Can we apply for a Spouse Visa with No Current UK address.

We might have  hit a problem, staying with my friend, he’s worried about the Covid-19 14 day Quarentine Rule due to come in on Monday June 8th.  I get the feeling he’s concerned that if we go directly to his house, he too will be under quarentine and unable to leave his house, making him unable to walk his dog, etc, which I’m sure, isn’t the case.

No, he wouldn't be under quarantine, only you and your spouse would - however you would need to socially distance from him. I will be returning to the UK from overseas in 3 weeks, and will have to quarantine for 14 days, even though I'm coming from a tiny island that has not had a single case of the virus. I will be quarantining in the granny flat of my parents' house, while they go about their lives as 'normal'.

From the government guidance on the quarantine:

Support to help you self-isolate in your own accommodation
The people you’re staying with do not need to self-isolate, unless they travelled with you or you develop the symptoms of coronavirus.

If you cannot safely self-isolate for 14 days, you should tell Border Force Officers when you pass through UK border controls. They will provide you with details of a booking service which you can use to obtain accommodation and self-isolate in at your own expense. Staying at home may be difficult, frustrating or lonely, but there are things that you can do to help make it easier.

NHS Volunteer Responders are also on hand to have a friendly chat. If you would like a telephone ‘check in and chat’ please call 0808 196 3646 (8am to 8pm) to arrange volunteer support.

Having said that though, by the time you actually get your visa, the quarantine rules may well have been lifted. Even if you apply now, you still may not get your visa for another few months, because I believe the biometrics centres are still closed and there's likely to be a large backlog of applications, given that all the people who applied in March, April and May still haven't attended biometrics or had their visas processed yet.

Is there any way this 10 day pickup time rule can be extended, because of this Covid-19 quarantine rule

If it turns out that we end up having to spend 14 days in quarantine in a Hotel near the UK Airport we arrive in, before we can go and join our friend, we will be nowhere near the post office where the BRP will be..?

It's not an issue if you cannot collect it within 10 days - it is already written into the government guidance that you will not be penalised if you cannot pick up the BRP within 10 days:

If your 30 day visa to work, study or join family has expired
If your 30 day visa to travel to the UK for work, study or to join family has expired, or is about to expire, you can request a replacement visa with revised validity dates free of charge until the end of this year.

To make a request, contact the Coronavirus Immigration Help Centre. You’ll need to include your name, nationality, date of birth and your GWF reference number with ‘REPLACEMENT 30 DAY VISA’ in the subject line. If you’ve already contacted us about this, please let us know in your email.

You’ll be contacted when our VACs reopen to arrange for a replacement visa to be endorsed in your passport.

You will not be penalised for being unable collect your BRP while coronavirus measures are in place.

This process will be in place until the end of 2020.

I need a little help on the financial requirement.

Declaring Financial Sources.

I’m getting the impression that when disclosing your savings in your bank accounts to the Entry Clearance Officer, you have to be very clear as to the source of all deposits of cash entering your accounts. 

Just how detailed does this declaration have to be..?

I ask because the main source of my savings in my Barclays account came initially from an inheritance I received when my mother died in the UK back in early 2018.

Do I for example, need to show my mother’s will be bequeathing her estate to me, followed by the final distribution statement from the solicitor acting as executor, followed by a bank statement from UK Lloyds showing these funds going into my account, followed by a statement from the Forex company that converted the funds to dollars and moved the funds to my US Wells Fargo Bank, followed by a statement from my Barclay’s account showing these funds arriving there...!! 

Phew, talk about follow the money..

OR..  Will it be enough to make a simple statement saying...
“I inherited funds from the UK which ended up in my US Barclays account”,

Then sign the declaration..??

Is there a specific format or template for these declarations..?

How do you declare your sources..?  Do you write down all the credit sources from your bank statements, eg “this entry is from my state pension”, “this entry is from my private pension”, etc.. on a document, then sign the document, then get it into a .pdf file and upload it with your financial bank statement documents..? OR is this overkill..?

Also when do I declare the US $ amount in the Barclays savings as UK ₤‘s using the Oanda website..? Do I do the conversion on the same day as we make the online application and submit the documents as uploads..? And do I need to do a screen grab on that day’s exchange rate, convert that to a .pdf and upload that at the same time too..?

I need a little help on the financial requirement.

Declaring Financial Sources.

I’m getting the impression that when disclosing your savings in your bank accounts to the Entry Clearance Officer, you have to be very clear as to the source of all deposits of cash entering your accounts. 

Just how detailed does this declaration have to be..?

I ask because the main source of my savings in my Barclays account came initially from an inheritance I received when my mother died in the UK back in early 2018.

Do I for example, need to show my mother’s will be bequeathing her estate to me, followed by the final distribution statement from the solicitor acting as executor, followed by a bank statement from UK Lloyds showing these funds going into my account, followed by a statement from the Forex company that converted the funds to dollars and moved the funds to my US Wells Fargo Bank, followed by a statement from my Barclay’s account showing these funds arriving there...!! 

Phew, talk about follow the money.. OR is this too much..?

OR..  Will it be enough to make a simple statement saying...
“I inherited funds from the UK which ended up in my US Barclays account”,

Then sign the declaration..??

Is there a specific format or template for these declarations..?

How do you declare your sources..?  Do you write down all the credit sources from your bank statements, eg “this entry is from my state pension”, “this entry is from my private pension”, etc.. on a document, then sign the document, then get it into a .pdf file and upload it with your financial bank statement documents..? OR is this overkill..?

Also when do I declare the US $ amount in the Barclays savings as UK ₤‘s using the Oanda website..? Do I do the conversion on the same day as we make the online application and submit the documents as uploads..? And do I need to do a screen grab on that day’s exchange rate, convert that to a .pdf and upload that at the same time too..?

I need a little help on the financial requirement.

Declaring Financial Sources.

I’m getting the impression that when disclosing your savings in your bank accounts to the Entry Clearance Officer, you have to be very clear as to the source of all deposits of cash entering your accounts. 

Just how detailed does this declaration have to be..?

I ask because the main source of my savings in my Barclays account came initially from an inheritance I received when my mother died in the UK back in early 2018.

Do I for example, need to show my mother’s will be bequeathing her estate to me, followed by the final distribution statement from the solicitor acting as executor, followed by a bank statement from UK Lloyds showing these funds going into my account, followed by a statement from the Forex company that converted the funds to dollars and moved the funds to my US Wells Fargo Bank, followed by a statement from my Barclay’s account showing these funds arriving there...!! 

Phew, talk about follow the money..

OR..  Will it be enough to make a simple statement saying...
“I inherited funds from the UK which ended up in my US Barclays account”,

Then sign the declaration..??

Is there a specific format or template for these declarations..?

How do you declare your sources..?  Do you write down all the credit sources from your bank statements, eg “this entry is from my state pension”, “this entry is from my private pension”, etc.. on a document, then sign the document, then get it into a .pdf file and upload it with your financial bank statement documents..? OR is this overkill..?

Also when do I declare the US $ amount in the Barclays savings as UK ₤‘s using the Oanda website..? Do I do the conversion on the same day as we make the online application and submit the documents as uploads..? And do I need to do a screen grab on that day’s exchange rate, convert that to a .pdf and upload that at the same time too..?

It should be enough to make the declaration that you inherited money from your mother's estate in the UK which you subsequently transferred to your US account and the money in that US account is also comprised of pension income and other savings.
There isn't any official requirement to prove where the money has come from, other than making the declaration but if you wanted to, you could include your mother's will. You do not need to send the whole paper trail.

They use the closing spot rate on Onada.com on the day you apply so that is the rate you should use for the conversion. You don't need to provide evidence of this. If you are close to the requirement, make sure you apply on a date when the rate is in your favour.

Writing my Sponsor’s Letter with pictures embedded.  Have I gone about this in the right way..?

Using Microsoft Word, I’ve spent a lot of time writing out a sponsors letter that declares a quick summary of how myself (sponsor) and my wife (visa applicant) will achieve our:-

Accommodation Requirement, by staying with a friend.

Followed by a quick summary of how our Financial Requirement is to be achieved.

Followed by our Relationship discussion, that goes into a lot of details about how we met, and how our friendship developed, how we got engaged then paid off the mortgage on our house, then how we got married and the things we have done over 10 years during our relationship.

Within this relationship discussion I have inserted a lot of photos into the document of various sizes, (so as to be able to squeeze them in), illustrating the various parts of the discussion.

For example.. How I built a patio with a photo inserted showing the patio. When we got engaged, with a photo inserted showing us at our engagement meal out,  When we got married in our own home with a few photos of that,  etc, etc.

My question is is this the right format for the sponsor’s letter, or is there a different layout expected..?

Should I upload all the photo’s separately instead of inserting them in with the text..? If so is there a particular size the photo’s need to be..?

When saving the document in Microsoft Word,  you can save it as a .pdf document, which is very convenient, and immediately ready for uploading.

Also within the letter I’ve made reference to other .pdf documents that will be uploaded in support my discussion eg
Friends_Invitation_ letter.pdf,
Friends_Deeds.pdf.  etc.

At the bottom of the letter I’ve also listed all these external  ‘document.pdf’ files that I’ve referenced in my discussion.

Writing my Sponsor’s Letter with pictures embedded.  Have I gone about this in the right way..?

No, there should be no pictures or anything like that. Just 4 short paragraphs explaining how you meet each requirement, including a short history of your relationship.

Your relationship history should be no more than 1 paragraph (about 5 lines). Facts/dates only, no personal feelings, no photos, nothing.

An example letter:

To The Entry Clearance Officer,

I am writing to confirm my support of my wife, [APPLICANT'S] application for a settlement visa to join me in the UK. I am a UK citizen, and I lived in the UK from birth until [DATE], when I moved to the USA (or whatever your personal situation was).

I will be meeting the financial requirement under Category D Cash Savings. I have £X in my bank account which I will be using to meet the requirements. It has been held in X accounts in my name for Y amount of time. These savings were built/obtained by [GIVE SOURCE OF SAVINGS].

When [APPLICANT"S] visa has been granted, we will be living at [FULL ADDRESS]. This an X bedroom, Y living room property which is owned by [NAME]. The total number of occupants will be X, therefore the property will not be overcrowded. [NAME] has given us both permission to live there with him and I am including his Land Registry document, mortgage statement and a letter of invitation from him.

[APPLICANT] and I met on X date, and entered into a relationship on Y date. We visited each other X times and kept in touch by [email/message/phone etc.] for [AMOUNT OF TIME you were in a long distance relationship]. We got engaged on Z date and were married in [CITY, STATE, COUNTRY] on A date. We have lived together in [CITY, STATE] since B date, but are now wishing to settle in the UK together because [GIVE REASON].

Yours Faithfully,
YOUR NAME

So they don’t need convincing its a genuine relationship, just simply stating it is...?

What about the collection of photos of our engagement, wedding etc, should we upload those separately in .pdf format with files names that describe what they are...  eg  Our_Engagement.pdf,  Our Wedding_Photo#1.pdf,  Our Wedding_Photo#2.pdf, etc etc.

If so, is there a physical size requirement for these photos.

So they don’t need convincing its a genuine relationship, just simply stating it is...?

Nope, all they need is facts, which will prove the genuine relationship. Namely:
- how you met
- how long you have been together
- how you kept in touch while living apart and how often you saw each other
- when and where you got married
- how long and where you have lived together
- why you are moving back to the U.K.

What about the collection of photos of our engagement, wedding etc, should we upload those separately in .pdf format with files names that describe what they are...  eg  Our_Engagement.pdf,  Our Wedding_Photo#1.pdf,  Our Wedding_Photo#2.pdf, etc etc.

If so, is there a physical size requirement for these photos.

You should not be sending a collection of photos.

All you need to send is 1 photo proving you have physically met in person (to prove it is not a forced or sham marriage). Only you and your spouse should be in the photo, no one else.

The Entry Clearance Officer simply needs to tick a box to say they have seen 1 photo of you together. You don’t get a bigger or better tick for sending more photos.

Having said that, we normally recommend sending 2 photos, one recent and one from earlier in the relationship.

In your case, you might include:
- one photo of you both at your wedding
- either one photo from the beginning of your relationship if you have only recently married, or one recent photo if you have been married for several years


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I have my friends Letter of invitation, a ₤3 copy of his deeds from the UK land Registry, and a copy of his wife’s death certificate, as her name is on the deeds.. 

My friend is now retired and I’m sure has paid off his mortgage a long time ago, and so I have no record of mortgage on his property, will what I have do with the 3 documents mentioned above..?

I have my friends Letter of invitation, a ₤3 copy of his deeds from the UK land Registry, and a copy of his wife’s death certificate, as her name is on the deeds.. 

My friend is now retired and I’m sure has paid off his mortgage a long time ago, and so I have no record of mortgage on his property, will what I have do with the 3 documents mentioned above..?

Yes, that's fine.

You only need to provide mortgage statements if there is still an outstanding mortgage on the property - because you are showing that the mortgage is being paid every month and that the owner will not default on the mortgage while you are living there.

If the mortgage has been paid off in full, then there's nothing further you need to provide, because there is no danger of the house being repossessed due to not paying the mortgage.

I’m busy right now re-writing my Sponsor’s letter

We visited each other 6 times, (for about 3 months at a time), between 2007 and 2010,

I have a list of all the 6 visa stamp dates in my old passport

Do I need to Mention the visa’s and if so how can I not prove it without including photo’s of the visa stamps..??  I don’t mean include the photos in the letter, but uploaded separately as .pdf’s

Or am I overkilling it again..?

Will the simple line. “ We visited each other 6 times, (for about 3 months at a time), between 2007 and 2010, ”.  Be sufficient.

I’m busy right now re-writing my Sponsor’s letter

We visited each other 6 times, (for about 3 months at a time), between 2007 and 2010,

I have a list of all the 6 visa stamp dates in my old passport

Do I need to Mention the visa’s and if so how can I not prove it without including photo’s of the visa stamps..??  I don’t mean include the photos in the letter, but uploaded separately as .pdf’s

Or am I overkilling it again..?

Will the simple line. “ We visited each other 6 times, (for about 3 months at a time), between 2007 and 2010, ”.  Be sufficient.

You're overkilling it .

They don't need pictures of the stamps, because they can just look through her passport(s) for them and/or check their system for visits. Plus, for your relationship evidence, you should be providing your boarding passes or e-tickets for the the flights between 2007 and 2010.

So, for the relationship part of the letter you could put something like:

We met on [DATE] at/on [MENTION HOW YOU MET] and entered into a relationship on  [DATE] . She visited me in the UK 3 times for around 3 months at a time, from April-June 2007, October-December 2008, and February-April 2010, and I visited her in the US 3 times from August -October 2007, March-May 2008 and June-September 2009. I am including the boarding passes/e-tickets from these flights. We also communicated [daily/weekly/monthly] via instant messaging, Skype calls and emails. Screenshots showing this communication has been included with our documents. We got engaged on [DATE] and married in [CITY, STATE, COUNTRY on [DATE] and we have lived together in [CITY, STATE] since [DATE]. We are now choosing to settle in the UK because [WHATEVER YOUR REASON IS FOR MOVING BACK]

One immediate problem I have now is I don’t have any old tickets or flight records, or skype record

It was me that came out to visit my wife 6 times. Before settling here, 10 years ago with no incline that one day we might be wanting to come back to the UK to live.

So my wife has No records in her US passport at all, and the only record I have is 6 visa stamps in and OLD UK passport which I still have besides my new UK passport, of course.

This the only record we have and what we have done is scan the old Passport Pages showing these travel dates that I made.. into a .pdf document. I have no other evidence other than this..

I hope this will do..?

One immediate problem I have now is I don’t have any old tickets or flight records, or skype record

It was me that came out to visit my wife 6 times. Before settling here, 10 years ago with no incline that one day we might be wanting to come back to the UK to live.

Not even email confirmations from when you booked the flights?

If you don't have them, then you don't have them and can't send them. Not a big deal.. Same with the Skype records.

Since you have been married and living together for 10 years, the most important evidence will be the evidence of you living together at the same address as each other for those 10 years, so you'll need to provide documents from each year of living together, such as:
- annual tax returns showing the same address for both of you
- tenancy agreements and/or house deeds and mortgage statements
- utility bills
etc.

Then you just provide whatever evidence you can of visiting her and communicating with each other between 2007 and 2010.

So my wife has No records in her US passport at all, and the only record I have is 6 visa stamps in and OLD UK passport which I still have besides my new UK passport, of course.

This the only record we have and what we have done is scan the old Passport Pages showing these travel dates that I made.. into a .pdf document. I have no other evidence other than this..

I hope this will do..?

None of this is an issue and you do not need to include the passport pages.

Just explain in the letter the dates you visited and that you no longer have the flight tickets or boarding passes. The fact that you have lived together for 10 years will far outweigh that evidence anyway.

So, for your relationship evidence, you should include:
- marriage certificate
- any divorce decrees if either of you were married previously
- 2 photos you and your wife together (i.e one from your wedding in 2010 and one recent one in 2020)

10 years of evidence of living together between 2010 and 2020
- annual tax returns from 2010 to 2019
- utility bills, maybe 1-2 per year.
- tenancy agreements/house deeds/mortgage statements

3 years of evidence of a long-distance relationship between 2007 and 2010
- any boarding passes/flight tickets you still have
- any letters/cards you sent each other that you still have
- screenshots of email inboxes/call logs/phone bills/IM messages etc. if you still have them

Many thanks Ksand24

I have managed to route out a couple of old emails show air flight bookings but not 6, I will try and tidy these up and get them into .pdf to include with the relationship bundle.

I have managed to shrink the Sponsor’s letter down to a single page which has Only 4 paragraphs.

A single introductory paragraph,

A single Financial Requirement Paragraph, explaining I’m using category D: and Category E: as the means to satisfy that.  Without going into further details, but saying relevant supporting documents are included..

A single Accommodation Requirements Paragraph explaining how we’ll be living with our friend saying relevant supporting documents are included..

A single Relationship Requirements paragraph, laid out as you described with all the Dates.. (when we met, when I travelled, with the comment,  “Unfortunately with limited supporting travel documents”. when we got engaged, when we got married etc etc

So I’m grateful  for your suggestions..

I have a couple other questions while I’m here...

(1)  I suppose I will have to create another .pdf document, which will show, on the date we make my wife’s application, just how I’ve calculated my Financial Requirement..

Because I’m declaring both my UK Lloyds ₤ funds and my US Barclays $ funds, I will have to convert the $ to ₤‘s using Oanda on the application date. I’m also declaring both my UK Pensions so that there’s potentially 3 ways I can qualify. 

It all depends on the exchange rate at the time, but I might ‘JUST’ have enough savings funds (Lloyds+Barclays) to qualify by themselves.

Otherwise my pensions alone falls short of qualifying by itself, by about ₤2k,  so a combination of either Pension + Barclay’s Fund or Pension + Lloyds fund should qualify.

As I’m still awaiting the arrival in the post of one final Lloyds bank Statement, which have been consistently late coming and always pushing me beyond the 28 day valid statement time line,  I might have to just use Pensions + Barclays as my means.

Do I need to present my calculations to them showing I have enough to qualify, one way or another, and present these calculations in a .pdf document..?

OR will they simply do this calculation themselves (which I’m sure they’ll do anyway), from the documentary evidence I provide.. Bank statements, pensions income statements P60 etc.

I’ve read I do need to do the Oanda Calculation $ to ₤, and so I will at least need to write that down somewhere and present it to them..?

(2). Another completely different question is when it comes to uploading documents, if for some reason you can’t do it all in the same day, can you logout out of uploading and continue later..?

(3). I guess the post office closest to my friends house will be the one chosen for my wife’s BRP to be sent too.  At what stage or When do you get the choice or get informed which post office will be used..?