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I thought I'd share my visa story since it wasn't straightforward. Hopefully, it might help someone in the future.

I applied for a returning resident visa in January and got denied. In early February, I lodged an appeal and applied for a spousal visa at the same time. I had to get my biometrics done again for the second application.

I got a call 9 working days after the application was received from the ECO. She said that I needed to write a letter to withdrawal my appeal in order for my visa to be issued, and fax it to her in New York.

I've been married for 10 years. The ECO confirmed that I can enter the UK and take the KOL test immediately, get ILR, and then apply for citizenship in 3 years.

Anyone with a denied visa, feel free to PM me with any questions.

Wow, this post hasn't been updated in a long time!  But I thought it best to post my visa experience here in an effort to keep the board neat and tidy. 
I was recently approved for ILE based on being married to a UK citizen for more than 4 years and having passed the KOL test. 

Since there is very little information out there about us long term partners, I thought I'd give some detail about how I went about obtaining ILE.  Since one of the requirements of ILE is to take the KOL test and the KOL test can only be taken in the UK, I opted to make a special trip to the UK just to take the test. I flew over to the UK in February and flew in and out of London in one day.  I had no trouble whatsoever at UK immigration upon my arrival at Heathrow.  I told them I was there to take the KOL and returning home to the US that evening, and that was fine by them.  I passed the test and received my pass certificate, I went home and began preparing my spousal visa application packet. This is what I included:

1. Letter of Support/Cover letter from Sponsor (my British husband).  This was a one page letter of 7 paragraphs where my husband gives his full support of my application, gives a brief description of how we met, a quick sentence or two about why we want to move to the UK, and a quick summary about our finances and accommodation arrangements.  Another paragraph mentions that we are requesting ILE since I have met all requirements, including KOL, and we close with the usual, thank you for considering my wife's application, etc.

2. Copy of completed visa application downloaded from internet

3. Biometrics Data

4. KOL pass certificate

5. Financial Info:  3 month's Bank statements; a month's worth of recent paystubs for me and husband (don't know why I included these, just to show how comfortably we currently live in the US, I guess); Budget for first six months in UK living with the in laws and living completely off savings; mock budget for one month showing us living in our own home and living off the lowest advertised salary of UK jobs we're qualified for (included 2 job postings each, printed from internet to back up the monthly earnings we based our budget from); copies of our CV's; Correspondence from recruiters (neither of us has a job offer in the UK - just general emails from recruiters saying thank you for registering your CV with us); Kelley Blue Book pricing reports for our cars since we were including the proceeds from the sale of our cars in our savings figure; Notice from IRS saying we were eligible for the US economic stimulus payment and a print out from IRS website showing how much we were entitled to receive (cheeky I know, but hey, it's cash and I was including every cent I could get my hands on to help boost up our money in savings). Our total cash in savings amounted to $17000.00

6. Evidence of Accommodation: Letter from in laws offering accommodation where they state we will pay them £300 per month for rent plus another £140 for utilities for the use of two double bedrooms in their four bedroom home; A Land Registry document printed from the internet showing in laws own the home; One current utility bill from in laws (just to add weight to the printed out Land Registry document we downloaded from the internet).

7.  Further Proof of Long Term Relationship: Copies of joint US tax returns 2004-2007; Joint rental lease dated from 2003; Letters from banks confirming joint account status since 2002.

8.  ID/Documents: Sponsor and applicant passports, 1 photo of applicant, marriage certificate, sponsor and applicant birth certificates, applicant's divorce decree.



Timeline:

Completed online visa application Monday, 14 Apr.  Next Biometrics appointment for Philadelphia was Thursday, 17 Apr.  After Biometrics appointment, which took all of 5 minutes, I put my documents in a folder and sent it FedEx to the NY Consulate.  FedEx shows delivered Friday, 18 April.  On Monday, 21 April, received email from Consulate acknowledging receipt of my application and to expect a decision in 5 business days.  On Tuesday, 22 April, receive another email from Consulate telling me they are making further enquiries on my application and to now expect to hear a decision in 15 business days.  Wednesday and Thursday, I cry, curse, scream, and generally flip out from the stress of that ominous sounding email.  On Friday, 25 April, receive email from Consulate that my visa has been issued and UPS tracking number is given.  Monday, 28 April, visa received in hand!

All documents returned to me except for: Table of Contents; Cover letter/letter of support from spouse; Budget and budget cover letter; Letter from in laws offering accommodation; Land Registry document; CV's and the job adverts and letters from recruiters; print out from IRS; Kelley Blue Book pricing report.  So they only returned original documents to me and either kept or threw away everything else.

I am an American citizen married to a British citizen. I came here as a student then applied for the COA and then got married at the registry office. We applied yesterday for my limited leave to remain visa (FLR(M) form) in person at the Liverpool office.

The process was so much simpler than I thought.

We made our appt for 10:45 and told to be there by 10:15. We arrived at 10, went through security and then went upstairs to wait. At around 10:30 we were called to reception where a woman went through our forms and made sure we had everything. Then we went to pay. At near enough 10:45 we were called to another window where a woman started processing our application. All she needed to see from us was our passports, the last 3 months bank statements and marriage license. We had just under £3000 in our bank with £1500 overdraft, and apparently this was enough. She didn't need to see payslips, job contracts, or anything else. (And just for the record, our bank statements did not show any deposits from a job because we were both students and my husbands job doesn't start until Sept.) It took her all of 10 minutes to approve our application (most of that was spent typing into the computer and photocopying documents). Then we waited about 45 minutes to get my passport back with my shiny new residence permit.

She did inform us that we would need to start collecting documents now for the ILR, and we got a letter which said the same thing. However, no one said anything about having to take the KOL test which I found surprising. Overall though everyone was extremely pleasant  and I wish I knew before hand not to fret so much. (I had a ton of documents that she didn't ask to see, I felt a bit foolish).

As a disclaimer, this was just my experience and I hope yours goes as smoothly but your mileage may vary as they say.

I've just successfully applied for FLR(M) after my marriage, switching from the International Graduates Scheme, so I'll share a more detailed version of my experience here. 

We already lived together in the UK in a privately rented house (joint tenancy agreement until June 2009) so proving accommodation was easy.  The tricky bit was the financial piece- I've been working in the UK since October 2007 as a temp and then on a 6 month contract ending in August 2008 (no job firmly lined up after that) and DH has been working in a permanent job since May 2008 (prior to that he was a full time student.)  Our minimum monthly expenses are roughly £300 more than DH's monthly salary, and we had very limited savings (technically none, but would be able to save up approx £1400 by October 1 through my last paycheques.)  In addition to this, DH had been operating completely in his overdraft for the last several months and was weaving in and out of it in July even after he got paid by his new job. Anyway, I was nervous about all this, but our visa was issued very quickly.

Here's our list of documents.  They sent back everything *except* my cover letter and DH's letter of support.

Basics:
Cover letter
Application form, photographs & passports
Marriage Certificate
Letter from the sponsor (my husband) supporting the application
Evidence of relationship- a few photographs and emails/chat sessions

Accommodation:
Joint tenancy agreement for our 2bed house

Current finances:
Last 3 months bank statements for both my and DH's accounts, plus lists of recent transactions since the last statement printed by our bank (not stamped)
Payslips March-June 2008 (me)
Payslip June 2008 (DH)
Current employment contract with the August end date of employment (me)
Email from Human Resources confirming April 2008 2.75% pay rise & payment dates (me)
Letter from employer confirming contract & original job offer letter (DH)
Current employment contract (DH)
Monthly Budgets July 2008-July 2009 (these were pretty crucial, in our case)

Employability of applicant
Original degree certificate for my master's degree
My CV to show skills and employability
Copies of 2 recent job applications and letter inviting me for an interview
P45 from temp agency confirming my previous temporary work

I met my British husband playing World of Warcraft in late 2005.  He came to America and we got married a couple months after meeting and started the bumpy road to a green card.  Immigration is no fun on the US side.  After overstaying his visa waiver and filing the paperwork wrong, he finally got approved in July 2007, shortly after our son was born.  We moved around a bunch, and started throwing around the idea of moving to England that December, but nothing really came of it until June of this year, shortly after I found out I was pregnant again.  So we made the decision, started getting passports, and bought our tickets (we used http://vayama.com for cheap tickets).

I submitted the application for my son's UK passport in the beginning of October 2008, and after some anxiety about my spousal visa application (issues with employment, accommodation, and finances), we submitted the online application and I went a day early to my biometrics appointment as a walk-in.  I mailed it all to the courier (Expert Visa) and they delivered it to the consulate on October 16.  When I heard about the biometrics system being down, I got worried and called the courier on October 20, only to be told it had been approved!  Now I've just got to wait for it and my son's passport in the mail and we're off to England in 30 days

You can see my table of contents here: http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=47972.msg678520#msg678520

It doesn't seem like anyone's actually gotten rejected for a visa. Is it not that common for people to be turned down?

It doesn't seem like anyone's actually gotten rejected for a visa. Is it not that common for people to be turned down?

For couples from American, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc who actually want to live and settle in the UK, one way or another it usually works itself out.  Other then that, it is a mixed bag and getting harder for all to settle permenantly.

also keep in mind that the kind of people who tend to post here are getting online and doing the research to make sure that they are using the proper channels and doing things as required.  If you look back in the history, you'll find individual posts from people who say things like "I wish I had discovered this site earlier.  I totally screwed up my visa application and got rejected."  It definitely happens, especially with people from other countries and with people who have made stupid choices like repeated lying to immigration officials to try to make things look better.

Ok, time to revive a long long thread...

I have my ILR!!!!!!!!! It was a SET-M. I will be writing a nice long article for Garry's site and then link to it from here, so I will not bore you with all the details right now.  The interesting thing is Birmingham is a doddle compared to the machine that is Lunar house.  It was actually nice to have gone there instead of Lunar House again.

Also, it was very straight forward if you have a straight forward application.  Arguable still to pay £200 more for the service and I just can't for the life of me figure out what is taking the postal applications so bloody long.

Also, Vicky was great in reviewing my docs.  It went so smoothly and though I ended up bringing more then I needed, I had everything ready.  I think the IO was a bit surprised at my organisation.  He even started going through my documentation proof, stopped after getting past the first few documents and then said "Are these in date order?", which they were... and he said "Ah, ok, now I don't have to make too much of a mess here".

The big bits of advice though of applying in person are:

• I should have know, but I forgot to bring something to read.  Believe me, you need something to read...  Even a quick application has some long waits in it and it will drive you crazy sitting there.
• If your applying based on a relationship and your partner can't be there, make sure you have a signed letter from them stating that they are happy for the app to proceed.  For some reason it isn't very clear that this is required and why postal ones don't require it if they require in person, is a mystery to me.
• Dragging your kids there or other family members is silly.  It really only should be the people required to make the application.  PEOs are not comfortable or friendly places and having a kid on your knee isn't going impress the IO.

That is it for now.  I nicked a pamphlet about Bio enrollement for FLR-M/S and will provide details later as well as some observations around the whole process (trianging was going on in the Lobby of the Birmingham PEO)

You need a signed LETTER?  The fact that the partner signs the application isn't enough?  Great, something ELSE to worry about.

Congratulations!

Hurrah!  Yippee!!!!  Congratulations!!!!  Citizenship next then?

And as for the letter...this is definitely new.  It has always been the case that the fact of the form being counter-signed meant no support letter is needed!


Vicky

Didn't realise this was going to be a surprise.  Yes, if you apply in person, but your sponsor cannot attend with you, you need a signed letter from that person stating why they could not attend and they are happy with you applying for the application and that you should include a contact phone number for them.

Again, nothing like this is required for the postal ones, so it baffles me, but I had read it somewhere (again, it wasn't obvious, it might of been in the guidence somewhere, I will try and find the chapter and verse) and so I added it to the things I brought.  He specifically asked for it and it went into the "official" pile that went upstairs with the app.  He even compared the signature to the passport and the signed application.

Congrats!

The interesting thing is Birmingham is a doddle compared to the machine that is Lunar house.  It was actually nice to have gone there instead of Lunar House again.

We found this too. We live in London, but happened to be staying with my in-laws in the Midlands when we needed to apply for ILR. It was such a breeze, and all of the staff were really friendly. I was so happy we ended up there instead of Croyden. We got there at 8:35 for our 9:00 appointment and expected to just wait, but we had already been seen and paid by 8:50.

Of course then we had to wait, but the security guard kindly gave us an estimated time to return, so we were able to run errands. By the time we returned, we only had to wait 15 minutes or so.

This is DEFINITELY new, Kitson!  Thanks for the heads up.

Vicky

Adding on to the 'new' thing.  The letter alone is not enough, the sponsor needs to be actually, physically in the UK.  The letter should include a mobile number or similar so that the CW can verify it.