Preliminary Checklist - Help/Advice/Comments Appreciated!

Hi, everyone! I was directed here from Reddit after running into several visa-related questions and issues. Apparently y'all are the people to go to for the advice, and my husband and I are definitely in need of it (anyone else about a hair away from a panic attack/stress break down?!).  To start off, I'll list the documents we are currently including with our application, and then put a list at the bottom of questions we have.  We haven't submitted the application yet, so the biometrics letter, receipts, etc, are just what we plan on including!

Applicant Documents

Visa receipt
Printed online visa application form
Passport and passport photos
Immigration Health Surcharge Receipt
Return Shipping Label


Sponsor Documents

Cover letter from sponsor (describing work situation, new job, move to London/accommodation)
Copy of sponsor's passport


Financial Requirement

Offer letter (date started, role, salary, bonus, electronically signed by CEO and himself; has Adobe second page with audit trail of who has viewed it)
Sponsor's employment contract
3 months of sponsor's payslips (3 months: Nov, Dec, Jan)
Recent letter verifying new employment
12 months of pay slips from past job)
12 months bank statements (stamped & certified)


Accommodation

Tenancy agreement
Council Tax bill (March 2018)
Utility Bill (19 Nov 2018)

Relationship Evidence

Cover Letter from applicant (describes what is enclosed as proof of relationship)
Marriage certificate
Invoice from wedding photographer
Annotated photographs (with each other's families, holidays, wedding, etc)
Annotated iMessages (dated)
Flight receipts/itineraries/boarding passes
Postage/Letters


Questions:

1. Does every page of his passport need to be scanned and included, or just his biometrics photo page?  Does the passport scan need to be notarized or something similar?
2. Re: accommodations - he rents through a property management company, who will not allow him to speak to a landlord.  They have been putting us through the ringer while trying to get a letter signed that I will be able to live there (it is a 2 bedroom apartment, so there is no shortage of space).  Is a letter absolutely necessary if he is the only tenant on a two-bedroom apartment lease?  We're worried this might be our "immediate denial" point, and we've been hounding them for well over a week now.  Is there any alternative we can consider?  Just any advice on this would be so wonderful.  Likewise, his job requires him (this is stated in his contract, which we are including) to move to London within the next few months.  For this reason, we can't add me to the lease in Manchester (where he currently lives) as they will require us to renew the lease for 12 more months (according to the unhelpful man at the property management company).  I'm not really sure if this changes anything - I doubt it - but I thought I would include this information about why it's
3. Does Appendix 2 need to be printed out separately and filled out, or are those questions part of our online application form? It seems odd to me that one thing would have to be printed and written out by hand, but the other forms are online.
4. Will printed copies of his contract of employment (which is electronically signed via Adobe) and payslips be sufficient?  Apparently, physical payslips are a thing of the past, so all have been issued electronically, which we have PDFs for.


Any and all help would be so wonderful - my husband and I eloped on 3/1/2019, and we were blissfully unaware of how much faffing really goes into the visa application.  My husband also travels extensively for work, and he's been gone for one of the past two weeks, and will be leaving again tomorrow for the rest of the week, which puts a lot of stress on the timing of working on the application!  Literally any advice or commentary is so appreciated, even if it's "you're an idiot for not including _______!" I'm totally fine with being an idiot when it comes to this arduous process 

Some docs not required:

Accommodation

Council Tax bill (March 2018)
Utility Bill (19 Nov 2018)

Relationship Evidence

Invoice from wedding photographer
Annotated photographs (with each other's families, holidays, wedding, etc) *** only need 2 photos of just you and your spouse



Questions:

1. Does every page of his passport need to be scanned and included, or just his biometrics photo page?  Does the passport scan need to be notarized or something similar?

Only the bio page, most get it done at the post office for an official copy. The applicant sends in their passport(s).

2. Re: accommodations - he rents through a property management company, who will not allow him to speak to a landlord.  They have been putting us through the ringer while trying to get a letter signed that I will be able to live there (it is a 2 bedroom apartment, so there is no shortage of space).  Is a letter absolutely necessary if he is the only tenant on a two-bedroom apartment lease?  We're worried this might be our "immediate denial" point, and we've been hounding them for well over a week now.  Is there any alternative we can consider?  Just any advice on this would be so wonderful.  Likewise, his job requires him (this is stated in his contract, which we are including) to move to London within the next few months.  For this reason, we can't add me to the lease in Manchester (where he currently lives) as they will require us to renew the lease for 12 more months (according to the unhelpful man at the property management company).  I'm not really sure if this changes anything - I doubt it - but I thought I would include this information about why it's

You have to prove you have permission to live in the property when you land, so unfortunately the letter is essential unless you have an alternative place you can provide all the needed evidence for. They can't legally rent to you until you are in the country, so it can say something like "pending valid credit and BRP check xxx will be added to the lease and has permission to reside in the property".

3. Does Appendix 2 need to be printed out separately and filled out, or are those questions part of our online application form? It seems odd to me that one thing would have to be printed and written out by hand, but the other forms are online.

Yes, it has to be printed and completed.

4. Will printed copies of his contract of employment (which is electronically signed via Adobe) and payslips be sufficient?  Apparently, physical payslips are a thing of the past, so all have been issued electronically, which we have PDFs for.

Payslips that are electronic need to be verified as valid by the employer. The employment letter is supposed to have a wet signature as well, I don't know if they'd accept esigned docs.


Financial docs, most recent payslip and the employment letter need to be dated within 28 days of your application (when you submit online), but don't apply until you have everything in hand!

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Hi skeletisms, welcome! 

Just to add to Margo's comments.

You will also need your stamped biometrics receipt and priority payment receipt if you are using it. 

It looks a little as if you are only including bank statements from the time he was in his previous job, you need them to be for the most recent full 12(or 13 to be safe) months.

The online payslips need to be accompanied by a letter authenticating that they are genuine. See here.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-fm-se-family-members-specified-evidence

Amazing, thank you both! We are in the process of getting all pay slips (from his last job and current job) signed/authenticated, as well as his contract/letter of employment. Now we wait for the landlord to give a little bit... or else it's looking like we will have to wait until he has to make the move to London and make that a priority of whatever flat we choose!

Amazing, thank you both! We are in the process of getting all pay slips (from his last job and current job) signed/authenticated, as well as his contract/letter of employment. Now we wait for the landlord to give a little bit... or else it's looking like we will have to wait until he has to make the move to London and make that a priority of whatever flat we choose!

Does your husband's lease not indicate who his landlord is? It seems really odd behaviour for a property management company to be unwilling to write a letter for a visa application. These are common things, and their refusal could be worthy of going further up the management chain with a complaint. If they still refuse he may want to write his MP. Because everything except that accommodation letter is time sensitive the sooner that is taken care of the better!

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Does your husband's lease not indicate who his landlord is? It seems really odd behaviour for a property management company to be unwilling to write a letter for a visa application. These are common things, and their refusal could be worthy of going further up the management chain with a complaint. If they still refuse he may want to write his MP. Because everything except that accommodation letter is time sensitive the sooner that is taken care of the better!

I thought it was pretty weird, too! Apparently they're refusing to escalate the issue to a higher up employee, and have emailed us back after my (bless him, very persistent) husband sent them a few emails with bold letters, strong wording, etc.  This is after having been in to their office, talked with them on the phone more than once, and so on - and every encounter before this has been him buttering them up.  The email says that they're working on it and need a few days, although I don't know what could hold them up, as he's given them an exact template on what needs to be in the letter.  I will definitely pass that comment along to him, though, as we may very well need to raise the issue further if we don't hear back in a day or two.