ILR Document checklist and guidance

Hi all,

Back on the forum again getting ready for my wife's ILR application.

Background:

• I'm a UK Citizen, have always lived in the UK
• She's a US Citizen
• We met online and spent several years flying back and forth visiting each other
• We married in the US - 09/09/16
• She arrived in the UK on the Spousal Visa - 23/11/16
• Leave to Remain approved - 30/08/19
• Leave to Remain will expire 26/03/22

From what I understand we can apply now for the ILR as she has now been in the UK for over 60months/5 Years - is that correct? Or do we need to apply with 28 days of the expiration of the current visa?

Is there a definitive list of documents that we need to provide available online or do we find this once we start the online application? For reference we will be using the savings route for the financial part.

With the Life In The UK Test - My wife actually took this when we were applying for the previous visa as I incorrectly thought it was part of the previous application requirements. We have her certificate dated 12/03/19 - Does anyone know if this is still valid? If she has to take it again I'm going to be in big trouble.

Thanks in advance for your great help and guidance as always.

Jim
 

Hi all,

Back on the forum again getting ready for my wife's ILR application.

Background:

• I'm a UK Citizen, have always lived in the UK
• She's a US Citizen
• We met online and spent several years flying back and forth visiting each other
• We married in the US - 09/09/16
• She arrived in the UK on the Spousal Visa - 23/11/16
• Leave to Remain approved - 30/08/19
• Leave to Remain will expire 26/03/22

From what I understand we can apply now for the ILR as she has now been in the UK for over 60months/5 Years - is that correct? Or do we need to apply with 28 days of the expiration of the current visa?

Is there a definitive list of documents that we need to provide available online or do we find this once we start the online application? For reference we will be using the savings route for the financial part.

With the Life In The UK Test - My wife actually took this when we were applying for the previous visa as I incorrectly thought it was part of the previous application requirements. We have her certificate dated 12/03/19 - Does anyone know if this is still valid? If she has to take it again I'm going to be in big trouble.

Thanks in advance for your great help and guidance as always.

Jim

The life in the UK test is still valid, they never expire.

Apart from that and the spacing of the correspondence evidence, it's just the same as your FLR application, which should be spaced over 2.5 years instead of 2 years..And no IHS this time!

Have a go at posting your own list and we'll check it over for you. 

You actually could have applied from 28 days before the 5 year anniversary of your arrival.

Hi all,

Back on the forum again getting ready for my wife's ILR application.

Background:

• I'm a UK Citizen, have always lived in the UK
• She's a US Citizen
• We met online and spent several years flying back and forth visiting each other
• We married in the US - 09/09/16
• She arrived in the UK on the Spousal Visa - 23/11/16
• Leave to Remain approved - 30/08/19
• Leave to Remain will expire 26/03/22

From what I understand we can apply now for the ILR as she has now been in the UK for over 60months/5 Years - is that correct? Or do we need to apply with 28 days of the expiration of the current visa?

You can apply as early as 28 days before she reaches 60 months in the UK... she reached 60 months on 23rd November 2021, so you have been eligible to apply since 26th October 2021.

That means you can submit the online application at any time between today and her current BRP expiry date: 23rd March 2022.

Is there a definitive list of documents that we need to provide available online or do we find this once we start the online application? For reference we will be using the savings route for the financial part.

It's basically all the same documents as you used for the last visa (7 months bank statements for the cash savings route, accommodation documents, marriage certificate, cohabitation documents etc.) , but this time your cohabitation/correspondence documents need to be spaced every 5 months, covering the last 2.5 years.

The online application will give you a basic document checklist, but it is very vague and often does not include everything you need to include, so it's best to gather all your documents before you apply, so you can make sure you have everything.

If you can post a list here of all the documents you are planning to include, we can check to see if you have everything you need.

Not sure if you're already aware, but the cash savings requirement for ILR is lower than for the spousal visa and FLR(M)... you only need to show £34,600 in savings for ILR (compared with £62,500 for the previous visas).

With the Life In The UK Test - My wife actually took this when we were applying for the previous visa as I incorrectly thought it was part of the previous application requirements. We have her certificate dated 12/03/19 - Does anyone know if this is still valid? If she has to take it again I'm going to be in big trouble.

Yes, it's still valid - the Life in the UK test certificate never expires, so can be taken at any time in the 5 years before applying for ILR.

You will also need it if/when she applies for UK citizenship... so you just need to make sure you keep hold of the certificate.

Hi all, thanks for your replies,

I've been putting together the list of documents for our the application, I'd really appreciate your advice and input.

Assuming all the same generic docs as last time and we have to upload scans of everything to the online portal once we get that far through the process:

Declaration of partner signed by me
Partner Passport
Sponser Passport
Partner Birth Certificate
Sponsor Birth Certificate
Like in UK Test Cert

Funds
We are using savings to prove we have the correct funds - So bank statements showing savings, minimum of £34,600 over the past 5 months. Does this still need to be a special print out from the bank and not the downloadable pdfs from the bank website?

Housing
Council Tax bill - March 2020
Council Tax bill  - May 2020
Council Tax bill - March 2121
Mortgage Statement
Land Registry Document to show home ownership

Proof of correspondence
By my calculations (She arrived in the UK on the Spousal Visa - 23/11/16, Leave to Remain approved - 30/08/19, Leave to Remain will expire 26/03/22) the months in bold are the ones we need to ideally have letters for - we do have a few holes on those exact months from my partner just how letters seem to fall I'm afraid, so as I've worked through , I know this is a bit over the top but I've put together a list of items of correspondence where we have them:

2019 July
Partner - Letter from car insurance company
Sponsor - Letter from Building Society

2019 August
Sponsor - Letter from Property Management Company

2019 September
Joint - Water bill

2019 October
- None

2019 November
Partner - DVLA Vehicle Tax Reminder

2019 December
Partner - NHS Letter
Sponsor - HMRC Self Assessment Statement

2020 - January
Partner - Letter from HSBC
Sponsor - Electricity Bill

2020 - February
- None

2020 - March
Joint - Water bill
Joint - Council Tax Demand

2020 - April
Partner - HMRC Letter for Self Assessment
Sponsor - Electricity Bill

2020 - May
Joint - Council Tax Demand
Partner - NHS Letter

2020 - June
- None

2020 - July
Partner - NHS Letter
Sponsor - HMRC Letter

2020 - August
Partner - HSBC Letter
Sponsor - HMRC Letter

2020 - September
Partner - Remittance Advice from Employer

2020 - October
- None

2020 - November
Partner - DVLA Vehicle Tax Reminder
Partner - Remittance Advice from Employer

2020 - December
Sponsor - Mortgage Statement

2121 - January
Sponsor - HMRC Letter

2021 - February
- None

2021 - March
Joint - Water bill
Joint - Council Tax Demand

2021- April
Partner - Letter from Accountant
Partner - HMRC - Self Assessment Tax Return Notice
Sponsor - Electricity Bill

2021 - May
- None

2021 - June
Sponsor - Credit Card Statement

2021 - July
Partner - NHS Letter

2021 - August
- None

2021 - September
Joint - Water bill
Partner - NHS Letter

2021 - October
Partner - NHS Letter
Sponsor - Electricity Bill

2021 - November
Partner - NHS Letter

2021 - December
Partner - NHS Letter
Sponsor - HMRC Letter

2022 - Jan
- None yet


 




 

Okay, I'm just going to rearrange the documents into the various upload sections for the UKVCAS website. Any comments are in blue, missing documents are in red:

Application Documents
- Applicant's Passport - full scan of every page
- Any previous passports the applicant has held since moving to the UK - full scan of every page
- Declaration of sponsor signed by you (part of online application form)

Proof of Identity/Travel History
- Sponsor UK Passport - full scan of every page
- Applicant's BRP card (scan of both sides)

Finances
- 7 months of bank statements showing that £34,600 has been held in full in the account for every single day of the required 6 months
- statement of the source of the savings
Bank statements can either be:
- original statements received in the mail
- statements printed by the bank at a local branch
- online PDF statements printed at home that have either been stamped by the bank on EVERY page or are accompanied by a letter from the bank confirming their authenticity

Residence in the UK
Accommodation
Proof of homeownership:
- Land Registry Document
Proof of monthly housing costs:
- Council Tax bill - March 2021
- Latest Mortgage Statement
Cohabitation/Correspondence
You need 1 letter in each name evenly-spaced every 5 months between July 2019 and January 2022, from at least 3 different sources.
So, you can use:
2019 July
1. Applicant - Letter from car insurance company (Source 1)
1. Sponsor - Letter from Building Society (Source 2)
2019 December
2. Applicant - NHS Letter (Source 3)
2. Sponsor - HMRC Self Assessment Statement (Source 4)
2020 - May
3. Joint - Council Tax Demand (Source 5)
2020 - October
4. Applicant: ?
4. Sponsor: ?
2021 - March
5. Joint - Water bill (Source 6)
2021 - August
6. Applicant: ?
6. Sponsor: ?
2022 - Jan - TBC
7. Applicant:
7. Sponsor: ?

Now, as you don't have anything for the required months of October 2020 and August 2021, you have a couple of options:
1. If you have mailed monthly bank statements (which we always recommend getting set up as soon as you arrive in the UK), you can use bank statements for those months
or
2. You could use the documents you have listed for November 2020 and September 2021 instead, but you MUST include a letter of explanation for why you cannot provide documents for October 2020 and August 2021

Other
- marriage certificate
- Life in UK Test Certificate

The following documents are not required so you can take them out:
Partner Birth Certificate
Sponsor Birth Certificate
Council Tax bill - March 2020
Council Tax bill  - May 2020

Thank you @ksand24

I've been back through all of our paperwork and I now have the following:

Application Documents
- Applicant's Passport - full scan of every page
- Any previous passports the applicant has held since moving to the UK - full scan of every page
- Declaration of sponsor signed by you (part of online application form)

Proof of Identity/Travel History
- Sponsor UK Passport - full scan of every page
- Applicant's BRP card (scan of both sides)

Finances
- 7 months of bank statements showing that £34,600 has been held in full in the account for every single day of the required 6 months printed in branch
- statement of the source of the savings

Residence in the UK
Accommodation
Proof of homeownership:
- Land Registry Document

Proof of monthly housing costs:
- Council Tax bill - March 2021
- Latest Mortgage Statement

2019 July
1. Applicant - Letter from Accountant (Source 1)
1. Sponsor - Letter from Building Society (Source 2)

2019 December
2. Applicant - NHS Letter (Source 3)
2. Sponsor - HMRC Self Assessment Statement (Source 4)

2020 - May
3. Joint - Council Tax Demand (Source 5)

2020 - October
4. Joint - Letter from water company

2021 - March
5. Joint - Water bill (Source 6)

2021 - August
6. Applicant: Remittance Advice from Employer
6. Sponsor: Credit Card Statement

2022 - Jan
7. Applicant: Invoice from Physiotherapy Clinic
7. Sponsor: Letter from conveyancing company

Other
- Marriage certificate
- Life in UK Test Certificate


How does this all look?

Thanks again,

Jim

Just wanted to check if the document list above looks good?

Also in terms of uploading documents to the Visa site - if some of these are already in PDF format from source is it ok to just upload them or do I need to print them off, scan and upload?

Think we're almost there, just waiting for some statements to arrive from the bank!

Thanks

Just wanted to check if the document list above looks good?

Looks good to me .

Also in terms of uploading documents to the Visa site - if some of these are already in PDF format from source is it ok to just upload them or do I need to print them off, scan and upload?

It depends which documents they are:

- proof of homeownership and monthly housing costs documents (Land Registry, mortgage statement) can be electronically-issued so if those are already in PDF format, that's fine to just upload

- however, all the correspondence documents you are using MUST have physically been received in the mail (electronically-issued bills/documents are not acceptable as they do not prove you were physically present in your house to receive them when they were issued - i.e. you could have an online bank account registered to a different address to where you actually live)... so you will need to scan all of those in