing post. My letter says:

Dear Immigration Officer,

Please find enclosed my application and supporting documents for FLR(M). I arrived in the UK and moved into my current residence of [address] on December 11th, 2017.

[spouse] and I got married on February 10th, 2018 at [venue] in [town]. I have included our original marriage certificate and photos of us together as proof of our relationship.

We are currently living with [spouse]’s parents, John and [name], and grandmother, [name], and pay rent directly to [spouse]’s parents. I have therefore included letters of support from [spouses] parents and grandmother as well as the Land Registry document showing [name] ownership of the property.

Since I have been in the UK for 3 months and we live with [spouse]’s parents, we have been limited on items of correspondence we have received for proof of address. [spouse] and I have been added to the council tax and water bills in addition to the primary customer, [spouses dad], but have yet to receive any post with our names on them.  I have not been able to open a UK bank account yet due to insufficient proof of address. I have not been receiving monthly statements from my US bank because of address format issues.

I have included my:
US Absentee voter registration
Registration Confirmation Letter for my GP (incorrectly titled Miss [ktstarrs])
Patient Summary updated with my appropriate title (amended and printed in person at -- Lodge Surgery)
Drivers License Online Application Completion Form

I have included [spouse]’s:
Nationwide Bank Statements for December, January & February
Santander Account Statement for Nov-Jan
Patient Summary for [Spouse] (printed in person at -- Lodge Surgery)

Sincerely,
ktstarrs



What reason is there to not include my spouse's actual passport? He wont be traveling while my application is processing since I cant travel and he doesn't mind it being sent since it will be tracked in the post. We can copy and print every page but we would have to walk a few miles to town and pay to do so.

Okay, so I would send:

December:
1. You: December 14th- My Absentee registration (Source 1)
1. Him:December 14th- Spouses Nationwide Statement (Source 2)

January
Since you don't have any mail in you name for January, I wouldn't include anything at all

February
2. You: February 21st- My Drivers license form (Source 3)
2. Him: February 14th- Spouses Nationwide Statement
3. You: February 26th- My GP registration (Source 4)
3. Him: February 22nd- Spouses Santander Statement

I would probably not bother to include a cover letter at all, and actually just put this letter in with your relationship documents in that section instead.

The cover letter, if you include one, should only be a couple of sentences long and should have no personal information in it - it's just an introduction to the contents of the package and most people don't bother with one.

Whether you go with one or two letters, I would also make them MUCH shorter.

For example:

Cover letter:

To Whom It May Concern,

Please find enclosed my completed application form and supporting documents to switch from a marriage visa to an FLR(M) visa. The documents included in this package are as follows:
(list of documents)

Yours Faithfully,
Your Name

Letter explaining the lack of documents:

To Whom It May Concern,

I moved to the UK on a 6-month marriage visa on X December 2017 and my husband and I have been living with his parents since I arrived. As a result, I have not been able to gather 6 official documents in my name yet.

However, I am able to include 3 documents each, addressed to myself and to my sponsor, from December 2017 and February 2018:
1. December 14th- Applicant's Absentee registration
1. December 14th- Sponsor's Nationwide Statement
2. February 21st- Applicant's Drivers license form
2. February 14th- Sponsor's Nationwide Statement
3. February 26th- Applicant's GP registration
3. February 22nd- Sponsor's Santander Statement

Yours Faithfully,
Your name

What reason is there to not include my spouse's actual passport? He wont be traveling while my application is processing since I cant travel and he doesn't mind it being sent since it will be tracked in the post. We can copy and print every page but we would have to walk a few miles to town and pay to do so.

Usually because it's an important immigration document and it's much safer for him to keep it with him than to send it off in the post, especially if he doesn't have to. I can't remember the last time someone included their sponsor's actual passport, because most people would much rather keep it with them and send a photocopy instead. UKVI now specifically allow the sponsor to submit a full photocopy of their passport, so that they do not have to send the actual passport.

From the FLR(M) guidance notes:

If you are making your application by post you can send a complete and full copy of your sponsor’s valid or most recent passport, national identity card or travel document with your application. Every page of the passport must be copied including any blank pages. The copy does not need to be certified; your sponsor must sign the declaration at section 14 of the application form to confirm it is a complete and true copy of their current passport, national identity card or travel document.

Got everything together and sent off on Tuesday, thanks for the help!

One quick question- will I receive an email that they have received my application as I did with the Marriage visa? The tracking said it arrived yesterday morning and was signed for but no email from UKVI.

Great .

No, all communication for FLR(M) is done by post.

So in the next couple of weeks:
- the visa fee will be taken from your account
- you’ll receive a letter of acknowledgement of your application
- you’ll receive a letter inviting you to give biometrics at the Post Office


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Great .

No, all communication for FLR(M) is done by post.

So in the next couple of weeks:
- the visa fee will be taken from your account
- you’ll receive a letter of acknowledgement of your application
- you’ll receive a letter inviting you to give biometrics at the Post Office


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Great, thank you!

Congrats Ktstarrs for submitting!

We submitted last Thursday (March and have yet to hear anything. We did receive confirmation that it arrived via Royal Mail tracking. Ksand24, when should we expect payment to be taken and letters of acknowledgement/biometrics request?

Thanks!

Congrats Ktstarrs for submitting!

We submitted last Thursday (March and have yet to hear anything. We did receive confirmation that it arrived via Royal Mail tracking. Ksand24, when should we expect payment to be taken and letters of acknowledgement/biometrics request?

Thanks!

About a week.

I know its a little early to be getting nervous, but it's been two weeks as of today and I still have not received anything in the mail about my application. Payment was taken out last week. Don't they need my biometrics done before they can process my application?

I know its a little early to be getting nervous, but it's been two weeks as of today and I still have not received anything in the mail about my application. Payment was taken out last week. Don't they need my biometrics done before they can process my application?

Perhaps they are a little behind because of the recent bad weather? Your letter should arrive any time now. 

They do need you to get biometrics done before they process your application but the money coming out is good news...  don't ask me how many times I've checked my bank account already today!