First spouse visa renewal - Do I have what we need?!

Hello guys! I'm coming up on my first spouse visa renewal and we've put together a list of the documents we have, which we think covers what we'll need for this. My husband has asked me to post here and get any advice on what else anyone thinks/knows we might need in addition to our current list.

Here's what we have:
Amy:
 Passport – Original
 Residence Permit - Original
 Employment contract – Signed
 6 months pay slips – Signed
 6 months bank statements – Signed
 P60 – copy
 Letter from employer – Signed and containing the following information:
- Job title
- Gross annual salary
- How long have you been employed for
- Type of employment (perm, fixed term, agency)
- Period over which person has earned salary?


Jon:
 Employment contract – Signed
 6 months payslips – Signed
 6 months bank statements – Signed
 Birth certificate or passport – Copy of birth certificate okay or do we need the original? Do we need both?

Joint:

- Marriage License – Original

Evidence of Living together: (6 joint names or 6 in each name, or combo)

- Council tax – Joint (covers 2 years)
- EDF Bills – Joint (covers 2 years)
- Letter from landlord – Joint
- Drs registration letter – Amy
- National insurance letter – Amy
- P45 – Amy
- Hospital letter – Amy
- Sky bills – Jon (covers 2 years)
- Tv license – Jon
- Water bill – Jon
- Car insurance – Jon (Covers 2 years)

We've looked through the application and this is what we think we need. But if anything else would be helpful or is necessary, it would be very much appreciated if someone could post it.

Thank you so much in advance to everyone. This process is so nerve wracking!!

Hello guys! I'm coming up on my first spouse visa renewal and we've put together a list of the documents we have, which we think covers what we'll need for this. My husband has asked me to post here and get any advice on what else anyone thinks/knows we might need in addition to our current list.

Here's what we have:
Amy:
 Passport – Original
 Residence Permit - Original
 Employment contract – Signed
 6 months pay slips – Signed
 6 months bank statements – Signed
 P60 – copy
 Letter from employer – Signed and containing the following information:
- Job title
- Gross annual salary
- How long have you been employed for
- Type of employment (perm, fixed term, agency)
- Period over which person has earned salary?


Jon:
 Employment contract – Signed
 6 months payslips – Signed
 6 months bank statements – Signed
 Birth certificate or passport – Copy of birth certificate okay or do we need the original? Do we need both?

Joint:

- Marriage License – Original

Evidence of Living together: (6 joint names or 6 in each name, or combo)

- Council tax – Joint (covers 2 years)
- EDF Bills – Joint (covers 2 years)
- Letter from landlord – Joint
- Drs registration letter – Amy
- National insurance letter – Amy
- P45 – Amy
- Hospital letter – Amy
- Sky bills – Jon (covers 2 years)
- Tv license – Jon
- Water bill – Jon
- Car insurance – Jon (Covers 2 years)

We've looked through the application and this is what we think we need. But if anything else would be helpful or is necessary, it would be very much appreciated if someone could post it.

Thank you so much in advance to everyone. This process is so nerve wracking!!

You seem to be missing your accommodation evidence. You need to provide a lease in addition to the letter giving the applicant permission to live there if both names are not on it.

If one of you meets the financial requirement alone, no need to send both sets of evidence. If you do need to rely on both incomes to meet the requirement, then you would need an employment letter for him too.

Make sure that the exact same 6 month period is covered by both bank statements and pay slips, this may well mean sending 7 months of each.

If the bank statements are not originals, they must be stamped on every page by the bank. If the pay statements are not originals, they should be accompanied by a letter verifying their authenticity.

Can you please place the dates of your correspondence evidence beside each item so we can see how they are spaced. What matters is the date of the item of correspondence. Your council tax bill, for example, only counts for the day it was sent to you, not for two years.

Provide the sponsors passport. Birth certificate is not necessary.

Do either of you have any prior marriages?  Or kids, either together or not?

Ah I'm sorry. I did forget to put the tenancy agreement on there, which is in both of our names. It's valid for two years (Sept 2017 - Sept 2019)

 Council tax – Joint - 2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2019-2020
- EDF Bills – Joint  March 2016 - June 2017, June 2017 - Dec 2017,  Dec 2017 -  June 2018, June 2018 - Dec 2018, and we will have Dec 2018-June 2019 when we submit the application
- Letter from landlord – Joint 30/04/2018
- Drs registration letter – Amy   03/04/2017
- National insurance letter – Amy   03/05/2017
- P45 – Amy 11/04/2018
- Hospital letter – Amy 20/11/2018
- Sky bills – Jon every month since January 2017
- Tv license – Jon  valid until 30/09/2019
- Water bill – Jon April 2018 - November 2018
- Car insurance – Jon 18/02/2018-18/02/2019, 18/02/2019 - 18/02/2020
 
If I need other dates/more dates, that's fairly easy as I get quite a bit of post. Jon, not so much. Most of his stuff is paperless.
I also forgot to add that we have the documentation of our holiday to the United States in September 2018 (two weeks) and I have or
will have documentation of the 5 day business trip to Mexico I'm going on in a week's time. 7 months of payslips
and bank statements is easy enough to do. I was planning to apply in June and I've started collecting from December
Just to be on the safe side.                                                                         

Thank you for your reply!!

No prior marriages and I have two adult children from a previous relationship who live in the US.
Also, I just read something that now has me wondering. I have been here since February 16, 2017. My current visa expires in October 2019. What's the earliest I can apply for the extension? If what I read was correct, I can't send it off until August 2019.

What we need is the date of the bill.  For example, my council tax bill is dated March 15, 2019.  UKVI will count it as an item of post in March 2019 and not for a full calendar year.  Same with the other bills.  It’ll cover a date range but have been sent on a single date.

You can apply no earlier than 28 days prior to your 30 month anniversary of arriving in the UK, so July 19.

You do not need any travel documents for this visa - just the post split evenly over the previous 2 years.

Gotcha. Sorry.
EDF dates: 03/03/17, 28/06/17, 21/12/17, 27/12/18, 27/07/18, with another coming in June or July 2019
Water- 14/02/19
Council tax - 21/04/2017 05/03/18, 11/03/19

Gotcha. Sorry.
EDF dates: 03/03/17, 28/06/17, 21/12/17, 27/12/18, 27/07/18, with another coming in June or July 2019
Water- 14/02/19
Council tax - 21/04/2017 05/03/18, 11/03/19

You need to pick one joint or two individual pieces of mail (from the same month ideally) spaced 4 months apart. 

Are they really that picky about the date spacing? I only ask because while I do get quite a bit of post, my husband does not. The EDF, tenancy agreement, one letter from the landlord, and council tax are all we have jointly.

The bills do not have to be jointly addressed, but you should try to submit correspondence that is as evenly spaced out as possible over the time period you're covering without substantial gaps in between.

For example, if you were looking to have correspondence for the month of August 2018, you could either submit:

- one single item jointly addressed to both (such as a water bill dated 10 Aug 2018 addressed to both); or,
- two items individually addressed to each during the same month (such as a bank statement for you dated 15 Aug 2018 AND a GP letter addressed to your partner dated 21 Aug 2018)

We recommend to be cruel to the environment and turn off paperless correspondence and get physical hard copies of everything until you're through the immigration gauntlet.

Hello again, everyone. I just have one more question.
I read somewhere that we should also have a chat log (WhatsApp or somesuch) and photos of us together in various locations over the two years. We do use WhatsApp from time to time but not a lot as we have lived together this entire time, and we only have a few photos as we’re not selfie people and tend to not take photos of much more than scenery on the occasions we travel.
Are these absolutely necessary?

Hello again, everyone. I just have one more question.
I read somewhere that we should also have a chat log (WhatsApp or somesuch) and photos of us together in various locations over the two years. We do use WhatsApp from time to time but not a lot as we have lived together this entire time, and we only have a few photos as we’re not selfie people and tend to not take photos of much more than scenery on the occasions we travel.
Are these absolutely necessary?

Not necessary for FLR(M). The correspondence evidence counts for that instead. Some people include a picture but it's not a requirement.