What are the common reasons for rejection?

Hi fellas,

I'm getting a little paranoid here with my visa application and would love to know more about the common reasons for refusal esp. of unmarried partner visa?
And how to prevent them from happening =)

The most common reason the unmarried partner visa is rejected is because people don't have SOLID proof that they've lived together for at least two full years.  Which you have, so no worries there.

Other common reasons for refusals:

Self-employed income.  There is a MASSIVE list of documentation required and if you leave one item off thinking it doesn't pertain to you, it's a refusal.

Long-term marriages.  People who have been married for a long time but living elsewhere don't realise they need to prove they've been living together for the duration of their marriage.

Not understanding the visa requirements, full stop.  And not providing the required documentation.

Basically, you have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to worry about.   

It's not just about meeting the requirements, it's about proving that you do and in the correct format also.
Often people meet the requirements but because they have not proved them sufficiently, they are refused. Could be for any of the requirements.

Since this is a UK-US forum, I am assuming here that you are a US citizen... and just to let you know that the approval rate for applications made by US citizens is actually really high, so based on the stats, it's unlikely you would be refused.

From the quarterly statistics published by UKVI:

Entry clearance applications made by US citizens outside the UK
Approval rate for ALL visa types = 93-98% between 2005 and 2017 (though there was a blip in the first 6 months of 2009 where the approval rate was only 85-86%)

Extension (FLR) applications made by US citizens inside the UK
Approval rate for ALL visa types = 92-98% between 2005 and 2017

They give stats on how many family (FLR(M)) visas were granted, but not how many were refused, so the numbers above are for extensions of all types of visa: work, student, family etc., not just partner visas.

Since this is a UK-US forum, I am assuming here that you are a US citizen... and just to let you know that the approval rate for applications made by US citizens is actually really high, so based on the stats, it's unlikely you would be refused.

From the quarterly statistics published by UKVI:

Entry clearance applications made by US citizens outside the UK
Approval rate for ALL visa types = 93-98% between 2005 and 2017 (though there was a blip in the first 6 months of 2009 where the approval rate was only 85-86%)

Extension (FLR) applications made by US citizens inside the UK
Approval rate for ALL visa types = 92-98% between 2005 and 2017

They give stats on how many family (FLR(M)) visas were granted, but not how many were refused, so the numbers above are for extensions of all types of visa: work, student, family etc., not just partner visas.

It's awesome that they publish such kind of data! Would love to see further breakdown but it's good to know that the overall refusal rate is so much lower than the total average. Thanks for sharing

Hi fellas,

I'm getting a little paranoid here with my visa application and would love to know more about the common reasons for refusal esp. of unmarried partner visa?
And how to prevent them from happening =)

Our first unmarried partner application was refused bc we didn’t provide enough proof of living together continuosly for 2 years. Like already mentioned above.


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Our first unmarried partner application was refused bc we didn’t provide enough proof of living together continuosly for 2 years. Like already mentioned above.


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Thanks for sharing! Was is because there was too much gap between one another docs?

We only provided a letter from the bank stating when we opened our joint bank account (Oct 2014) and a joint lease starting from Aug 2016. The first address we lived together from Nov 2014 to Aug 2016 was only under my name. We applied in Nov 2017.

The ECO said we were only able to prove living together from Aug 2016 based on the joint lease. The letter from the bank didn’t prove any co-habitation. Instead, what we should have done was provide at least 2 years worth of joint bank statements showing our same address together. Or other pieces of mail to our shared addresses prior Aug 2016.


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We only provided a letter from the bank stating when we opened our joint bank account (Oct 2014) and a joint lease starting from Aug 2016. The first address we lived together from Nov 2014 to Aug 2016 was only under my name. We applied in Nov 2017.

The ECO said we were only able to prove living together from Aug 2016 based on the joint lease. The letter from the bank didn’t prove any co-habitation. Instead, what we should have done was provide at least 2 years worth of joint bank statements showing our same address together. Or other pieces of mail to our shared addresses prior Aug 2016.


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I see. Thank you for sharing. This is helpful.