Tier 5 to FLR(M) Dates and Documents

Hello!  I have found you all to be absolute founts of wisdom while lurking the past couple of months, but now that it's time for my own application, I feel I've learned nothing!  I am currently in the UK on a youth mobility visa courtesy of an Australian passport and will be switching to the FLR(M).  I'm trying to prepare in bite size pieces so I don't get too overwhelmed, and thought it might be best to get a second opinion on the below before trying to draft letters to HR and the like if that's okay

1. I came to the UK for a week in February 2020 to activate and collect my BRP, then went back to Canada to finish up the final semester at college.  I moved properly in May 2020.  For the purposes of the application, did I start living here as of the date printed on the BRP (February)?

2. We met online in 2018, but not in person until February 2019.  I’ve read conflicting posts across the internet about how people have answered.  Is it best to say we both met and started the relationship in 2019?

3. We will be using my now husband's income to show finances as I was under the threshold until recently.  He is paid on the 25th of each month and his bank statements are issued on the 11th, so my hope is to go into a branch and get June to January statements printed for the financial criteria the week of 11th January (though maybe not stamped as I've read of some issues with HSBC in this regard).  To be on the safe side, am I right I should apply no later than 20th January?  I understand his earliest payslip should be June's to ensure the six months are met (assuming they don't include a "from" date).

4. Unfortunately I wasn't able to set myself up with any accounts until I had proof of address.  My name was put on utility bills, but the first one to show this wasn't issued until July 2020.  The NHS letter confirming my registration at the practice then showed up later in July 2020.  I was getting by with internet banks and foreign accounts, as brick and mortar institutes weren't liking that the utility bill showed "Miss Lastname" instead of "Miss A B Lastname"; I had to wait for the water bill in November to corroborate it.  I wasn't able to get an NI number until 2021 and the letter from DVLA with my licence is not dated.  Basically, I have no correspondence in my name between February and July 2020, then nothing again until November. However, I have three sources for joint statements (outlined below).  Would an accompanying letter along the lines of this explanation suffice for lack of documentation on my part?

Joint sources:
July 2020 - SSE bill (source 1)
November 2020 - Water bill (source 2)
December 2020 - SSE bill
February 2021 - Octopus Energy statement (arriving monthly from then to present) (source 3)
May 2021 - Water bill
November 2021 - Water bill

If the above would be acceptable, I'm thinking to provide July (source 1), November (source 2), then solely source 3 unless it would be better to show that source 2 reappears.  I could also wait and include an Octopus statement for January 2022 as they tend to arrive in the first week of the month, so I'm stuck on the best spacing.

Thank you so much for any and all suggestions.  I am ever so grateful for the opportunity to sense check and appreciate the time you've taken to read this!

Welcome to the forum .

1. I came to the UK for a week in February 2020 to activate and collect my BRP, then went back to Canada to finish up the final semester at college.  I moved properly in May 2020.  For the purposes of the application, did I start living here as of the date printed on the BRP (February)?

You technically started living here as of the date you first arrived to collect your BRP - so you would put the date you entered the UK in Feb 2020 (not the date on the BRP).

2. We met online in 2018, but not in person until February 2019.  I’ve read conflicting posts across the internet about how people have answered.  Is it best to say we both met and started the relationship in 2019?

It kind of depends how the question is phrased, but I would probably give the date you met in person.

In terms of the date your relationship started, that all depends on what date you decided to enter into a relationship... which may or may not be the same time that you met.

3. We will be using my now husband's income to show finances as I was under the threshold until recently.  He is paid on the 25th of each month and his bank statements are issued on the 11th, so my hope is to go into a branch and get June to January statements printed for the financial criteria the week of 11th January (though maybe not stamped as I've read of some issues with HSBC in this regard).  To be on the safe side, am I right I should apply no later than 20th January?  I understand his earliest payslip should be June's to ensure the six months are met (assuming they don't include a "from" date).

You must submit the online application within 28 days of the date of the most recent payslip. So, if his December payslip is dated 25th December, you have until 22nd January to apply online. If his December payslip is issued earlier than the 25th though (because of Christmas), you will have to adjust your application date accordingly.

The payslips must cover a full 6 months, which usually means including at least 7 months' worth to cover every single day.

If his December payslip is dated 25th December, the 6 months will be: 25th June to 25th December, so you include:
June
July
August
Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec

However, if his December payslip is dated, say, 22nd December, the 6 months will be 22nd June to 22nd December, so you will need the following payslips:
May (to cover 22nd, 23rd, 24th June)
June (to cover from 25th June onwards)
July
August
Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec

4. Unfortunately I wasn't able to set myself up with any accounts until I had proof of address.  My name was put on utility bills, but the first one to show this wasn't issued until July 2020.  The NHS letter confirming my registration at the practice then showed up later in July 2020.  I was getting by with internet banks and foreign accounts, as brick and mortar institutes weren't liking that the utility bill showed "Miss Lastname" instead of "Miss A B Lastname"; I had to wait for the water bill in November to corroborate it.  I wasn't able to get an NI number until 2021 and the letter from DVLA with my licence is not dated.  Basically, I have no correspondence in my name between February and July 2020, then nothing again until November. However, I have three sources for joint statements (outlined below).  Would an accompanying letter along the lines of this explanation suffice for lack of documentation on my part?

Your list below shows that you have plenty of statements in joint names, which meet the requirements, so it doesn't matter if you don't have anything in just in your name. There's nothing to worry about and nothing to explain in regards to that.

Joint sources:
July 2020 - SSE bill (source 1)
November 2020 - Water bill (source 2)
December 2020 - SSE bill
February 2021 - Octopus Energy statement (arriving monthly from then to present) (source 3)
May 2021 - Water bill
November 2021 - Water bill

You ideally need your documents to be evenly-spaced between July 2020 and Jan 2022, so approx 1 document each every 3 months.

So, from what you've listed, you'll need include
July 2020
- July 2020 - SSE bill (source 1)
Oct 2020
- November 2020 - Water bill (source 2)
Jan 2021
- February 2021 - Octopus Energy statement (arriving monthly from then to present) (source 3)
April 2021
- May 2021 - Water bill
July 2021
- Octopus statement from July or  August 2021
Oct 2021
- November 2021 - Water bill
Jan 2022
- Octopus statement - Jan 2022

And then you can just include a letter explaining why the documents aren't quite evenly-spaced every 3 months.

Thank you so much for the welcome and for putting me at ease AND for the extra assistance! I hadn't set myself up to get notifications and never would have expected such a swift response, it means a lot that you took your time to give your input. The guidance to my concerns all seem so obvious reading it back. Putting February as the time I officially moved has helped slot a lot of other things into place too.

The payslips are all dated on the 25th, so I have June to December downloaded. I found a helpful example for an employer letter (and I wish my screenshot included the author's username so I could give credit where it's due), and have altered as follows,  if I could please have confirmation it looks okay. By the way, does it need to be signed off by anybody specific within HR, or any job description vaguely payroll sounding enough is fine? The application does ask for the employer's email address after all.

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to confirm that [name] joined [company] on [date] as a full-time, permanent employee as [job role]. In June 2021, [name] received a pay rise with a new gross annual salary of [amount], effective July 2021.

I can confirm that the payslips provided by [name] are authentic originals and reflect his salary payments made by [company].  Please see below confirmed details for the salary payments made:

[table showing pay dates shown on pay slip, gross pay, net pay, and date deposited into bank account - I can't format on phone sorry]

The June pay run included a bonus payment of [amount], which is included in the gross pay amount.  The July payslip was deposited two days earlier as the pay date was on a weekend. The September and December payslips were deposited one day earlier as the pay dates were on a weekend.


Also, I have taken the suggestion of document spacing and plan to include these, all in joint names:

July 2020: SSE bill
November 2020: Water bill
February 2021: Octopus statement
May 2021: Water bill
August 2021: Octopus statement
November 2021: Water bill
January 2022: Octopus statement

Could I please ask for feedback on a covering note for the correspondence? I said in the application that I started living here in February (when I picked up my BRP), then returned to Canada to complete my studies, relocating to the UK in May.  I'm worried the below might therefore be redundant:

Please note that I (the applicant) had returned to Canada between February 2020 and May 2020, and I do not have letters addressed jointly or to me at my UK address. The first piece of correspondence received was a quarterly statement in 2020 and the water bill is generated bi-annually, hence the July to November break between documents.

I have a copy of the letter from my husband's mortgage lender thanking him for remortgaging to them and outlining the debit schedule and amounts, though no actual statement has been issued as yet. Would that letter be okay to include along with Land Registry title register to show evidence of monthly housing costs?

His bank statement showing the December deposit won't be generated until next week, so I'm sure that's when the true panic will set in, but thank you for working out for me that I have a week's grace after that! I'm sure I'll be back for a last minute document check