We are now applying for her second 2.5 year visa (FLR(M)) before the expiry date of her first on 28th December. We understand we need to apply no more than 28 days before then.
That's correct.
Since my wife’s first spouse visa was granted, we have both changed our surnames to be double-barrelled (we got married during her time on a fiancée visa but decided to change our names after the spouse visa was granted). We have both explained the change of names in our cover letters, and will obviously be providing our most current passports showing our new names and copy of marriage certificate showing our birth names. Is there anything else that needs to be done to prove either of our changes of name?
No, I don't think there's anything else... unless you received any confirmation paperwork of the name change? (I'm not familiar with the process for double-barrelling names).
My wife received her eVisa in June 2024, changed the name on her passport in August 2024 and updated the name on her eVisa in September 2024. She has a BRP with an expiry date of 31st December 2024, which was not updated with her new name since this was replaced by the eVisa in June 2024. Should we still provide a copy of this in the application, or will it cause confusion because it is showing her maiden name?
I don't think you need to provide the BRP anymore, as she has an eVisa now, but you can see what it says on the application form when you fill it out.
For passports, does my wife need to provide both her current passport (double-barrelled surname) and previous passport (maiden name)? Both of these passports will cover the time spent on her current visa. Same question applies to me, do I need to provide both my passports to cover the last 2.5 years and showing both my surnames, or do I just need to provide the most recent passport scan?
Your wife must provide every passport she has held since moving to the UK on her fiance visa, so yes, she will need to provide both passports.
You only need to provide your current passport and not any previous passports.
We moved house last year, which is explained in our cover letters. For the 12 items of correspondence which will form our evidence of cohabitation, naturally some of these items are addressed at our previous address. Do we need to provide evidence that we owned our previous house (mortgage statement, etc.) since we will be providing evidence addressed to that previous address? Or do we only need to provide mortgage statements, proof of mortgage amount, etc. for our current house?
You do not need to explain your house move in a cover letter, as it is not relevant to the application - it doesn't matter where you lived in the 2.5 years, as long as you were living together for the whole time.
You do not need to provide any evidence of owning the previous house, as it is not relevant to the application (they only need to know you have FUTURE accommodation to live in).
All you need to do is provide mail which shows that you were both living at the same address AS EACH OTHER during the 2.5 years... you could have lived at 10 different addresses in that time and it wouldn't matter, as long as you were both living at each address at the same time.
For proof of mortgage, the house is owned in my name and paid out of my own account. I can provide mortgage agreement, latest annual statement, title deed and plan. Since my wife is satisfying the financial requirements I will not be providing any personal bank statements in my name. Should I provide my most recent bank statement to evidence that the mortgage amount is paid by me?
No, you don't need to provide any bank statements in regards to the mortgage.
What you do need to provide is:
- your Land Registry document (to show you own it)
- your latest mortgage statement (to show your annual housing costs)
- your latest council tax bill (to show your annual housing costs)
My wife will provide bank statements received in the post covering the last 6(+1) months showing her salary payments. Her statements are generated on or around the 21st of each month. Her visa needs to be renewed before the 28th December. Considering the proximity to Christmas, we wish to apply around the 10th December. Her salary is paid on the 1st of each month. As such, her November 21st statement will not show her most recent salary payment on 1st December, and it is impractical to wait until the 21st December to provide this. Llyod’s bank allows you to produce a statement online mid-month which shows all transactions from 1st of the month to the present day. Most importantly, this generated PDF shows my wife’s name, address, account number + sort code, current date and balance, and all transactions. We plan to generate the PDF at the beginning of December to show her 1st December salary payment, and get it stamped in branch. Does this sound OK to use? I believe it contains all the correct information, but the reason I question it is because it will cover a period of only ~1 week and has slightly different formatting to her monthly statements which are received in the post and cover the dates of 22nd to 21st.
This would mean that there is the period of 22nd November to 30th November which is not covered on any statement (the most recent postal statement will end 21st November and the ‘generated’ statement will start on the 1st of the month to the day it is generated). We could, in theory, generate an additional statement on the 30th November covering all transaction from 1st November to 30th November and provide this in addition to the postal statement which will cover 22nd October to 21st November. This will mean the salary payment on 1st November is evidenced twice.
All you need to do here is go into the bank branch and ask them to print off a statement covering all transactions from 22nd November to the current date.
That way, you don't need to worry about duplicating transactions or not covering a period of dates. Also, if the statement has been printed in branch it is considered official and does not need to be stamped.
In the visa application form it asks “What do they earn?”. For this application we will be using my wife’s income (full-time, permanent, salaried). She received a pay rise 6 months ago. Does she still answer “The same amount continuously, above the financial requirement amount”, even though her monthly pay has increased recently? FYI her salary pre-pay rise still met the required amount.
It depends on the exact date of her payrise and whether any of the payslips she is providing show the previous salary.
If the payrise was before 10th June (6 months before 10th December), and ALL of the payslips she is providing show the new, higher salary, then she can tick 'same amount continuously, above the financial requirement'
However, if her payrise was after 10th June, and any of the payslips she is providing show the old salary, I think she needs to tick 'not the same amount continously, above the financial requirement'.
Having said that, there used to be a bug in the application form where if you ticked 'not the same amount continuously', it would ask for 12 months of payslips when it should only ask for 6 months... I think the bug was fixed, but if it does still ask for 12 months, change it to 'same amount continuously' so that it only asks for 6 months.
The application form asks “Do you have any Home Office reference numbers?”. The latest reference number is from when she got her eVisa in the format of 1234-5678-1234-5678. Should we provide this number?
I don't think that number is a Home Office Reference Number.
Home Office reference numbers are assigned when you submit a visa application (i.e. when you applied for FLR(M)) and will usually be found on official letters or emails from UKVI (also known as a UAN (unique reference number) or a GWF (global web form number)).
So, if you have the reference number from her FLR(M) application, you can include it. If you can't find it, just tick No to the reference number question.
Should we attach a copy of the original fiancée visa application? My wife also had a Tier-2 intra-company transfer visa in 2016. Should we attach all application forms for her granted visas, or is it only relevant to provide the most recent?
No, you don't need to provide any evidence of any previous application forms. All you need to provide is her current eVisa.
The application form will ask about previous visa applications, but you just list that information on the form... you don't need to provide any evidence for them.
For my wife’s fiancée visa and spouse visa we provided photos of us together with friends and family along with air tickets for holidays spent together. This was very relevant for the fiancée visa. Should we still provide this for the FLR(M)?
No. This evidence is only required if you are in a long-distance relationship, where you have to prove you are in a genuine relationship even though you don't live together and don't see each other regularly in person.
Once you have moved to the UK and are living together, instead you provide the 12 items of cohabitation evidence as proof that you have been living together for the length of the visa.
Do I, as a sponsor, need to sign Part 3 of the consent form, even if I am not providing the financial support?
No.
- The applicant (your wife) signs part 1
- The sponsor (you) signs Part 2
- Nobody signs Part 3.
Part 3 is for situations in which there is a third party financial sponsor who is neither the applicant nor the UK citizen spouse (for example, if you were being financially supported by your parents or another family member). However, as third party financial support is not allowed for a spousal visa anyway, it's rare that someone would be able to qualify for the visa using third party support and would need someone to sign Part 3.
