Hi everyone,
Yesterday we received the approval for my wife's FLR M application, and we wanted to share the experience, hoping it becomes useful to someone else
.
This is our timeline:
28/03/2018 - Submitted application by post.
04/04/2018 - Payment taken by HO from bank account.
23/04/2018 - Received bio-metrics invitation letter (letter dated 19/04/2018).
26/04/2018 - Submitted bio-metrics.
19/05/2018 - Received documents back with approval letter.
Currently waiting for BRP card to arrive.
We have applied under Category A for the financial requirements, which are met through my employment. We have one child together who was born in the UK, so we submitted documents relating to him as well. If you have a child make sure to request a letter from GP (or nursery) confirming the child's registration and address. This letter needs to be within 3 months of submitting the application. I think (I may be wrong) this has been newly introduced so applicants may miss it or be confused by it. For accommodation we have submitted land registry and mortgage statement as the sponsor is the house owner.
One of the things that worried me the most was the cohabitation letters we submitted, as I felt they may not have been enough, or spread evenly. Thankfully this didn't cause any issues. However, I would strongly advise everyone to start planning for the application
VERY EARLY, especially ensuring you're going to get enough letters in your names. This will significantly reduce the stressing. Get your partner's name on any possible bill that allows it (council, water, energy, TV, etc),
and ensure you get them by post. Don't go for the online registration option. You don't want the risk (and stress associated with it) of the HO rejecting online correspondences.
I've also had a bit of an experience getting 6 months worth of bank statements from my bank (Halifax). I phoned their customer service two weeks before we planned to submit the application to ask if they will print 6 months statements in branch, and they said yes. Few days before submitting the application we went to a branch and they said they only print 3 months statements, anything more would have to be ordered, which takes a week to arrive! This was quite frustrating as we didn't want to delay the submission of the application. Also they didn't want to stamp online statements that I printed online, unless they were officially sent from Halifax to my bank account. Luckily I found the next day that my online account inbox had an annual statement, which I then printed and asked the branch to stamp. So my advise is to try and get ahead of the game as soon as possible. Double check with your bank their printing policy, and give yourself enough time if you need to order the statements.
Next step is ILR, which we're thinking of starting to plan for from now. We'll try to get more correspondences in joint names.
The following are the documents we have sent.
Personal documents:Applicant's original passport.
Applicant's previous expired passport.
Sponsor's original passport (+ photocopy of bio page).
2 x passport photos of applicant, with name written on the back.
1 X passport photo of the sponsor, with name written on the back.
IHS number (written in application form).
Relationship documents:Original marriage certificate in Arabic (+ photocopy).
Marriage certificate translation (+ photocopy).
Full birth certificate of child (+ photocopy).
Child's original passport (+ photocopy of bio page).
Letter within last 3 months from GP addressed to our child, confirming his registration (+ photocopy).
Letter within last 3 months from nursery addressed to our child, confirming his registration (+ photocopy).
Accommodation documents:Land registry. Downloaded online for £3 (+ photocopy).
Latest mortgage statement (+ photocopy).
English Language requirements:Wife passed the A2 test and we included the test number in the application.
Actual test certificate (+ photocopy).
Financial requirements:Bank statements showing last 6 months salary payments.
6 latest payslips, stamped by HR department (+ photocopies).
Letter from HR department giving details as requested by form (+ photocopy).
Cohabitation documents:October-2015: Council tax (joint).
February-2016: Water bill (joint).
March-2016: Council tax (joint).
April-2016: Maternity exemption card letter (applicant).
July-2016: Bank statement (sponsor).
September-2016: Council tax (joint).
December-2016: NHS letter for our child examination result (joint).
February-2017: Water bill (joint).
March-2017: Council tax (joint).
April-2017: NHS letter confirming screening test result (applicant).
April-2017: DVLA/Toyota letter (sponsor).
June-2017: HMRC tax code letter (sponsor).
November-2017: Nursery invoice for payment (joint). This letter is issued by the Newcastle City Council on behalf of our child's nursery. The letter has the same format/logo/headed paper as the one we get for council tax (issued by Newcastle City Council as well).
February-2018: Water bill (joint).
March-2018: Council tax (joint).
+ Photocopies of all letters.
Hope this becomes useful to someone.
Thanks.
