Spousal Renewal visa problems

Hello everyone,

I don’t know what I would do with out this forum!

My husband is a British citizen, and I am an American citizen. We decided that it was best we stay in the U.K., since he has worked with the same company for the past 13 years. We are due to renew our spousal visa next year (2019). We have everything covered as far as Finances and paperwork dealing with his income.
I was lucky enough for the past year or so to be able to stay home doing our DIY home renovations. Once the home is complete, I plan on rejoining the work force.

Here is the tricky part, some how I missed the part about “ we will have to prove that we have been living together by changing the bills over to both of our names to cover the entire 2 years visa” !! We have living together, and taken a couple of trips back to America to visit my parents. ( have proof of tickets and purchases )

Since I haven’t been working, we didn’t think to add my names to any bills, or bank or anything like that. ( I still have my bank from America which I use to pay my college student loans and credit cards). Today I was reading up on the renewal process and came across the article about proof of living together and now I’m scared to death that I may have made a big giant mistake! Could any one please let me know if they have heard of this kind of situation ? Or know of a site where I could read for answers or know what I can use to prove that we have lived together. We plan on doing the changes to the bills today but that doesn’t cover the past year or so of our lives here together.
The only thing I have is, a letter from the Doctors office when I registered ( NHS) and junk mail from things I brought online. I also have pictures from our summer bbq and such. Please help, if anyone has the knowledge to guide me, I would be so appreciative.

Thanks for your time.

Okay, don't panic.

The good thing is that you only have to prove the last 2 years of living together, not the full 2.5 years, and looking at your previous posts it looks like your visa started on 27th November 2016, which means it will expire around 27th August 2019.

So, that means that if you wait until August 2019 to apply for FLR(M), you only need to prove living together from August 2017 to August 2019... which gives you 1 year and 5 months to collect as much mail as you can, and only 7 previous months to try to cover (August 2017 up to now).

You only need to provide 6 documents in each name total - so that's 3 per year.

You'll need one in each name (either joint or separately addressed) from approximately the following months (but you can adjust the months accordingly depending on what you have):
August 2017
December 2017
April 2018
August 2018
December 2018
April 2019
(Extra one: August 2019)

If they are separately addressed, then you'll want them to be dated as close to each other as possible (i.e. from the same month, ideally within a few days of each other).

Best thing to do ASAP is get your names on as many items of mail as you can (bills, utilities, bank statements etc.) and start collecting them. Also, TURN OFF paperless on EVERYTHING.

Then you just have to see if you can dig up anything you can use from the last 7 months.

Do you get any of your US bank statements sent to your UK address? You could use those if you do.

Acceptable items you can use for proof of living together, along with the requirements for what you need to provide are given in the FLR(M) application form. Have a read through Section 13 for more information (pages 63 and 64)
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/673011/family-spouse-04-17.pdf

Section 13 states:

Examples of acceptable items of correspondence
• Letters or other documents from government departments or agencies, for example HM Revenue and Customs, Department for Work and Pensions, DVLA, TV Licensing.
• Letters or other documents from your GP, a hospital or other local health service about medical treatments, appointments, home visits or other medical matters
• Bank statements/letters
• Building society savings books/letters
• Council tax bills or statements
• Electricity and/or gas bills or statements
• Water rates bills or statements
• Mortgage statements/agreement
• Tenancy agreement(s)
• Telephone bills or statements

Hello everyone,

I don’t know what I would do with out this forum!

My husband is a British citizen, and I am an American citizen. We decided that it was best we stay in the U.K., since he has worked with the same company for the past 13 years. We are due to renew our spousal visa next year (2019). We have everything covered as far as Finances and paperwork dealing with his income.
I was lucky enough for the past year or so to be able to stay home doing our DIY home renovations. Once the home is complete, I plan on rejoining the work force.

Here is the tricky part, some how I missed the part about “ we will have to prove that we have been living together by changing the bills over to both of our names to cover the entire 2 years visa” !! We have living together, and taken a couple of trips back to America to visit my parents. ( have proof of tickets and purchases )

Since I haven’t been working, we didn’t think to add my names to any bills, or bank or anything like that. ( I still have my bank from America which I use to pay my college student loans and credit cards). Today I was reading up on the renewal process and came across the article about proof of living together and now I’m scared to death that I may have made a big giant mistake! Could any one please let me know if they have heard of this kind of situation ? Or know of a site where I could read for answers or know what I can use to prove that we have lived together. We plan on doing the changes to the bills today but that doesn’t cover the past year or so of our lives here together.
The only thing I have is, a letter from the Doctors office when I registered ( NHS) and junk mail from things I brought online. I also have pictures from our summer bbq and such. Please help, if anyone has the knowledge to guide me, I would be so appreciative.

Thanks for your time.

The doctors letter is great, you can use that.  Was your name on the council tax?
Are your US bank statements coming to your UK address?
Keep looking,.. if it's only the first year that you are missing, you really only need one more piece for that time frame, depending on the timing of your arrival and your FLR application.

Thanks for quick replies! You guys are life savers! My husband and I were definitely on panic mode.

Unfortunately I don’t have my American bank statements sent to my UK address. We were able to add my self today on the council tax, water bill and added my self on the gas & electric.  ( which will cover from now until the renewal)
I did try to go to the bank today to be added on to my husband account but I was told I needed to have a bill in my name and was turned away. ( they did not take my NHS letter as proof of address)

I don’t think I’ll be able to get anything else to prove we live together prior to now that is listed. Is there any thing else I could do? What else will they take as proof? Going to have a good read of the link that was sent and suggested.

Thanks again, for the replies.

I don’t think I’ll be able to get anything else to prove we live together prior to now that is listed. Is there any thing else I could do? What else will they take as proof? Going to have a good read of the link that was sent and suggested.

If absolutely necessary, you could include some of the junk mail that is in your name.

If you absolutely do not have anything else, then you may just need to write a letter explaining why you can't provide any mail from that time (which is mentioned in the link).

Yeah, you will need a bill in your name in order to open a bank account. In fact, you usually need a bill in your name to register with the NHS as well - I'm surprised they let you register without proof of address..

Most people arriving in the UK on a spousal visa will find they need to get mail in their name soon after arriving anyway, simply to do things like open a bank account and register with a GP... so even if they aren't aware of needing to provide mail for the next visa, they still usually end up with at least one thing in their name within the first few months.

Just realised there was a major typo in my first reply.

I said to go paperless on everything... but I meant the opposite (sorry)!

You need to TURN OFF paperless on everything, so that you receive all your mail in the post, in order to have original documents to provide for the visa.

I don’t think I’ll be able to get anything else to prove we live together prior to now that is listed. Is there any thing else I could do? What else will they take as proof? Going to have a good read of the link that was sent and suggested.

Thanks again, for the replies.

You can have your US bank statements sent here but you're pretty much good to go as you only need three sources which you will have now!