Fiance Visa - Maximum time allowed since last physical meeting & other q's.

Hello everyone!

My fiance (USA) and I (UK) are currently putting together the evidence for her fiance visa application. This forum has been invaluable for us however there was one particular question which i was looking for an answer to. This is whether there is a maximum acceptable time since you last physically met one another? Generally we visit each other for 3 months per year/16 months, with the last visit concluding in March of 2016. Is there a requirement for a meeting within a given time before making the application?

With regards to the application itself we should be sending it off in approximately 3 weeks. I will be going to confirm our wedding venue on Sunday (prospective date 12th May 2016 - is this too soon?) and once i have received confirmation from both the venue and the registrar's office i will be sending all of the evidence to my fiance for her to then submit her application.

Another question would be regarding bank statements, is it simply a case of printing them off and taking them into your bank to be validated?

Lastly my fiance and I use the WhatsApp video/voice chat function quite a lot, however this is not recorded in the chat log. Can anyone see this as being an issue? We have evidence of other methods of communication however because of the above issue it makes it appear like there are large blocks in our chat history.

Any answers or additional information would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for reading!

This is whether there is a maximum acceptable time since you last physically met one another? Generally we visit each other for 3 months per year/16 months, with the last visit concluding in March of 2016. Is there a requirement for a meeting within a given time before making the application?

Nope.

The only requirements are that you have met at least ONCE in person (at any time), and that you have been keeping in regular contact while you have been apart (i.e. emails, Skype, messages etc.).

With regards to the application itself we should be sending it off in approximately 3 weeks. I will be going to confirm our wedding venue on Sunday (prospective date 12th May 2016 - is this too soon?)

All you need to show is that you are starting to plan a wedding for within the 6 months of the visa - you only need to have enquired about possible ceremony dates, though if you have provisional bookings, that's fine too.

Another question would be regarding bank statements, is it simply a case of printing them off and taking them into your bank to be validated?

They either need to be the originals issued by the bank, or if you print them at home, they need to be stamped on EVERY page (or accompanied by a letter from the bank).

Lastly my fiance and I use the WhatsApp video/voice chat function quite a lot, however this is not recorded in the chat log. Can anyone see this as being an issue? We have evidence of other methods of communication however because of the above issue it makes it appear like there are large blocks in our chat history.

Other people might know if there's a way to extract a call log from this. If not, just use other sources instead. You just need to show regular communication throughout your whole relationship, so it doesn't have to be every week, maybe just once a month, depending on how long you have been together.

Hi GnomeonToadstool, welcome! 

Hello everyone! 

My fiance (USA) and I (UK) are currently putting together the evidence for her fiance visa application. This forum has been invaluable for us however there was one particular question which i was looking for an answer to. This is whether there is a maximum acceptable time since you last physically met one another? Generally we visit each other for 3 months per year/16 months, with the last visit concluding in March of 2016. Is there a requirement for a meeting within a given time before making the application?

No, you're fine, you only have to have met once.

With regards to the application itself we should be sending it off in approximately 3 weeks. I will be going to confirm our wedding venue on Sunday (prospective date 12th May 2016 - is this too soon?) and once i have received confirmation from both the venue and the registrar's office i will be sending all of the evidence to my fiance for her to then submit her application.

That should be fine, you might want to use priority to be on the safe side though as
processing times are getting longer across the board.

Another question would be regarding bank statements, is it simply a case of printing them off and taking them into your bank to be validated?

You can do that although you may find that they prefer to print them for you, or you can use the original paper statements.

Lastly my fiance and I use the WhatsApp video/voice chat function quite a lot, however this is not recorded in the chat log. Can anyone see this as being an issue? We have evidence of other methods of communication however because of the above issue it makes it appear like there are large blocks in our chat history.

Any answers or additional information would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for reading!

larrabee:

That should be fine, you might want to use priority to be on the safe side though as processing times are getting longer across the board.

That's good to hear. We would likely be doing priority anyway.

You can do that although you may find that they prefer to print them for you, or you can use the original paper statements.

Thank you, i shall go and speak to my bank before potentially wasting lots of paper.

ksand24:

The only requirements are that you have met at least ONCE in person (at any time), and that you have been keeping in regular contact while you have been apart (i.e. emails, Skype, messages etc.).

Brilliant, i was starting to get worried!

All you need to show is that you are starting to plan a wedding for within the 6 months of the visa - you only need to have enquired about possible ceremony dates, though if you have provisional bookings, that's fine too.

Thank you, only reason we are booking is to take advantage of an offer as our venue. Not terribly risky as the wedding date can be changed to whenever suits us.

They either need to be the originals issued by the bank, or if you print them at home, they need to be stamped on EVERY page (or accompanied by a letter from the bank).

Thank you, i shall go into my bank and speak to them before printing off everything.

Other people might know if there's a way to extract a call log from this. If not, just use other sources instead. You just need to show regular communication throughout your whole relationship, so it doesn't have to be every week, maybe just once a month, depending on how long you have been together.

As we have been together for ~10 years we have plenty of other records, more recently this consists of daily phone calls as she tends to be at work when i am not, so Skype has become more difficult of later.


Another question came to mind, which is regarding passport certification. Which is the best place to have my UK passport certified?


Thank you all so much for the replies.

As we have been together for ~10 years we have plenty of other records, more recently this consists of daily phone calls as she tends to be at work when i am not, so Skype has become more difficult of later.

In that case, for a 10-year relationship you only need to show communication maybe every 2 months, so I'd just show a selection of calls and emails for each year of the relationship (i.e. 6 emails per year and/or 6 calls per year), along with your boarding passes from trips to see each other (as time spent in-person has more weight anyway).

Another question came to mind, which is regarding passport certification. Which is the best place to have my UK passport certified?

I believe you can get it done at the Post Office for a few pounds.

In that case, for a 10-year relationship you only need to show communication maybe every 2 months, so I'd just show a selection of calls and emails for each year of the relationship (i.e. 6 emails per year and/or 6 calls per year), along with your boarding passes from trips to see each other (as time spent in-person has more weight anyway).

Awesome, thank you. That should be very easy to come by. I have all of the required photos as well so that helps, pretty much one every two years.

I believe you can get it done at the Post Office for a few pounds.

That is what i thought but i wanted to be sure.



If i can think of anything else ill be sure to ask but in the meantime thank you and have a great weekend!

I have all of the required photos as well so that helps, pretty much one every two years.

You only need 1 photo, maybe 2 at the most just to show you've met in person.

I would send 1 from early in the relationship and then 1 one from the last time you saw each other.

Can do that easily, thank you!