Final few checks before FLR M appointment this week

Hi all

After 2.5 years my wife is applying for her FLR M visa extension, and we’re just trying to ensure there are no hiccups!

Having followed the checklist on the UKVI portal, here is everything we're handing over to get scanned at our appointment next week (for the record, she is supporting herself financially, and we have no kids):

Mandatory documents
my wife's current US passport
my wife's previous US passport (expired Aug 2020)
my wife's BRP
appointment letter/barcode

Other documents
wife's signed contract of employment
7 months of bank statements (last one was dated 18 February 2022)
Third party declarations (Part 1 & 2 consent forms and declaration for spouses)
My UK passport
Latest council tax statement (March 2021)
Letter from employer confirming employment details
Marriage certificate
7 months worth of payslips
Proof of cohabitation, encompassing:

Feb 2020: Barclaycard letter (me)
Mar 2020: Council tax letter (joint)
June 2020: HSBC statement (joint)
Oct 2020: HSBC statement (joint)
Feb 2021: letter from doctor (wife)
Jun 2021: HSBC statement (joint) & pension letter (me)
Nov 2021: letter from home insurer (joint)
Feb 2022: HSBC statement (joint) & HMRC letter (wife)

Tenancy agreement
wife's P60

A few additional questions:
We couldn't find something in both our names spread every four months across the two years, so have added in a couple of extra pieces of correspondence each across the two year period in case they don't like one of the joint sources. Does this sounds reasonable?

Some checklists I've seen on here have been structured differently, but we haven't seen anything with those categories on. What would you suggest is the best way to structure these as we're getting them scanned at the appointment?

Also, some of our cohabitation documents need to be scanned twice as they're used elsewhere, could that cause a problem for whoever is scanning them?

We wrote letters summing up our applications - are these necessary this time around?

Thanks in advance!

Just going to rearrange your documents into the correct upload sections for the application:

Application Documents
- my wife's current US passport
- my wife's previous US passport (expired Aug 2020)
- signed sponsor's declaration
- Part 1 consent to checks form signed by applicant
- Part 2 consent to checks form signed by sponsor

Proof of Identity/Travel History
- your UK passport
- my wife's BRP

Finances
- 7 months worth of payslips
- 7 months of bank statements (last one was dated 18 February 2022)
- Letter from employer confirming employment details
- wife's signed contract of employment
- latest P60

Residence in the UK
Accommodation Documents
- Tenancy agreement
- Latest council tax statement (March 2021)
Cohabitation Documents
Mar 2020: Council tax letter (joint)
June 2020: HSBC statement (joint)
Oct 2020: HSBC statement (joint)
Feb 2021: letter from doctor (wife)
Jun 2021: HSBC statement (joint) & pension letter (me)
Nov 2021: letter from home insurer (joint)
Feb 2022: HSBC statement (joint) & HMRC letter (wife)

Other
Marriage certificate

A few additional questions:
We couldn't find something in both our names spread every four months across the two years, so have added in a couple of extra pieces of correspondence each across the two year period in case they don't like one of the joint sources. Does this sounds reasonable?

Don't add extra as they won't be looked at - you should not send more than 7 documents in each name. You will however need to include a letter of explanation for why they are not evenly spaced every 4 months.

Remember, none of the documents NEED to be joint...they can all be in separate names if you don't have anything joint... in that case, you just need 2 documents for each period, one in each name (so you would have 14 documents (7 each) instead of 7 joint)

So, I would take out the following, as you already have a document in your name for March 2020 and you don't need both:
Feb 2020: Barclaycard letter (me)

Some checklists I've seen on here have been structured differently, but we haven't seen anything with those categories on. What would you suggest is the best way to structure these as we're getting them scanned at the appointment?

Organise them into the order I have listed above. If you like, you can put post-it notes on the front of each so they know which sections they are for.

Also, some of our cohabitation documents need to be scanned twice as they're used elsewhere, could that cause a problem for whoever is scanning them?

You could maybe put a post-it on those documents saying that they need to go in another section as well.

We wrote letters summing up our applications - are these necessary this time around?

No, the only letter you need to include is the one explaining why your cohabitation documents are not evenly-spaced.

There is no requirement for a letter from the applicant, and the signed sponsor's declaration replaces the need for a sponsor letter of support.

Hi ksand24

Thanks for much once again for your expertise!

I have re-arranged everything and added in some post-it notes highlighting things will be added again.

I have also taken out the Barclaycard statement as suggested, but when you say I don't need more than one document per month, should I also take out the pension and HMRC letters from June 2021 and February 2022 respectively?

Also, I've drafted a letter explaining why they aren't spread out evenly - does this work:

To the Entry Clearance Officer,

I am writing to confirm why I am unable to provide documents highlighting my proof of residence evenly over the past two years.

The reason for this is because while I can provide a joint bank statement for every single month between February 2020 and February 2022, my other billing cycles don’t match the necessary months to show an even four-month spacing across two more sources.

However, I have attempted to provide the relevant information as close as possible to every four months, which shows that I have lived at the same, and indeed my current, address with my husband throughout my time in the UK.

I am attaching documents that show this in the form of:

Mar 2020: Council tax letter (joint)
June 2020: HSBC statement (joint)
Oct 2020: HSBC statement (joint)
Feb 2021: letter from doctor (myself)
Jun 2021: HSBC statement (joint) & pension letter (myself)
Nov 2021: letter from home insurer (joint)
Feb 2022: HSBC statement (joint) & HMRC letter (myself)

I have also taken out the Barclaycard statement as suggested, but when you say I don't need more than one document per month, should I also take out the pension and HMRC letters from June 2021 and February 2022 respectively?

Ah, yes, sorry - take those out too. I'm so used to seeing people list individual documents for some of the months that I didn't notice one of the two in those months was actually joint.

I would suggest a few edits to your letter. For one, it should be addressed To Whom It May Concern, because you are not applying for Entry Clearance this time - Entry Clearance officers only deal with applications made outside the UK and you are applying for leave to remain inside the UK.

Also, I'd rephrase the first sentence, because it initially reads as if you are not including any cohabitation documents at all. The letter can also be condensed down quite a bit too.

So, something like:

To Whom It May Concern,

In regards to the cohabitation documents included in my application, we have been unable to provide documents spaced exactly every 4 months, due to the fact that we do not have any suitable documents for the months of February 2020 or October 2021 and therefore we are including documents for March 2020 and November 2021 instead.

Yours Faithfully,

Your Name

Just to note though, you mention above that you have bank statements for every month of the 2 years, so why not just use a bank statement for February 2020 and October 2021 instead of the council tax and home insurer letter, and then keep in either the pension letter or HMRC letter to make the sources back up to 3 again.

Also, I have just noticed that you are missing a document from one of you from February 2021 - you only have the doctor's letter for your wife but nothing for you... which does not meet the requirement. So, maybe add another bank statement in there as well.

So, you would have the following documents:

February 2020: HSBC statement (joint) (Source 1)
June 2020: HSBC statement (joint)
Oct 2020: HSBC statement (joint)
Feb 2021: HSBC statement (joint) + letter from doctor (wife) (Source 2)
Jun 2021: HSBC statement (joint) + pension letter (myself) (Source 3)
Oct 2021:HSBC statement (joint)
Feb 2022: HSBC statement (joint)

And if you did all of that, you wouldn't even need to write a letter at all, because the documents would all be spaced 4 months apart and you would have 3 sources.

Thanks for your amends to the letter! Will use that wording

Looking at our checklist, it says: "If you do not have enough items in your joint names, you may also provide items addressed to each of you individually if they show the same address for both of you. For example - 4 items of correspondence in joint names to the same address and 2 items addressed to each partner at the address. In total 8 items would need to be submitted."

With that in mind, if we just went for your approach and used just HSBC statements to show us jointly living together, would we need another document addressed to each of us individually, in addition to my wife's doctor's letter and my pension letter?

Looking at our checklist, it says: "If you do not have enough items in your joint names, you may also provide items addressed to each of you individually if they show the same address for both of you. For example - 4 items of correspondence in joint names to the same address and 2 items addressed to each partner at the address. In total 8 items would need to be submitted."

With that in mind, if we just went for your approach and used just HSBC statements to show us jointly living together, would we need another document addressed to each of us individually, in addition to my wife's doctor's letter and my pension letter?

No, because you have 7 items in each name already - you meet the 'number of items' requirement with the bank statements alone.

However, you also need to meet the 'sources' requirement by providing at least 3 sources. The bank statements are 1 source, so you need to include the pension letter and doctor's letter as well to make sources 2 and 3.

Essentially, for Feb 2021 and June 2021, you would use a joint bank statement as one individual item and then the pension letter/doctor's letter as the other individual item.

So you will have:

February 2020
Item 1. Joint names: HSBC statement (Source 1)

June 2020
Item 2. Joint names: HSBC statement

Oct 2020
Item 3. Joint names: HSBC statement

Feb 2021
Item 4. Your name: HSBC statement
Item 4. Wife's name: letter from doctor (Source 2)

Jun 2021
Item 5. Your name: pension letter (Source 3)
Item 5. Wife's name: HSBC statement

Oct 2021
Item 6. Joint names: HSBC statement

Feb 2022
Item 7. Joint names: HSBC statement

Ah I see what you're saying now - it's 8 items across the two years, and filling in gaps with documents addressed to us as individuals where we can't find jointly-addressed ones.

If I could find other documents addressed to us individually to replace the jointly-addressed bank statements for Feb 21 and June 21, would that help?

Would it also help tweaking Feb 22 to include two HMRC letters addressed to each of us individually, as an extra source? So it would be as follows:

February 2020
Item 1. Joint names: HSBC statement (Source 1)

June 2020
Item 2. Joint names: HSBC statement

Oct 2020
Item 3. Joint names: HSBC statement

Feb 2021
Item 4. Your name: HSBC statement (or another doc addressed to me if I can find one)
Item 4. Wife's name: letter from doctor (Source 2)

Jun 2021
Item 5. Your name: pension letter (Source 3)
Item 5. Wife's name: HSBC statement (or another doc addressed to my wife if I can find one)

Oct 2021
Item 6. Joint names: HSBC statement

Feb 2022
Item 7. 2x HMRC letters, addressed to each of us individually (source 4)

Ah I see what you're saying now - it's 8 items across the two years, and filling in gaps with documents addressed to us as individuals where we can't find jointly-addressed ones.

Not quite. The requirement is 6 items over 2 years.

We only suggest including 7 items instead of 6 so that the first and last months are both covered

These 6 items can be either:
- 6 joint items
- 12 individual items (1 each every 4 months)
- a combination of joint and individual items, totalling 6 in each name. For example:
1 joint and 10 individual (5 each)
2 joint and 8 individual (4 each)
3 joint and 6 individual (3 each)
4 joint and 4 individual (2 each) (this is the 8 items they give an example of on the application guidance)
5 joint and 2 individual (1 each)

If I could find other documents addressed to us individually to replace the jointly-addressed bank statements for Feb 21 and June 21, would that help?

You can if you want, but what I listed above already meets all of the requirements (it's just that 2 of the individual ones are actually addressed to both of you), so you don't need to.

Would it also help tweaking Feb 22 to include two HMRC letters addressed to each of us individually, as an extra source?

Yes, you can do that... and if you did, that could be your Source 3 and you could take out either the pension letter or the doctor's letter and just use the bank statement for either Feb 2021 or June 2021.

So, you could have:

February 2020
Item 1. Joint names: HSBC statement (Source 1)

June 2020
Item 2. Joint names: HSBC statement

Oct 2020
Item 3. Joint names: HSBC statement

Feb 2021
Item 4. Joint names: HSBC statement

Jun 2021
Item 5. Your name: pension letter (Source 2)
Item 5. Wife's name: HSBC statement (or another doc addressed to my wife if I can find one)

Oct 2021
Item 6. Joint names: HSBC statement

Feb 2022
Item 7. 2x HMRC letters, addressed to each of us individually (Source 3)

Essentially, as long as you have a document in each name for each 4-month period and 3 sources, you'll be fine.

Thanks again ksand24! You've been a huge help!

One last check before our appointment this afternoon - our application date was the 9th February, and as they want to see everything from the prior six months, I'm guessing they won't want to see my wife's March payslip (generated yesterday)? It also won't have a corresponding record on a bank statement as the next one isn't due for a few weeks?

Thanks again ksand24! You've been a huge help!

One last check before our appointment this afternoon - our application date was the 9th February, and as they want to see everything from the prior six months, I'm guessing they won't want to see my wife's March payslip (generated yesterday)? It also won't have a corresponding record on a bank statement as the next one isn't due for a few weeks?

No, nothing dated after February 9th can be considered, as that was your official application date and you have to show you met all the requirements on that date.

So the latest payslip and bank statement, and the employer letter, must be dated between 12th January and 9th February.


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Ahh great, good job I checked then!

With that in mind, will they want my 17 Jan - 16 Feb bank statement (arrived in the post 20th Feb) that shows proof of January's wages being paid in (they were paid on 31st Jan, but we didn't get a payslip until 5th Feb - weirdly the only time it has ever come through not on the 1st).

I have included 7 months' worth of both payslips and bank statements as you suggested to be on the safe side, which includes the Jan-Feb one noted above.

Also, does it matter that the consent forms were signed on 23rd Feb, or should we print those out again and re-date them?

Ahh great, good job I checked then!

With that in mind, will they want my 17 Jan - 16 Feb bank statement (arrived in the post 20th Feb) that shows proof of January's wages being paid in (they were paid on 31st Jan, but we didn't get a payslip until 5th Feb - weirdly the only time it has ever come through not on the 1st).

Yes, that one will be needed as you need to show the January pay going in. It’s okay if the bank statement end date goes past Feb 9th, as long as the pay date and bank deposit happened before the 9th.

I have included 7 months' worth of both payslips and bank statements as you suggested to be on the safe side, which includes the Jan-Feb one noted above.

If the latest payslip is end of January then you need the following 7 months of payslips and corresponding bank statements:
July 2021
August 2021
September 2021
October 2021
November 2021
December 2021
January 2022 (bank statement issued mid-Feb)

Also, does it matter that the consent forms were signed on 23rd Feb, or should we print those out again and re-date them?

No, those should be fine. If you were to backdate them, that would be falsifying a document.


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Excellent - I've got two HMRC letters for each of us dated 2nd Feb so I've popped those in instead of the Feb 22 bank statement which was dated post the application.

Thanks so much for your help!