final spouse visa doc check

Hi all,

I've posted asking for advice before re the documents to include with a spouse visa application but wanted to do a final sense check before we apply in the next couple of weeks. I think we are all set but grateful for any advice on things we may have missed.

For the applicant (my wife) we will have:
- Printed online application form
- VAF4A Appendix 2 form
- Settlement Gold priority receipt (we have to do this despite the bad reviews as we need to keep my wife's passport to hand)
- Previous 2 passports (she has 1 more old passport which would mean we cover the full 10 year period they ask about but we cannot find it at the moment - should we say it is lost?)
- Passport photos
- IHS surcharge receipt (when do we pay this?)

Sponsor (me):
- Certified copy of my passport bio page
- Sponsor's letter

Financial requirement (meeting through cash savings):
- original or duplicate original statements provided by bank from July 2017 to January 2018

Accommodation
- my parents' land registry document
- letter from them saying we can stay

Relationship proof:
Marriage certificate (original Spanish and translated English)
2 photos together
For long distance relationship:
Air/train/bus tickets to see each other (but not boarding passes)
Print outs of email inbox screenshots (should this be one screenshot per month?)
Print outs of call/text message logs for this period (again, one page per month?)
For living together:
Lease of apartment we first lived in, plus letter (with wet signature) from building management confirming our move-in/move-out dates and that all leases/utilities payments etc were done online through their portal and hence no formal 'originals'
Certified copy of title to house we bought together
Tax returns or tax return transcripts for the years we've been married
Property tax bills for each year (twice annual)
For 2017 (no tax return yet), utility bills and health insurance explanations of benefits (which show me as the insured and my wife as my dependent)

Bumping this...grateful for any responses.

Based on other threads and previous feedback, I'm pretty sure the below is ok, but a couple of specific questions:

I've noticed a joint tax return i'm planning to submit for one of the years is not the original but a photocopy. Is this important? I don't have much other evidence of us living together for that particular year so would like to use it if at all possible.

When do we pay the NHS surcharge? Before applying for the visa?

How regularly do they want to see that we were in contact? Ie should a provide a page of emails/phone calls per month of our long distance relationship, or does it need to be more or less regular?

Thanks very much again.

Bumping again - please, any advice/thoughts welcome so as to avoid me getting too paranoid over the next few days!

Thank you in advance.

Sorry for not responding earlier, I must have missed this for some reason. Your document list looks good to me.

- For her old passports, you should supply/give details ALL passports ever issued, not just in the last 10 years. If she cannot supply all of them, just give as much detail as you can on the application form and explain that the passport is lost.

- The IHS surcharge is paid as part of the online application submission - you will be directed to the IHS website to pay it.

- Which financial requirement category are you applying under? I assume Category D: £62,500 in Cash Savings, since you only mention bank statements? Just make sure they cover the entire 6 months and not a day less, and that the balance did not fall below £62,500 even for 1 day during the 6 months.

- For the accommodation, the letter from your parents needs to state the number of bedrooms + living rooms, along with the total number of people who will be living in the house... to show it will not be overcrowded.

- For the screenshots of emails/calls/texts, you should only include 1-2 pages of each in total, covering the entire relationship. No email or message content should be included, you just want a list of dates, times and subject lines.

- It depends how long a time you need to cover as to how many you include. If you're provide a 6-month long-distance relationship, you might want to include 2 emails, 2 calls and 2 texts per week. If it's a 5-year long-distance relationship, you might only include 1 email, 1 call and 1 text per month. If it's 10 years, then maybe 1 every 2 months.

- So, you should be able to get all your emails onto 1-2 pages, all your messages on 1-2 pages, and all your texts on 1-2 pages... giving 3-6 pages in total for all of your correspondence.

- I think you'll probably be fine with the photocopy of the tax return - it sounds like you have plenty of other solid evidence for your relationship.

Thanks so much, very helpful.

Re financial requirement: yes, it is cash savings and the statements will cover nearly 7 months in reality, so I think we're all set there.

Re the letter from my parents: I'll have to get them to send another if it needs the details re the number of rooms and other people living there. I thought we just provided that info on the application form.

Re the calls/emails: understood though I'll probably end up providing more pages. For eg texts, the only thing i have are copies of the paper phone bills where they list all calls/text messages etc, so not sure how I can cut that down.

Re tax return: I think i can get the original this week, so will include that to be on the safe side.

Thanks so much, very helpful.

Re financial requirement: yes, it is cash savings and the statements will cover nearly 7 months in reality, so I think we're all set there.

Great .

Re the letter from my parents: I'll have to get them to send another if it needs the details re the number of rooms and other people living there. I thought we just provided that info on the application form.

No, it needs to all go in the letter as well.

The accommodation guidance states:

11. MAA11 Adequacy of accommodation
The ECO’s judgement should be based on the evidence from the applicant. If the ECO is not sure of the credibility of the applicant, he / she should ask to see a letter from the owner of the property (which may be a housing authority, housing association, landlord or a building society). This should confirm particulars of tenure and occupation of the dwelling, together with a description of the accommodation and, if rented, a copy of the lease.

The onus is on the applicant to provide confirmation that there is no objection to an additional resident moving into the accommodation.

Re the calls/emails: understood though I'll probably end up providing more pages. For eg texts, the only thing i have are copies of the paper phone bills where they list all calls/text messages etc, so not sure how I can cut that down.

If it's an issued phone bill, that's fine - in that case, you can include maybe one page per month showing the list of calls. It's not often people have an actual phone bill they can provide these days - most communication is done online, so then they have to make screenshots.

What you don't want to do is send dozens of pages (or even hundreds... which people have done in the past), because it's totally unnecessary and it clutters the application... which could mean that important documents get lost or missed amongst the unnecessary stuff.

It's a tick box application... they just need to be able to tick the box to confirm you send the evidence of communication. That's it. They probably won't spend more than a few minutes on it.

Got it, thank you