Sponsor letter feed back please

Hello again

Another swift and helpful response. Thank you so much. I'm really trying to get as much of this stuff worked out for myself as possible. Thank you everyone for bearing with me.

I'm a little confused, what does 30 day visa vignette mean?

Also, the return shipping label? Is that something that I can purchase as an option when applying or should I pay for a FedEx label and include it.

One last thing, does anyone have any screenshots of the actual application form? I have the printable copy of the financial document but id love to be able to look at exactly what needs to be done on the application form so that I can make a rough draft for my wife when she comes to fill it out.

Again, thank you so much for your patience and support.

Alex

The visa will come as a sticker in your passport, it's good for 30 days only, within which time she must travel to the UK. It's called a vignette.

Purchase the shipping (and priority) from VFS global, it's easier.

You can both access the online form by sharing the login details.

Hello,

Thank you for clearing that up. So am I right in thinking that I will have an option to purchase the shipping and the priority service during the online application?

Also, regarding the vignette, how do we know when to put down as the date of intended travel? I guess its impossible to know when the decision will be made so won't that make planning the travel tricky? Or am I missing something somewhere?

Oh man... I'm so confused 

Thanks again!

Alex

Hello,

Thank you for clearing that up. So am I right in thinking that I will have an option to purchase the shipping and the priority service during the online application?

Also, regarding the vignette, how do we know when to put down as the date of intended travel? I guess its impossible to know when the decision will be made so won't that make planning the travel tricky? Or am I missing something somewhere?

Oh man... I'm so confused 

Thanks again!

Alex

No, you have to go to the vfs website separately. https://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/us/en#latest-updates_o=Article%20Date,Descending

Pick the earliest date that she will be ready to travel. If that date has passed, the vignette will be dated from around the time the decision is made.

Do not book any travel until you have the visa in hand.

I'm a little confused, what does 30 day visa vignette mean?

A spousal visa is issued in two parts:

1) A 30-day visa vignette sticker in the applicant's passport... which gives 30 days to enter the UK for the first time

2) A 33-month BRP card (Biometrics Residence Permit), which the applicant needs to pick up from a designated UK Post Office within 10 days of arriving.

Since there is only a 30-day window to enter the UK, it's good to emphasise when you want the 30 days to start. This is determined by the Intended Travel Date that you list on the application form. They SHOULD make the visa vignette valid for 30 days from that date, though lately, they've been making it valid from about 7 days before. If the date you put passes before the visa has been issued, it will be made valid usually from a few days after the decision has been made.

Also, the return shipping label? Is that something that I can purchase as an option when applying or should I pay for a FedEx label and include it.

Sheffield do not accept FedEx labels (they've had problems with FedEx in the past and will no longer use them), and also it's not possible to generate a return international shipping label from the US.

So, the easiest thing is to go to the VFS Global website and purchase their shipping labels, which are pre-paid, fixed-price 2-day UPS shipping, specially arranged with Sheffield for settlement visa applications. You can purchase either just the return label (about $150) or round-trip shipping (about $250). You print off the labels and place the return one in the package, then mail the documents using the outbound label.

You can also purchase settlement priority processing in the same transaction, if you will be using priority.

While you can choose how you mail the documents TO Sheffield, people have noticed recently that if they do not us UPS, it has been taking longer for Sheffield to acknowledge their application. People using UPS labels seem to be getting their 'application received' emails within a couple of days of the package arriving in Sheffield, whereas people using DHL or other couriers have had to wait up to 2 weeks.

One last thing, does anyone have any screenshots of the actual application form? I have the printable copy of the financial document but id love to be able to look at exactly what needs to be done on the application form so that I can make a rough draft for my wife when she comes to fill it out.

As larrabee said, you can just share the log-in details so you can both look at the form.

The online form is generic though and is pretty much the same for all visa types (it's the printed VAF4a Appendix 2 that contains all the questions specific to a spousal visa), so it's basically just personal details about your wife... name, address, passport info, travel history, her employment in the US, your details, her parents' details, etc.

Hello again,

Again, thank you so much for all your help.

I have a few more questions that I thought of this morning while going through stuff.

1 - should I highlight the cash deposits on my bank statements or just leave them alone for them to look through?

2 - if I provide photocopies of my documents that I need returned should I mark them as a copy or will they work it out?

3 - I'm still a little confused about the chat logs, I have downloaded my Facebook chat history and it's just a text file. No logos or anything. Can someone explain exactly how I should go about providing this information. Can I choose a selection of messages per month for the span of our relationship? Do I crop out the actual message and just leave dates and times? I guess they're used to seeing it but I want to make sure that what I provide satisfies them.

4 - my type of employment is NON-salaried, I've just been looking at the vf4a appendix 2 form and I can't see an option for this. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Also I am paid by the hour so my pay varies depending on how many hours I work. Am I correct in thinking they will add the totals up divide it by 6 and multiply by 12? It asks for my yearly total on the form, is this the number I should give them?

Again, thank you so much for all the help. I really am so grateful. Some of this is so confusing!!

Alex

1 - no, don’t touch the bank statements... they’ll know what they are looking for

2 - no, just put the photocopies in a separate pile at the back of all your documents

3 - you just want a list of names, dates and times... like an old itemised phone bill. So you can take a few screenshots and then just crop out the message part, leaving your name(s) and the date/time. You’ll want to include maybe 60 messages from the entire relationship, in a list (you should be able to get 20-30 on one page).



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Hello!

Once again, thank you for your swift response.

I'm really sorry to be a pain in the backside but I think I edited my last post as you were replying. There is one last question that probably was the thing I was most worried about. Could you possibly have another look.

Thank you so much 

Alex

4 - my type of employment is NON-salaried, I've just been looking at the vf4a appendix 2 form and I can't see an option for this. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Also I am paid by the hour so my pay varies depending on how many hours I work. Am I correct in thinking they will add the totals up divide it by 6 and multiply by 12? It asks for my yearly total on the form, is this the number I should give them?

Ah, yes - sorry, I only saw 3 questions before.

It’s just a silly mistake on the form that there is no option for non-salaried. That section is for both salaried and non-salaried employment... but they apparently forgot to mention non-salaried when they wrote the form!

Because of this error, I would make it very clear on the form and in the sponsor letter that you are NON-salaried, and also your employer letter MUST specifically say you are NON-salaried.

Yes, the number you put on the form is your calculated pre-tax annual salary from your 6 months of payslips.

So, add them all up, divide by 6, multiply by 12... and write that number on the form.

Sheffield will then do the calculation themselves to verify that it matches the number you have written on the form.


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Hey there!

Brilliant, thank you for clearing that up. Should I write a note on the vf4a form itself stating that I am non-salaried or is that a bad idea? I don't want to have it refused for something stupid like writing outside the boxes or defacing the form.

Thank you

Alex

Yeah, I would make a note on the form that it is non-salaried.

They cannot refuse for something like that. They have to have valid grounds for refusal... such as missing documents or not meeting the requirements.


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Hello!

Thank you once again. I'm spending my Sunday getting paperwork sorted and filling out forms. I have a few more questions now;

1 - Is there any reason that as the sponsor I can't fill out the Appendix 2 financial requirement form? Should I make a note in my covering letters if I was to do so?

2 - regarding the Facebook chat logs... Where I have downloaded them they are just plain text format. Its just a word document. Would these suffice or should I screenshot the actual Facebook windows so that they can see that I haven't just typed them? I'm a bit confused here.

3 - should I make photocopies of the letters and cards etc that I am providing or will we just get those back?

Any help is always massively appriciated.

Thank you

Alex

1 - Is there any reason that as the sponsor I can't fill out the Appendix 2 financial requirement form? Should I make a note in my covering letters if I was to do so?

It doesn’t matter who fills it out, but if you do it, you’ll have to mail it to her so she can send it to Sheffield.

2 - regarding the Facebook chat logs... Where I have downloaded them they are just plain text format. Its just a word document. Would these suffice or should I screenshot the actual Facebook windows so that they can see that I haven't just typed them? I'm a bit confused here.

No, you need screenshots. If you have downloaded your Facebook profile to your computer. they should be html files though where they open in a browser. They won’t have the Facebook logo, but they will still look like online messages

3 - should I make photocopies of the letters and cards etc that I am providing or will we just get those back?

You should photocopy everything you want returned or they may keep the originals.



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Hello,

Once again thank you so much.

The big day is coming up fast. Last week at work next week! I'm excited but also incredibly nervous.

What are peoples educated opinions on what I should say at the border? Obviously completely truthful at all times.

Do i leave it as "vacation to visit my partner"

Or should I cough to getting married right off the bat?

Any reassurance and help is hugely appriciated.

Alex