Bank Statements for HSMP

This item received in email from a caseworker on the HSMP team...

"...I am responding to you on behalf of [...] with regard to your query below.  From your email I see that your client has provided original 12 month payslips.  Please note that we accept printed online bank statements as long as they show the http path linking them to the relevant bank's website.  Therefore, 12 months payslips along with the printed bank statements would be okay as long as they corroborate the net payments and the bank statements clearly show that payments have gone into your client's account through her employer.  Furthermore, you could also request a letter from your client's employer that gives confirmation of income and corroborates the 12 month salary period as per the payslips.  If you give me your client's HSMP reference number I would be happy to have a look at the case notes for you..."


A piece of welcome news for those who bank online.  This has been going back and forth for a long time, and now there's some progress on the advocacy side.  I'm pleased about that.

It goes on to say that if the applicant is reluctant to obtain a letter from their employer because they do not want their employer to know they are leaving, then that's ok too as long as the bank statements show the full http path and all the other evidence corroborates.

Does this only apply to HSMP cases?

Now that I'm putting together my application, I promise I'm burning up the search function trying to avoid posting stupid questions that I know have been answered a thousand times.

Most of DF's accounts don't send him paper printouts. The most recent applicable hits I'm getting on "print bank statements" here is a year old and I'm wondering if the spread of online banking has relaxed the attitude to home printouts at all.

This is especially important for us because DF is freelance and his income doesn't look impressive on his tax returns, but he's managed to squirrel away a nice nest egg...mainly via moderate-sized chunks of money in a variety of internet-based accounts.

It'll be a time drag if we have to wait for paper statements to come from Iceland and all over...

The rules for Tier 1 applications are completely different and totally specific to Tier 1 applications, and nothing said about these documents has any bearing on any other kind of visa.

Also, Garry's post is well over a year old and should be disregarded.

Vicky

All the threads I turned up were a year old or more. That's why I picked a nice short one and floated it to the top.

I know of a Tier 1 case from another coutry where application was refused because some of the bank statements were printouts of online statements. I receive online-only statements from Bank of America and requested them to send me printed copies. They arrived on the company letterhead so they should work for Tier 1; you might want to inquire with online banks if they can send printed statements to you, otherwise I would be cautious to use them.

P.S. Oops, sorry, I haven't realised that you probably talking about other visa than Tier 1. Then disregard this post.

The original post had to do with HSMP applications in April 2007 and quoted email from one of the HSMP team in Sheffield explaining an informal policy they used at the time.

Even tho' it can be said that HSMP morphed into T1, it only resembles T1 in a colloquial sense, and inferences from one to the other are not always readily made.

HSMP was a mature 7 years old in 2007, and the staff were more relaxed because the system was more experienced.  T1 is brand new and nobody's relaxed.  So it's not a good strategy to assume something about T1 just because there was something in HSMP with the same words.

In the PBS, you really need to start fresh on first principles.

i am a lil concerned as my bank says it will not notarise bank statements as a rule. I will be applying for the spousal visa and the news that online statements are ok was welcome news, but now i see that is wrong.

What do i do ?

I'm afraid I've muddied the waters by posting this in an old HSMP thread, munkor. I assumed the standard for acceptable government paperwork would be similar across visas, but it looks like I was wrong...and this is no longer operative anyway.