FLR Appointment Question and Document check!

Hello again you wonderful humans!

I have my appointment in 1 week (next Thurs) and I sprung for the Lounge so they would scan all my documents rather than laboriously have to scan/name each document accordingly. With that said, I have made a sort of table of contents for my documents as they currently are arranged so when they are scanned there's at least a reference.

Is there an order the VISA people prefer or is the following ok?

Also, am I missing anything?? (For context, he has a daughter with his ex-wife and there are a bunch of weird extra things they've asked for...and we also just had a baby in January)


Table of contents

Passport/Biometrics Residence Permit

-Consent for Home Office to Verify Application Information Part 1 (signed by me)
-Consent for Home Office to Verify Application Information Part 2 (signed by my husband)
-Consent for Home Office to Verify Application Information Part 3 (signed by both of us just in case...as our names are jointly on many bills)
-Declaration for Spouses signed by husband
-Birth Certificate OR husband's passport  (My husband just renewed his passport and we got his new passport but are awaiting the return of his birth certificate...if we don't get that in time, is his passport enough to confirm he's a British citizen, as he had to be in order to obtain one anyway?)
-Decree of divorce from husbands first marriage
-Marriage certificate for me and my husband

-Birth Certificate for stepdaughter
-Papers regarding custody arrangements
-Letter from ex-wife discussing my "access/relationship" with stepdaughter
-Letter from my husband discussing my "access/relationship/interest" in stepdaughter

-Utility Bill from my husband
-Utility bill from his ex-wife

- Birth Certificate for new baby

CORRESPONDENCE

-Aug 2019 : Cell Phone bill (me), Bank Statement (husband)
-Dec 2019: Bank statements for me and husband
-April 2020: Energy bill (JOINT BILL)
-August 2020: Payment statement from Job (me), Cell phone bill (husband)
-December 2020: Bank statement (husband), Energy Bill (joint bill)
-April 2021: DVLA (husband- it's dated March 31st), Bank Statement (me)
-August 2021: water bill (husband), copy of bank statement (me- original is with financial section and i've specified that on the actual copy)
-December 2021: NHS (me...dated Nov 30th), energy bill (husband)
-February 2022: Energy Bill (husband), copy of Bank Statement (me...original with financial docs)

-Lease agreement
-Council Tax Bill for current flat


TAX DOCUMENTS

- Confirmation of my UTR
- Proof of self-employment registration
- My Self Assessment Tax return for 2020-2021
- Evidence of tax paid
-Statement of accounts/Annual Audited account provided by my accountant


FINANCIAL REQUIREMENT

-Summary of MY self employment invoices over the last tax year
-Letter from Temp agency #1 verifying Employment and other details
-Payslips from Temp agency #1
-Letter from Temp agency #2 verifying Employment and other details
-Payslips from Temp agency #2
-My Bank Statements for the past Year highlighting all incoming payments matching payslips and invoice summary

-Verification of employment for husband
-Payslips for husband
-Bank statements for husband




Any and all help is beyond appreciated!

It looks like you're using several methods (your self employment, your employment x 2, your husband's employment)  to meet the financial requirement. Do you need to use them all to meet the 18.6k?
If you don't need them all, the first one to drop would be your self employment, if the numbers still work. The simpler you keep things the better.

Thanks Larabee-

 I would love to, and it would totally make sense to drop my self employment as my husband fits the criteria. I barely meet the requirement as self employed, however when I was filling out the online application, it said it required my employment history as well and made me check boxes stating that I would submit documentation supporting it.

Another member on here said that it's hard to prove self employment for financial requirement, so I've included my husband's anyway as I cannot afford to get rejected.

Thanks Larabee-

 I would love to, and it would totally make sense to drop my self employment as my husband fits the criteria. I barely meet the requirement as self employed, however when I was filling out the online application, it said it required my employment history as well and made me check boxes stating that I would submit documentation supporting it.

Another member on here said that it's hard to prove self employment for financial requirement, so I've included my husband's anyway as I cannot afford to get rejected.

Ah, in that case, you should only have filled in your husband's employment details on the application and left yours blank. Wait to see what @ksand24 has to say but I think you'd be better cancelling your application (I hope you still have time left on your current visa) and resubmitting with just his details.
It's incredibly easy to be refused on self employment and the way your application stands, you're just really muddying the waters when it sounds like it should be a simple application if you just use his figures.

Ah, yes.  You were too literal with your reading.  Think of it as "are you using your employment to meet the requirements?"  The answer is no, so you completely leave your employment off and only use your husband's.  Trust me, using self employment without a solicitor is something we wouldn't recommend.

Definitely cancel the application and resubmit using ONE financial category and not more than that if the £18,600 has been met through a single source. 

Thanks Larabee-

 I would love to, and it would totally make sense to drop my self employment as my husband fits the criteria. I barely meet the requirement as self employed, however when I was filling out the online application, it said it required my employment history as well and made me check boxes stating that I would submit documentation supporting it.

If your husband’s income meets the criteria, then you just say on the form that you are unemployed and do not fill out any of your own income details.

That way you do not have to provide any employment or self-employment documents for yourself.

Another member on here said that it's hard to prove self employment for financial requirement, so I've included my husband's anyway as I cannot afford to get rejected.

The documents required for self-employment income are very specific and have to be met exactly. If any of them are missing or not in the correct format, the visa can be refused, which is why it is hard to prove.

Also, any other income you are using as well (I.e. your employment and your husband’s employment income) must be from the same 12-month financial year covered by your self-employment income.

So assuming your most recent full financial year was April 2020 to April 2021, that means only your and/or your husband’s employment income from April 6th 2020 to April 5th 2021 can be considered… so nothing that either of you has earned since April 5th 2021 can count towards the requirement.

On the other hand, if you had left your income details blank, you would only need to show the most recent 6 months (or 12 months) of your husband’s employment income and nothing else.


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Definitely cancel the application and resubmit using ONE financial category and not more than that if the £18,600 has been met through a single source.

I agree, the best thing would be to cancel/withdraw the application and start over again with a new application… though this can only be done if your current visa has not yet expired.

As long as you have not yet attended biometrics, you should be able to get a refund of the application fee.

See here:
https://www.gov.uk/cancel-visa


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Oh God.... Ok.... So because I have not attended my biometrics yet, I will get a full refund, but I can fill out and resubmit today and schedule another biometrics appointment? Will I get the expedited fee back too?

This is so stressful

If your husband’s income meets the criteria, then you just say on the form that you are unemployed and do not fill out any of your own income details.

That way you do not have to provide any employment or self-employment documents for yourself.

The documents required for self-employment income are very specific and have to be met exactly. If any of them are missing or not in the correct format, the visa can be refused, which is why it is hard to prove.

Also, any other income you are using as well (I.e. your employment and your husband’s employment income) must be from the same 12-month financial year covered by your self-employment income.

So assuming your most recent full financial year was April 2020 to April 2021, that means only your and/or your husband’s employment income from April 6th 2020 to April 5th 2021 can be considered… so nothing that either of you has earned since April 5th 2021 can count towards the requirement.

On the other hand, if you had left your income details blank, you would only need to show the most recent 6 months (or 12 months) of your husband’s employment income and nothing else.


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Alright.  So even though I do work and have worked for two temp agencies for a very brief time, when it asks if I work in the UK or overseas, I say no?

Alright.  So even though I do work and have worked for two temp agencies for a very brief time, when it asks if I work in the UK or overseas, I say no?

Yep, that's correct.

They only need to see that ONE of you meets the £18,600 requirement, so only that person needs to complete their employment details and provide the documents.

The ONLY time you need to include employment details from both of you is when neither of you earns £18,600 individually and you have no choice but to combine your incomes to meet the visa requirements.

And when it comes to self-employment income, it should only be mentioned/used as a last resort, if you have absolutely no other way of meeting the financial requirement.

So, if you both meet the £18,600 requirement with your individual incomes, what you want to do is work out whose employment is the easiest to use (which will be your husband's income) and then only include that person's employment details and documents in the application.

Alright. Thank you so much ksand... I Here goes nothin!
I'm beyond grateful. I'll check back in once things are ready

ok @ksand24 ... I think this is my last question...

I paid the health surcharge for my cancelled application, do i need to pay again and the first one will be refunded with the application refund? Or can I use the reference number from the payment for the first application... in other words, are those mutually exclusive or do they have a knock on effect when cancelling?

I guess I could pay again and contact them in case I don't get a refund from the first time I paid?

Thanks for your help!

Just as an update: had my appointment today, and even though I cancelled my first application and listed my husband as financially responsible/me not putting any of my work in the application, the woman still asked for all of my financial information which luckily I brought along just in case. I'll find out tomorrow apparently but I'm so nervous for no good reason