ILR (SET M) questions

In the 'what is your pay each month' box for questions 8.3 and 8.4, just give a monthly average of what each of you earns in total (say, average your total income in the last 6 months or 12 months, given as a monthly figure).

In the table on page 21, just list each job separately and how much is earned each week/month/relevant period.

You can always provide extra details on a separate sheet.

Ultimately, it doesn't really matter how much you earn, or which salary comes from what job. As long as you have enough to support yourselves without claiming benefits, no one really cares about the exact figure.

We have seen ILR applications approved with no problems even when neither of the couple is working, they are living off the UK citizen's benefits and they live in council housing.

Thanks! I predict one more question before I send things off (hopefully Monday)… but for now, I've run out of issues. This place is utterly invaluable.

Since we've got four jobs, how on earth should we list that on the finances section? We both teach on a short term, termly basis at the university - our income from that changes each term (and is sometimes non-existent). We are both teaching currently (I taught last term as well at a slightly different level, though he did not). To make things even more complicated, I got extra teaching added at the last minute and it won't show up on my payslip until next month because it went through after the deadline for the January payday. In addition, I often get a consistent amount of overtime doing retail, though it's obviously slightly different every month. :-/ So -

In the finances section, should I only use our typical minimum current monthly income from our two long-term jobs, or add in the most recent amounts we've been paid for January (as that will be, more or less, consistent till May)? I'm tempted to use the current base-line minimum on the application itself for each job (add them together, I guess?), and then itemise on the second page of the finances section. Ideas?

Sorry if that's totally confusing - let me know if you need that explained any better!

For both my own applications and my now-husband's, I was employed by multiple employers and had random work/pay patterns.  Thankfully I never had to worry about the income requirement or it would have been even more of a hot mess.

For this last application, my husband's ILR, I attached a sheet which I headed "Income source: supplemental sheet".

I had one sentence reiterating my husband's salary (thankfully he has a "normal" job with the same salary every month).

Then I explained that I had four part-time jobs and a variable income.

THEN I put a chart, which for each employer listed:
- my job title
- the name of the employer
- how frequently I was paid (weekly, monthly, or monthly in arrears)
- how much I was paid; one job did pay me regularly, so that was "£x per month", but for the others I gave my hourly rate and then explained how many hours I might work at any given time.  (This was basically '0-25 a week', since those were seasonal jobs - including academic and retail, so I feel your pain.)

And I gave them all the payslips I had for whatever the period was, 3 or 6 months.

So basically, I made it as easy as possible for them to see where and when I worked, and how much I generally could expect to earn.

Since we did an in-person appointment, they could have called me over to ask questions, but they didn't, so presumably it worked.  I suspect that as my husband earned more than enough to make it clear that we weren't going to access public funds, my income wasn't that significant, but I still felt it was important to make it as clear as possible.

Also, I just like making charts. 

I hope this is helpful!  Best of luck.

For both my own applications and my now-husband's, I was employed by multiple employers and had random work/pay patterns.  Thankfully I never had to worry about the income requirement or it would have been even more of a hot mess.

For this last application, my husband's ILR, I attached a sheet which I headed "Income source: supplemental sheet".

I had one sentence reiterating my husband's salary (thankfully he has a "normal" job with the same salary every month).

Then I explained that I had four part-time jobs and a variable income.

THEN I put a chart, which for each employer listed:
- my job title
- the name of the employer
- how frequently I was paid (weekly, monthly, or monthly in arrears)
- how much I was paid; one job did pay me regularly, so that was "£x per month", but for the others I gave my hourly rate and then explained how many hours I might work at any given time.  (This was basically '0-25 a week', since those were seasonal jobs - including academic and retail, so I feel your pain.)

And I gave them all the payslips I had for whatever the period was, 3 or 6 months.

So basically, I made it as easy as possible for them to see where and when I worked, and how much I generally could expect to earn.

Since we did an in-person appointment, they could have called me over to ask questions, but they didn't, so presumably it worked.  I suspect that as my husband earned more than enough to make it clear that we weren't going to access public funds, my income wasn't that significant, but I still felt it was important to make it as clear as possible.

Also, I just like making charts. 

I hope this is helpful!  Best of luck.

Supremely helpful, thank you! When you say you added a sheet, is this in the covering letter, or did you put it in the main application?

The awkward thing is my ordered payslips from my retail job (where I've been for a while) have arrived, but have not been stamped to make them all official-like. This is despite asking them several times when I was on the phone with them to do it. I don't know if I want to try to get them to do it again, given it a) takes a week for them to reach me, b) they'll probably mess it up again, and c) I'm getting too close to my deadline for my own comfort to wait yet another week. I did ask my manager if he could do something about it locally, but unfortunately it looks like it needs to be done at HR. Who seem to have no idea what I'm talking about. (What happened to the bashing-head-on-the-wall smiley? Pretend it's here.) 

Someone futher upthread said it's probably not an issue given DH brings in enough on his own, so I may just send the official ones I do have for that job, and maybe the unstamped print-outs from HR and just add a note saying the others have gone missing and that these are the ones I have. I'll detail it all in a further sheet as you say, and hopefully they won't get too confused. I expect mostly what they want to see in terms of payslips is that the numbers line up with what's on the bank statements.

It's probably unnecessary anyway as we don't need to access public funds and we were approved last time with just his main income as it was - but me? Find some tiny detail to obsess over? ;-)

Supremely helpful, thank you! When you say you added a sheet, is this in the covering letter, or did you put it in the main application?

You shouldn't really need to put anything like this in a covering letter. All a covering letter needs to state is what visa you are applying for and a document list of what is in your package.

The application gives you extra space for Additional Information and you can include an extra sheet with the application form for any extra info that won't fit on the form.

The awkward thing is my ordered payslips from my retail job (where I've been for a while) have arrived, but have not been stamped to make them all official-like. This is despite asking them several times when I was on the phone with them to do it. I don't know if I want to try to get them to do it again, given it a) takes a week for them to reach me, b) they'll probably mess it up again, and c) I'm getting too close to my deadline for my own comfort to wait yet another week. I did ask my manager if he could do something about it locally, but unfortunately it looks like it needs to be done at HR. Who seem to have no idea what I'm talking about. (What happened to the bashing-head-on-the-wall smiley? Pretend it's here.) 

As I said, it's not an issue. You already have enough income without them, so you don't even need to include them if it's easier. Or you can just send what you have.

It's probably unnecessary anyway as we don't need to access public funds and we were approved last time with just his main income as it was - but me? Find some tiny detail to obsess over? ;-)

Seriously, this is not even something you need to be worrying about - just add the documents you have and move on to the next part of the application.

It was an additional sheet that I included in the main application.  If I hadn't put a chart, it could just have been handwritten in the "additional information" space.

No need to worry. 

Believe it or not, am not worrying. Don't have the brain space for it. Actually, I'm thinking I must have forgotten something because other than the payslip fiasco and the quibble with documents, everything's been fairly straightforward. I just need to get some photos done and remember to relinquish my BRP when I send it off on Monday.

I really feel as if it should be more difficult than app + bank statements + payslips + documents + passports + marriage certificate + BRP + LIUK test pass certificate + photos.  I remember last time being an utter headache, and this time is… well, as you are all saying, fairly straightforward. Maybe I've just gotten used to having to have all this stuff after two years of not throwing a single piece of paper away just in case I needed it.

Mine's on Valentine's day, too :-)

Believe it or not, am not worrying. Don't have the brain space for it. Actually, I'm thinking I must have forgotten something because other than the payslip fiasco and the quibble with documents, everything's been fairly straightforward. I just need to get some photos done and remember to relinquish my BRP when I send it off on Monday.

I really feel as if it should be more difficult than app + bank statements + payslips + documents + passports + marriage certificate + BRP + LIUK test pass certificate + photos.  I remember last time being an utter headache, and this time is… well, as you are all saying, fairly straightforward. Maybe I've just gotten used to having to have all this stuff after two years of not throwing a single piece of paper away just in case I needed it.

I know where you're coming from.  I think it is straight forward.  I paid for the document checking and she said it was the easiest one she'd ever done.  We only paid so I could keep my original documents.