Greg and Tre's advice thread

We have one joint account that is sending us an identical statement each every month, so that's a big step in the right direction.

Our power company SHOULD be sending us a paper statement in both our names every quarter, but I have zero faith in energy suppliers to get their admin right

Water and council tax should be sending bills addressed to both of us but I think they only send out annually.

Still thinking of what else I can do to make sure we have enough when the time comes

I found that if I took a meter reading it triggered a bill from my energy company so I read the meters every month.. you might want to try that to see if it works for you.

Here's the list of items they suggest.

Examples of acceptable items of correspondence
• letters or other documents from government departments or agencies, for example HM Revenue and Customs, Department for Work and Pensions, DVLA, TV Licensing
• letters or other documents from your GP, a hospital or other local health service about medical treatments, appointments, home visits or other medical matters
• bank statements/letters
• building society savings books/letters
• council tax bills or statements
• electricity and/or gas bills or statements
• water rates bills or statements
• mortgage statements/agreement
• tenancy agreement(s)
• telephone bills or statements

Hi all

Hope everyone is well.  We're still steadily trying to get our ducks in a row for FLR, and a couple of issues have come up:

Our electricity company, who we have a paper statement tariff with, say they sent a statement in the mail on 3rd January, which we don't seem to have received.  They also sent an electronic copy by email. When I chased up our paper statement they basically printed out a copy of the electronic one, which I could have done, and mailed it out to us. Is that going to be ok? It has their letter head and contact details on, and is in colour.

Our water company did slightly better, sending out a new bill for 2020-2021 that arrived today with both our names on, except Tre's middle name and surname have been hyphenated together! So instead of eg Tre John Smith, he's Tre John-Smith. Is that likely to be an issue?

A friend of ours who has an American fiance and is using a lawyer to do her spouse visa paperwork has been told that his fiance will have to submit a US tax return. This is my understanding too ie I was expecting that Tre will have to fill out a tax return, and if he hasn't paid as much tax here as he would've done in the US, then he will owe the US government the difference.
However, our friend has been told that as we our now spouses, I will also have to fill out a US tax return, and both our incomes will be used to decide how much tax we owe to the US government. This seems a little odd, and I was hoping someone could shed some light on this?

Thanks everyone

Hi all

Hope everyone is well.  We're still steadily trying to get our ducks in a row for FLR, and a couple of issues have come up:

Our electricity company, who we have a paper statement tariff with, say they sent a statement in the mail on 3rd January, which we don't seem to have received.  They also sent an electronic copy by email. When I chased up our paper statement they basically printed out a copy of the electronic one, which I could have done, and mailed it out to us. Is that going to be ok? It has their letter head and contact details on, and is in colour.

Our water company did slightly better, sending out a new bill for 2020-2021 that arrived today with both our names on, except Tre's middle name and surname have been hyphenated together! So instead of eg Tre John Smith, he's Tre John-Smith. Is that likely to be an issue?

A friend of ours who has an American fiance and is using a lawyer to do her spouse visa paperwork has been told that his fiance will have to submit a US tax return. This is my understanding too ie I was expecting that Tre will have to fill out a tax return, and if he hasn't paid as much tax here as he would've done in the US, then he will owe the US government the difference.
However, our friend has been told that as we our now spouses, I will also have to fill out a US tax return, and both our incomes will be used to decide how much tax we owe to the US government. This seems a little odd, and I was hoping someone could shed some light on this?

Thanks everyone

He will need to file US taxes but most people in your situation choose to file Married, filing separate, so that the UK spouse can stay out of it.

Your correspondence should be sent through the post and counts for the time it arrived. Do you have your bank statements set to monthly so that there is always something you can use for a particular time period.

The name is close enough.

Hey Larrabee

We get two statements, one addressed to each of us, for our joint account every month.

The electricity company who I think printed out an online bill and mailed it should be billing us quarterly.  So I'm still not sure whether I can use this bill or I should wait and just use later ones.

The water bill covers our payments for the coming year so I probably won't hear from them again until this time next year, so I'm glad the name is close enough.

I'm currently trying to get our council to include him on the council tax bill for April.

Hey Larrabee

We get two statements, one addressed to each of us, for our joint account every month.

The electricity company who I think printed out an online bill and mailed it should be billing us quarterly.  So I'm still not sure whether I can use this bill or I should wait and just use later ones.

The water bill covers our payments for the coming year so I probably won't hear from them again until this time next year, so I'm glad the name is close enough.

I'm currently trying to get our council to include him on the council tax bill for April.

That's good, his name should be on the council tax.

I'd probably use later electricity bills, you have the bank statements which you can use for earlier and you already have three sources so it's looking good.

Hello peeps

Still looking ahead for FLR 2 years from now.

So for living together proof, our names are on the annual council tax bills, annual water bills and quarterly electricity bills.  We also both get a monthly statement in our name from our joint account.  On top of this we should have miscellaneous other letters etc, so I feel we're ok here.

Does this also cover proof of shared responsibilities or do we need more for that?

Can people confirm what else we need for this stage (I THINK it's less rigorous?!):

Proof of earnings can now be achieved between us, using bank statements from either/both of us going back 7 calendar months to give 6 full months coverage?

Do I need a sponsor letter from my employer still? Does it need to state that my contract is permanent, or can I be in fixed-term contract work? (I'm considering a job change!)

Is there anything else we need?

Thanks
Greg

Hello peeps

Still looking ahead for FLR 2 years from now.

So for living together proof, our names are on the annual council tax bills, annual water bills and quarterly electricity bills.  We also both get a monthly statement in our name from our joint account.  On top of this we should have miscellaneous other letters etc, so I feel we're ok here.

Does this also cover proof of shared responsibilities or do we need more for that?

Can people confirm what else we need for this stage (I THINK it's less rigorous?!):

Proof of earnings can now be achieved between us, using bank statements from either/both of us going back 7 calendar months to give 6 full months coverage?

Do I need a sponsor letter from my employer still? Does it need to state that my contract is permanent, or can I be in fixed-term contract work? (I'm considering a job change!)

Is there anything else we need?

Thanks
Greg

Looks like you're good for correspondence. You do not need proof of shared responsibilities, that's just a question that you answer how you choose to depending on your situation. There's no right or wrong answer for that one.

Financial and accommodation requirements are exactly the same. The relationship requirement now has the correspondence but you don't need evidence of keeping in touch or visits etc. You still need the marriage certificate and proof of any divorces.

Yes, you can combine incomes for the financial requirement but if one of you makes 18.6k alone, then don't include the other income.
You need bank statements, pay slips, employer letter and optional P60 and contract.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-fm-se-family-members-specified-evidence

Hello peeps

Still looking ahead for FLR 2 years from now.

So for living together proof, our names are on the annual council tax bills, annual water bills and quarterly electricity bills.  We also both get a monthly statement in our name from our joint account.  On top of this we should have miscellaneous other letters etc, so I feel we're ok here.

You need a document in each name (either joint or separately addressed) dated every 4 months for the last 2 years before applying for FLR, so that’s 6 documents in each name. You need them from at least 3 different official sources.

So, what I would do right now is work out which months you will need documents from and make sure you receive/save documents that you can use in those months. All documents need to be received in the mail. If you receive monthly bank statements, this is good, as you can use them to make up any months you are missing.

Does this also cover proof of shared responsibilities or do we need more for that?

You don’t need to provide evidence of shared responsibilities, as far as I know... you just list on the application form whether or not you have any.

Can people confirm what else we need for this stage (I THINK it's less rigorous?!):

Proof of earnings can now be achieved between us, using bank statements from either/both of us going back 7 calendar months to give 6 full months coverage?

The requirements are exactly the same as for the last visa, but because you now have permission to work in the UK, you can combine your incomes to meet the £18,600 requirement if you need to.

However, if one of you earns £18,600 or more on your own, then you only use their income and you do not include the other income.

You need both payslips and bank statements for the 7 months, plus the employer letter(s). You should also include job contract(s) and latest P60.

Do I need a sponsor letter from my employer still? Does it need to state that my contract is permanent, or can I be in fixed-term contract work? (I'm considering a job change!)

Yes, you must include the employer letter (the visa will be refused without it) - it is not a sponsor letter though because your spouse is your sponsor, not your employer.

The requirements for the employer letter are:
- current salary and employment
- length of employment
- length of time earning current salary
- type of employment (full or part-time, permanent or temporary etc.)

You also need your accommodation documents.


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Thanks larrabee and ksand24 for your typically outstandingly thorough responses. 

So it's ok for me to be on a temporary or fixed-term contract, as long as I/we can prove earnings over £18.6k?
I wasn't sure if the employer letter had to confirm that the contract was a permanent one.

Stay safe

"So it's ok for me to be on a temporary or fixed-term contract, as long as I/we can prove earnings over £18.6k?
I wasn't sure if the employer letter had to confirm that the contract was a permanent one."

Any thoughts? (Might be submitting a job application this weekend!)

Yes, it's fine.

If you read the requirements listed in Appendix FM 1.7, it explictly states that it is fine:

5.5. Salaried and non-salaried employment – general requirements

5.5.1. Employment can be full-time or part-time.

5.5.2. Employment can be permanent, a fixed-term contract or with an agency.

And the employer letter must state what type of employment it is:

(b) A letter from the employer(s) who issued the payslips at paragraph 2(a) confirming:
(i) the person's employment and gross annual salary;
(ii) the length of their employment;
(iii) the period over which they have been or were paid the level of salary relied upon in the application;
and
(iv) the type of employment (permanent, fixed-term contract or agency).

See pages 30 and 36:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/826340/Appendix-FM-1-7-Financial-Requirement-ext_1.pdf

Awesome. I'd got it in my head I needed to be permanently employed, but it's possible I got confused with mortgage requirements as we've been looking at all that sort of stuff too.  Thanks for the clarification, ksand24