lost passport/interview

Hey, everyone.  Mr Snowfish here again.

Things haven't been terribly straightforward for us of late.  After the mild annoyance of "just less than six months of payslips" mentioned previously, we ran into an issue affectionately nicknamed "the letter my work provided misquoted my salary for one month by one penny so it needs to be reprinted, meaning we missed our previous deadline to apply"   

Since work is now reprinting the letter, with the salary amount corrected, a new question has cropped up.  As mentioned previously, I have a new position in the company.  KFDancer told us that the change in position didn't matter and the application could continue as normal.  However, since we're having the letter reprinted, and as I've now started in the new position, should the letter now reflect my new position and my updated (now higher) salary, or should we just continue with my old job title and salary, even though by the time we make our application I will have been in the new job for over a month?  If I do have the new job listed, what reference/s, if any, should be made to the previous job and salary amount?

Thanks in advance for any help that can be given.  My wife and I are on the cusp of applying and we really just want to get it sorted as quickly as we can.

Apologies, but I'm bumping this for visibility - I'm hoping that I can get an answer to my above question in the next day or two, or else my wife and I are going to miss our window for application this month, too.

Since work is now reprinting the letter, with the salary amount corrected, a new question has cropped up. 

... I have a new position in the company.  KFDancer told us that the change in position didn't matter and the application could continue as normal.  However, since we're having the letter reprinted, and as I've now started in the new position, should the letter now reflect my new position and my updated (now higher) salary, or should we just continue with my old job title and salary, even though by the time we make our application I will have been in the new job for over a month?  If I do have the new job listed, what reference/s, if any, should be made to the previous job and salary amount?

Thanks in advance for any help that can be given.  My wife and I are on the cusp of applying and we really just want to get it sorted as quickly as we can.

If you're having the letter reprinted anyway, I would have it state that you were working as a (old title) making (old salary) from (start date), and as of (promotion date) your title is now (new title) making (new salary).  Then go on to give your employment details, such as full time, permanent, etc.

After a two-month delay due to petty mishaps, we are FINALLY hoping to get the online app completed this weekend!  Here is a final list of all our paperwork and evidence... would some kind soul let us know if anything is missing?  (Buckle up, this is a long list...)

For evidence of our relationship spanning 2006-present:
  *Selections from our facebook messenges July 2007-present. (Our main source of communication during times we've been apart.)

  *Amazon reciept from gifts he sent me (UK-USA) in April 2007. Includes a personalized messages mentioning both of our names, and date.

  *5 stamped/dated envelopes from cards and parcels I sent to him (USA-UK) during 2007.

  *Stamped/dated envelope from letter to him from his parents, sent to our first shared address in Japan.

  *Stamped/dated envelope from card sent to me by my mother, at our first shared address in Japan.

  *Stamped/dated envelope from card sent to us by his parents, at our second shared address in Japan.

  *Wedding invitation and New Year's card, addressed to us, sent to our second shared address in Japan.

  *Selection of bills sent to us at both Japanese addresses, with certified English translations:
        --Phone bill in my name, first address, Dec. 2012
        --Electric bill in his name, first address, Nov. 2012
        --Internet bill in his name, first address, July 2013
        --Internet bill in his name, second address, Feb. 2014
        --Phone bill in my name, second address, Feb. 2014
        --Gas bill in my name, second address, June 2015
        --Phone bill in his name, second address, June 2015
        --Receipts from my money-transfer service, addressed to me at each address, which are printed in English and Japanese.
        --Letter written to me in English from said service, dated Jan. 2014, informing me of registering my change of address. ) These last two may be overkill, but I'm including them because they are written in English.

  *Rental leases from both addresses, showing the dates we lived at each address, with both our names listed as tennants, with certified English translations.

  *Original Japanese resident ID cards for each of us, showing us living at each address, with certified English translations.

  *His Japanese driver's license, showing him living at each address, with certified English translation.

  *Marriage certificate, with certified English translation.

  *Boarding passes in his name from a trip we took to the USA in 2011, when he first met my family.  (Both passes are from the return trip, Charlotte NC--Tokyo Narita, in Jan 2012. These are the only passes we have from the trip, but it shows that he did travel to the USA.)

  *Hotel reservation/reciept in both our names from a mini-break we took in Tokyo in Oct, 2012.

  *Travel iteneray and luggage tags in his name, and boarding passes in each of our names, from a trip we took to Malaysia in April 2015, to visit his mother's family.

  *Travel iteneraries from trips he took to the USA to visit me during March 2016, July 2017, and Oct 2017.  I have maybe two boarding passes from these trips, and will include copies of the corresponding stamps in his passport.

  *Amazon receipt for a gift he sent me in Feb. 2016, showing both our names and the date.

  *Stamped/dated envelope from a card he sent me in Feb. 2018.

  *Selection of photos from our relationship, spanning 2006-2017.  Most of them were taken with my phone, so I printed screen-shots of the photos so that the date they were taken would also be printed. 

I went a bit heavier on printing out the facebook messeges from any times we have been living apart, especially the last three years.

 
Whew! Financial evidence coming up in my next post... stay tuned, lol.

Financial evidence:

  *His last P60

  *Sponsor letter from him explaining a brief timeline of our relationship, why we want to settle in the UK rather than the USA (his parents are aging and ill, my mother died so there is not much to keep me in the US,) and why we have been apart since Nov. 2015 (each had sick parents we returned home to care for, he had some difficulty finding full time work, had to wait long enough to satisfy the financial requirements,) and where we will live.

  *Letter from his mother stating that we are welcome to live in her house, and that the home is large enough.

  *Land registry for his parents' house, which they own outright. (No mortgage.)

  *Letter from his job stating all positions he has held, dates, and accompanying salaries.  Also lists in detail each paystub we will be including (which I have checked to make sure they match down to the penny!)

  *Paystubs from Sept. 2017-July  25 2018.  (More than 6 months, but I'm taking NO chances!)  Current salary is 1235 per month.

  *Certified bank statements showing each direct deposit from the above paystubs.

  *Certified bank statements showing that he holds savings of 27,276 pounds in a separate savings account, from Sept. 2017-Aug 2018.

  *Letter from his mother, stating that she gave him a gift of 25,000 pounds in Oct. 2017, and that the money was from a savings account she had paid into for him over his whole life, and not a loan of any kind.

   *His original work contract.  (I've just messaged him asking if he got a new contract when he took his new position a few weeks ago, and to send it to me if so.)

His latest paystub is dated July 25th, so that is the date we are working from.  Bank statements and letters will all be dated within 28 days from July 25th.  So we need to have the online portion done this weekend.  Yes, cutting it close, but with the way his stubs and statements are dated, plus having to special order bank statements, then ship them,  there just isn't much time. 

 

Other stuff:

  *My passport

  *Copies of his and his parent's passport.

  *Certified copy of his birth certificate

  *Appendix 2, which I will complete this weekend.


Am I missing anything??  Sooooo sorry for the super long post.  I'm just so worried about missing something.  Million thanks for all your help, everyone!!!

Hello.  Just hoping to get a response, as I'm doing the online app today.  Apologies for the super long post, I just wanted to be as detailed as possible.  Many many thanks!!!!

Okay, just going to rearrange all your documents into the correct sections for the application, and also add things you don't current have in your list:

To note, that you do NOT need the following, so you can take them out:
- Copies of his parent's passport
- Certified copy of his birth certificate
- Any bank statements or payslips dated before January 2018. They CANNOT be considered and will just complicate your application, possibly causing confusion for the ECO processing it. And you don't want to risk a refusal because your mandatory documents got lost amongst the extra, unnecessary documents.

I would NOT include the following relationship documents as they are either a) not official mail, b) do not provide evidence of you and your spouse talking to each other, or are not at all necessary:
-   5 stamped/dated envelopes from cards and parcels I sent to him (USA-UK) during 2007.
- Amazon reciept from gifts he sent me (UK-USA) in April 2007. Includes a personalized messages mentioning both of our names, and date.
- Amazon receipt for a gift he sent me in Feb. 2016, showing both our names and the date.
- Stamped/dated envelope from a card he sent me in Feb. 2018.
- Stamped/dated envelope from letter to him from his parents, sent to our first shared address in Japan.
- Stamped/dated envelope from card sent to me by my mother, at our first shared address in Japan.
- Stamped/dated envelope from card sent to us by his parents, at our second shared address in Japan.
- Wedding invitation and New Year's card, addressed to us, sent to our second shared address in Japan.
- Hotel reservation/reciept in both our names from a mini-break we took in Tokyo in Oct, 2012.
- any passport stamps

All you need to prove is 1) you lived together (rental leases and official mail/bills) and 2) you communicated with each other while apart (boarding passes/messages). Envelopes from other people/companies mean nothing - you would need the actual letters from them, not the envelopes, but the only letters that will be considered are ones you have written to each other while living apart.

So, I would include in your documents:

Applicant documents:
- Priority processing receipt (if using)
- Return shipping label
- printed online application
- printed and completed VAF4 Appendix 2 form
- stamped biometrics confirmation sheet
- IHS surcharge number/receipt
- Your current US passport
- All previous passports you have ever held
- 1 passport photo of you

Sponsor's Documents
- copy of the photo page of his UK passport
- sponsor letter of support for the visa

Financial evidence:
Employment:
Mandatory:
  *Paystubs from JANUARY 2018 -July  25 2018.  (More than 6 months, but I'm taking NO chances!)  No, DO NOT include more than 7 MONTHS maximum. They CANNOT consider ANY money earned BEFORE January 25th 2018
  *Certified bank statements showing each direct deposit from the above paystubs. JANUARY to JULY 2018 ONLY
*Letter from his job stating all positions he has held, dates, and accompanying salaries.  Also lists in detail each paystub we will be including (which I have checked to make sure they match down to the penny!) It should ONLY list the paystubs from January to July 2018. No earlier than that.
Optional but recommended:
- His last P60
- HIs original job contract

Savings:
- Certified bank statements showing that he holds savings of 27,276 pounds in a separate savings account, from JANUARY 2018 -Aug 2018 ONLY
- Letter from his mother, stating that she gave him a gift of 25,000 pounds in Oct. 2017, and that the money was from a savings account she had paid into for him over his whole life, and not a loan of any kind.

Accommodation evidence
-  Land registry for his parents' house, which they own outright. (No mortgage.)
- Letter from his mother stating that we are welcome to live in her house, and that the home is large enough

Relationship evidence
- marriage certificate (and translation)
- 2 photos of you together

Living together evidence
- your selection of bills addressed to you in Japan (and translations)
- rental leases from Japan (and translations)

Personally I would NOT include the following either, as it's really only official mail that should be included for living together, though it's up to you:
- Original Japanese resident ID cards for each of us, showing us living at each address, with certified English translations.
- His Japanese driver's license, showing him living at each address, with certified English translation.

Evidence of communication/visiting each other while apart:
- no more than 2-3 pages of Facebook messages covering 2007 to 2018. Include only maybe 6 messages per year. No message content should be included. Technically, though. you do not need to include any messages from the years you lived together, because you saw each other every day.
- boarding passes/travel itineraries from trips to see each other while you were living in different countries

Photocopies of all originals you would like back

Ksand, thank you SO MUCH for the detailed reply.

We will take out the pay stubs and bank statements from earlier than Jan 2018, and have a new employer letter written to reflect that.

Regarding the envelopes, I do have the cards and letters we sent each other.  I can include them.  If they want to read our personal, perhaps inappropritate thoughts, they can have at it, ha ha.  The letters and cards are a form of communication while apart, no?  They are mostly from the earlier years of our relationship, so I was including them to establish that we DID in fact communicate then.  I did not have internet at home or a mobile phone at the time, so we didn't do much facebook messaging during 2007.

As an aside, our relationship started in Feb 2006, but the earliest communication I have (letters, messages) is from 2007.  Is that going to be a problem?  I may have a few e-mails from the tail end of 2006, but that's all. 

As for the facebook messges, it is REALLY HARD to condense 12 years of messages into three pages, and honestly I don't really know how to take out the content.  I tried to find the shortest, most banal messages, and black out anything extraneous.  I tried using the least amount of pages possible, but on the other hand I dont' want to give them any reason to say we didn't communicate enough. 

Again, thank you SO VERY MUCH for the detailed reply! 

Okay, kinda freaking out... just finished my online app, booked biometrics, and paid the visa fee.  Tried to print the app... page came up which says "your application is being processed.  Please note that your application may take in excess of 60 minutes to process."

Am I supposed to just leave this page up for an hour or so?  Is something going to happen when it finishes?  Or should I click on the "view my applications" button?  That's the only thing up there to click on...

GRRRR... STRESSSSSS!

So after a major snafu where I APPLIED FOR THE WRONG FREAKING VISA, then spending a very stressful hour or so on the phone to get my payments to go through, I've FINALLY got the correct visa in... IHS paid, visa fee paid, biometrics booked!!!  Just gotta go to the appointment, then send everything off.  WHEW!

A million jillion bazillion thank yous to all the experts (and everyone else!) who helped us through this part of the process.  I'm sure we'll be back with more questions in days and years to come.  I'm just glad to have this part of the load off my back for now!

Cheers, guys!

So after a major snafu where I APPLIED FOR THE WRONG FREAKING VISA, then spending a very stressful hour or so on the phone to get my payments to go through, I've FINALLY got the correct visa in... IHS paid, visa fee paid, biometrics booked!!!  Just gotta go to the appointment, then send everything off.  WHEW!

A million jillion bazillion thank yous to all the experts (and everyone else!) who helped us through this part of the process.  I'm sure we'll be back with more questions in days and years to come.  I'm just glad to have this part of the load off my back for now!

Cheers, guys!

Well done!  . You should go ahead now and pay for priority and your shipping labels, the vfs website can be a bit of a challenge too and it occasionally takes a while for the labels to come through.

Ahh, congrats!  Soon, you'll complete biometrics and get your documents in the post, and then you can try to forget all about the stress of the last few days.  You've got this!