Greg and Tre's advice thread

I wouldn't worry.  It's soooo common.  (I'm in finance).  EVERYONE has some type of contribution at the gross salary level (well most everyone).  UKVI will see this all day long.

So long as your employment letter gross salary can be tied back to your payslips, you will be fine.

Thanks both
My understanding is that my 'basic pay' plus my 'delivery supplement' on my payslip, when added together and multiplied by 52.something (HR have said they don't use exactly 52 to allow for leap years) will come to the same figure that the HR letter will state as being my annual salary.

My concerns are that it won't be exact - the immigration bod may well just use x52

And my other concern is that the immigration bod will view the 'delivery supplement' suspiciously. It is a permanent part of our salary and is only documented separately as it was added on once we started being made to deliver advertising too. Our union said 'you can't make them do that much extra work for the same pay', so Royal Mail said 'okay this is the extra bit they're getting for doing that, kept separate on the payslip for all to see'.

I've created a flickr account but I've been really busy of late so I haven't got around to temporarily anonymising a payslip

Thanks both
My understanding is that my 'basic pay' plus my 'delivery supplement' on my payslip, when added together and multiplied by 52.something (HR have said they don't use exactly 52 to allow for leap years) will come to the same figure that the HR letter will state as being my annual salary.

My concerns are that it won't be exact - the immigration bod may well just use x52

And my other concern is that the immigration bod will view the 'delivery supplement' suspiciously. It is a permanent part of our salary and is only documented separately as it was added on once we started being made to deliver advertising too. Our union said 'you can't make them do that much extra work for the same pay', so Royal Mail said 'okay this is the extra bit they're getting for doing that, kept separate on the payslip for all to see'.

I've created a flickr account but I've been really busy of late so I haven't got around to temporarily anonymising a payslip

My husband was working at Royal Mail when we did my fiancee visa application and both of my FLR(M) applications (he started a different job a month before my ILR application, so I used about 48 Royal Mail payslips for that application, too).  This is one of his payslips, anonymized.  As far as I know, they used the circled figure.  I realize that the maths won't work out with the annual basic pay stated in the employer letter, but I've had three (four) successful applications using this.  The vital things are that the Net Payment figures in the bottom-right corner must exactly match the deposits into the bank account, and the gross pay over the course of a year would total at least £18,600.  Those are what matter.

Is your concern that the basic rate of pay doesn't quite reach £18,600 without the delivery supplement factored in?  Or are you just worried about a discrepancy between what the employer letter says you make and how much the payslip shows?

hey jfkimberley!

both those things.  my typical LHS figures are basic pay, delivery supplement, POAL (purchase of annual leave - I voluntarily buy extra days off), and RMDCP or similar (the pension).  Depending which combination of those they use (or don't) I may or may not make £18600 (I'm on 32.5 hours per week instead of 39). 

If they take your circled figure I should be ok.  If they ignore the delivery supplement, I fall short.  Also, from my conversation with HR, your circled figure isn't the one HR use when they state the salary in their proof of employment letter - they use [basic pay + delivery supplement]*52.something.

It's good to know they'll be used to Royal ail payslips, but I'm a little closer to the line due to working less hours so I'm just concerned. We really want this to go through first time!

BTW How did you post the picture on here??

Thanks

First, posting pics... to post it as an attachment to your post, like I did, the file size must be less than 1MB.  Under the text box area where you type your message, there's an spot for adding attachments (It's possible you don't get this feature until you've reached a certain number of posts... I'm not sure.)

If you need to count the delivery supplement to get your pay over the £18,600 threshold, have your employer letter state in it that this is a regular supplement to your pay and will continue.  Something like "Xx is employed on a permanent basis in the role of xxx on an annual salary of £xx,xxx base pay, plus a delivery supplement of £20/week."

First, posting pics... to post it as an attachment to your post, like I did, the file size must be less than 1MB.  Under the text box area where you type your message, there's an spot for adding attachments (It's possible you don't get this feature until you've reached a certain number of posts... I'm not sure.)

Other ways you can add pictures are:

- upload the image to an image-hosting site and then insert the image into your post using the 'IMG' code (the picture button under the Bold button if you're on the desktop site)
or
- if you access the forum through the Tapatalk app on your phone, if you save the picture on your phone,  you can just press the 'insert image' button in the message options and select and insert it into your reply (like you would do if you were sending a picture by email or in an instant message).

Hi all

The wedding is 4 weeks today!
So, much to prepare... I'll try to get an image of my payslip on here this week, so I can then figure out how to request my proof of employment letter from HR so they can add in (hopefully) any necessary clauses
Also, we'll be completing the application form etc in the US the day after the wedding. Tre doesn't have a working printer atm. Is there a way around this? Can I print stuff off here and take it over, or does Tre need to get a new printer (he'd have to sell it again when he moves!)? Or maybe we can find some kid of internet cafe, or see if one of his friends/family will let us use theirs?
Thanks!

Hi all

The wedding is 4 weeks today!
So, much to prepare... I'll try to get an image of my payslip on here this week, so I can then figure out how to request my proof of employment letter from HR so they can add in (hopefully) any necessary clauses
Also, we'll be completing the application form etc in the US the day after the wedding. Tre doesn't have a working printer atm. Is there a way around this? Can I print stuff off here and take it over, or does Tre need to get a new printer (he'd have to sell it again when he moves!)? Or maybe we can find some kid of internet cafe, or see if one of his friends/family will let us use theirs?
Thanks!

You can print at Fedex Kinko's or that sort of place.

Ok so I'm attempting to post an example of pretty much the most confusing payslip I have for the last 7 months.  Is the entry clearance officer likely to have palpitations? I can get a Proof of Employment letter from HR, and when I spoke to them a few weeks back they said the figure they would be citing as my gross pay was c£19706 (derivation below)... but should I request that they include some extra sentences to help the people at immigration to make sense of it?

FYI:
Delivery Supplement is the extra we get per week for having to deliver advertising these days. It's compulsory and permanent.
POAL is Purchase of Annual Leave (I elected to take a 2.something % pay cut to get extra holidays)
PSE...DBCBS is our pension scheme
(For some reason they don't seem to get our contributions to either of these last two correct week-by-week and so they keep adjusting with 'arrears of...'!)

And they unhelpfully put all of this on the left hand side above the gross pay figure, which distorts my true gross pay figure somewhat.

[Derivation: my pay rate is 441.58 per week. A full week is 38 hours, and I work 32.5, giving 377.67. HR use a multiplying factor of 52.179 to allow for the extra day or two over 52 weeks that make up a full year, so giving 19706. We had a pay rise in April, prior to which my pay rate was 432.92, giving a gross figure of c£19319. I think I need to ask HR that this change in pay is also detailed?]

Thanks forum - let me know if the link is defective and I'll try again!

Ok so I'm attempting to post an example of pretty much the most confusing payslip I have for the last 7 months.  Is the entry clearance officer likely to have palpitations?

Doesn't look confusing to me - they won't look at any of the extra stuff listed beneath the Basic pay.They will either use the total gross pay figure of £384.27 or the basic pay figure of £377.67 to work it out.

And even if they use the £377.67, assuming this is a weekly payslip, it will be above the minimum requirement anyway (£377.67 x 52 weeks = £19,638.84), so nothing to worry about.

We had a pay rise in April, prior to which my pay rate was 432.92, giving a gross figure of c£19319. I think I need to ask HR that this change in pay is also detailed?]

Yes, they MUST list the change in pay - with the date of payrise and previous pay amount.

Thanks ksand24, much appreciated. I've checked all these payslips against my bank statements and all the dates and amounts match exactly. I'll check the next 3 weeks when they arrive too.

Above is the simplest payslip I have since the start of 2019. It also has the lowest Basic Pay and Gross Pay figures of any of my payslips. From what you've said, since both the basic pay figure and gross pay figure multiply x52 to >18600, we can be confident?
(There were concerns previously that they might ignore the delivery supplement, but take off the POAL and DBCBS(pension) - that would give £342.3 which x52 is £17799.6...)

I have a couple of options regarding my bank statements:



One is to access the ‘official statements’ in my internet banking. These look like the ones that come in the post, and also include my name etc. However they only run 18th of one month to 17th of the next.  We’re planning to marry on 7th, submit online asap on the 8th August, and ideally complete biometrics same day (NB is this possible?!-if not is it possible to pre-book biometrics before submitting the application?) either in San Antonio or in Austin, or the following day (Friday 9th) in Las Vegas... or at the latest Monday 12th in Las Vegas. 28 days from 17th July is Wednesday 14th August, so I figure that even with a slight delay getting biometrics, we shouldn’t exceed the 28-day limit? Or does this not matter as long as we submit the application within 28 days of my last payslip/statement (whichever of those is earliest I guess)



The other option is to set custom dates in my online banking and print that. The advantage is I can do this a little later in July to reduce the risk of exceeding the 28 days. The downside is it looks way less formal, and doesn’t even seem to include my name!

Once biometrics is done we intend to send everything off immediately. I know people have talked in other threads about scanning docs, but we’ll be in the US and so my instinct is to send hard copy originals of my payslips, and one-sided printouts of my bank statements with a branch stamp on each. Any thoughts on scanning v posting?

Any thoughts, forum?
(Also, any thoughts on the previous post regarding my minimum payslip and whether they might take off POAL & pension figures?)
Thanks as ever.

Just bumping my two previous posts, cos our thread fell off page 1 so I'm worried it won't get seen. Only 10 business days after this week for me to get my paperwork in order, so just feeling a lil anxious

I have a couple of options regarding my bank statements:



One is to access the ‘official statements’ in my internet banking. These look like the ones that come in the post, and also include my name etc. However they only run 18th of one month to 17th of the next.  We’re planning to marry on 7th, submit online asap on the 8th August, and ideally complete biometrics same day (NB is this possible?!-if not is it possible to pre-book biometrics before submitting the application?) either in San Antonio or in Austin, or the following day (Friday 9th) in Las Vegas... or at the latest Monday 12th in Las Vegas. 28 days from 17th July is Wednesday 14th August, so I figure that even with a slight delay getting biometrics, we shouldn’t exceed the 28-day limit? Or does this not matter as long as we submit the application within 28 days of my last payslip/statement (whichever of those is earliest I guess)



The other option is to set custom dates in my online banking and print that. The advantage is I can do this a little later in July to reduce the risk of exceeding the 28 days. The downside is it looks way less formal, and doesn’t even seem to include my name!

Once biometrics is done we intend to send everything off immediately. I know people have talked in other threads about scanning docs, but we’ll be in the US and so my instinct is to send hard copy originals of my payslips, and one-sided printouts of my bank statements with a branch stamp on each. Any thoughts on scanning v posting?

Any thoughts, forum?
(Also, any thoughts on the previous post regarding my minimum payslip and whether they might take off POAL & pension figures?)
Thanks as ever.

If you print your bank statements at home yourself, even if they look exactly the same as the ones that get posted to you, you need to have them authenticated by stamp on every page in branch.  Alternatively, you can request bank statements from the bank.

Regarding the timing of the statements, if every payslip you're relying on appears in the statements, and you have six FULL months of statements, the only other concern is that the last statement date is within 28 days of your application submission.

So, a statement date that ends on the 17th of July is fine for an August 8th wedding date and then immediately applying.

Once you submit the online application and pay, the 28 days window closes, and you're in.  You don't have to complete biometrics within the 28 days of your financial documents... just click the button to submit and pay for your application.

Some people do have a timing issue with getting the most recent payslip and bank statement showing that pay depositing in within the same 28-day window, but that shouldn't be a problem for you as you're paid weekly (it wasn't a problem for us).  But, still, that wouldn't be a problem because you could just go into the branch and request a recent transaction summary, or "interim statement", or whatever your particular bank calls it to show the most recent payslip, if necessary.

Regarding the payslips and salary figure, what does your employer letter say your salary is?  Is there a calculation that can be easily made from looking at your payslip that makes sense with this figure?  I agree with ksand24: they will either use the stated Basic Pay, or they will use the stated Gross Pay.  They will not pick and choose things to add and deduct.  I really think you're safe. 

"the only other concern is that the last statement date is within 28 days of your application submission." - I'm taking this to mean the last date on the statement (not the date of the statement)?

"Some people do have a timing issue with getting the most recent payslip" - again, just to check, I don't need my most recent payslip if I'm paid weekly, as long as the latest payslip is within 28 days of applying?

I'm chasing up my employer letter today. Both the figures before April and after April 1st (when we had a payrise) should be over £18600.  I'll update here once it comes through.

I think I'll print the formal-looking statements running:
18dec - 17jan
jan-feb
feb-mar
mar-apr
apr-may
may-jun
18jun-17jul
And send in 28 or 29 weekly payslips that are completely within that 7 month period, which should cover me for the 6month rule I think?
Hmm actually that would mean my last payslip would actually be the 12th July, which does seem a bit tight as Aug 8th submission is only one-day inside the window.  So I'll have to look into my branch printing an interim statement like you said

Thanks for the reassurances, jfkimberley.