FLR (M) first renewal. Checklist and questions

Hello,

I found this website very helpful when we applied for my wife’s initial spouse visa. We are now applying for the first extension and I have a couple of questions:

1). I was hoping that someone could please look over my checklist to make sure we are not missing anything. We will hopefully be doing the online submission before the end of January 2020. I am just waiting for a couple of documents before we do. Her BRP does not expire until the end of February 2020.

General
-   Biometric residence permit for applicant
-   Applicant passport and previous passport
-   Spouse passport
-   Spouse declaration
-   Third party consents
-   Our 4 year old son’s birth certificate (he is not on the application as he is a British citizen but the online application site states we need to send it)
-   I would imagine we would have to include some sort of proof that we have filed the application on line and paid the relevant NHS surcharge.

Financial requirement
-   Letter from employer with salary, type/dates of employment.
-   Last 6 months of payslips in original format
-   Last 6 months of bank account statements that show the salary getting paid into the account. These are originals received in the post. Account has both our names on it.
-   I’ll probably include a couple of P60’s.

Accommodation
-   Council tax bills in both our names for the last 2 years
-   Water bills in both our names for the past 2 years
-   Various mortgage documents in spouse’s name. When we bought our house it was not practical to include the visa applicant on the mortgage. I am sending a document that the mortgage provider required the applicant to fill out when we bought the house in October 2017 to basically say she was going to be living at the address, but not on the mortgage.
-   I also have a letter from my Dad as when we first moved over we lived with him for a few months before we bought our house in October 2017. Not sure if we even need that since it was over 2 years ago.

Proof of relationship/correspondence documents
-   Marriage certificate
-   We have both been married before so I will send our respective divorce documents.
-   Correspondence documents for the months January/May/September for both 2018 and 2019. Some are in both our names, for the months that are not I have made sure we each have one for the month in question. They are from several different sources. I’m confident that what we have is fine based on feedback from our people’s post on this site.

2) We got married in 2015 and lived in the States for a while before we relocated to the UK. When she applied for her initial spouse visa, although she had already been using her correct last name, her passport at the time of that application had her old last name on it and so therefore her current BRP is in that old name. In the time since we applied for the initial visa, my wife (the visa applicant) updated the name on her US passport so that has her correct last name – which is the same as mine. We’re using her current last name on the application this time around. I’m hoping that this isn’t going to be problematic, especially since we’ll be sending in both her current and previous passport which will illustrate the name change?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Rich.

Did she change her name on her BRP within 90 days of the new passport?  Or just recently renew?  It needs to be updated within 90 days, otherwise you risk a fine of £1,000 or even cancellation of the current visa...  hoping it's a new change and you are still in the 90 day window.

Thank you for your reply, although now I am panicking a little bit!

Her new passport was issued on 10th December 2019. I was not aware that she had to update her current BRP with the name change, but luckily it seems we are still within the 90 day time frame you mentioned.  I figured we would just put it on the new spouse visa extension application. The whole reason we updated her passport to accurately reflect the current married name was so that when we reapplied, the BRP she got would have the correct name on it.

So what do I do next? We need to apply for the visa extension before the end of February as that is when the current BRP runs out...

Thank you for your reply, although now I am panicking a little bit!

Her new passport was issued on 10th December 2019. I was not aware that she had to update her current BRP with the name change, but luckily it seems we are still within the 90 day time frame you mentioned.  I figured we would just put it on the new spouse visa extension application. The whole reason we updated her passport to accurately reflect the current married name was so that when we reapplied, the BRP she got would have the correct name on it.

So what do I do next? We need to apply for the visa extension before the end of February as that is when the current BRP runs out...

You just apply for FLR(M) using her new name - as long as the application is submitted within 3 months of 10 December 2019, you won't need to update her current BRP, because she will just have the new BRP issued in the new name instead.

Well that is a huge relief. I thought I was going to have to include another step before sending in the visa extension application. That’s why this site is so great, although I do think the short period of panic I had in the interim may have taken a few weeks off my life!! Nothing like last minute oversights to scare the Bejesus out of ya.

I appreciate the reply to the name change question. If someone could please look over the document checklist  too when you have a moment I’d appreciate it. 

Well that is a huge relief. I thought I was going to have to include another step before sending in the visa extension application. That’s why this site is so great, although I do think the short period of panic I had in the interim may have taken a few weeks off my life!! Nothing like last minute oversights to scare the Bejesus out of ya.

It costs about £160 and can take several months to change the name on the BRP, so you wouldn’t have had time to get it changed anyway.

We actually recommend that if you plan to change the name on your passport, you do it just before you apply for your next visa so that you don’t have to send off for a BRP name change... which you have done anyway, just without realising it

I appreciate the reply to the name change question. If someone could please look over the document checklist  too when you have a moment I’d appreciate it. 

I’m at work at the moment and on my phone so can’t look properly, but I will say that for the accommodation evidence all you need is:

- Land Registry
- most recent mortgage statement
- most recent council tax bill

There is no need to send 2 years’ worth of mortgage and council tax statements, only the most up-to-date ones (and you do not need any water bills for this section)... unless of course, you are using the others for your 4-monthly correspondence documents.

If you lived with your father more than 2 years ago, you don’t need a letter from him either.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry for the panic!  As ksand said, you’ve timed it just right!

You’ll want a letter addressed to your child to prove he/she lives with you.  Your GP or child’s school can provide this to you.  Some may charge a fee for the letter.   They just need to confirm the address they have on record is the one you use for your cohabitation proof.   If you already have something with 90 days prior to the application, you can use that.

Your list looks good other wise. No previous marriages?  If so, you need the divorce decree.