Spouse Application Questions

Hi everyone,

This is my first post here. Been lurking for a while, gaining lots of helpful information, so thank you for that!

I had questions about the list of documents required for a Spousal Visa application. As background, my wife is from the US, and i'm in the UK.

We have been together since August last year, and got married in May. We are in the middle of completing the forms online here (https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk) not VisaforUK site which we were forwarded to previously, as the "Family Visa' website now goes to the above link. I presume this is correct ?

I've put together the below list of documents, I believe this is everything we need, is there anything obviously missing from this list?

Do we scan the documents ourselves for an application from the US, or are they sent off?

Am I right in thinking in terms of money it is around the below figures?

Application - £1600
NHS Fee - £1200
Priority service - £600

Document List

Online Application
Appendix 2 (Not sure if this is applicable on the new site, is it part of the application instead ? -Does anyone have experience with the new site?)
Applicant Letter (does anyone have examples of this ?)
Sponsors Letter(any examples ?)


Home Owners Letter (Any examples of this as well haha ? )
Land Registry Document
Mortgage Statement (This is dated a few months back, will this make a difference ?)


Employers Letter (Can this be from my boss or does it have to be from the owner of the company ? )
7 Months Payslips (These are digital, so I need to have their authenticity confirmed on the employer letter)
7 Months Bank Statements

Applicants Passport
Sponsors Passport (Photocopy)
Marriage Certificate (Photocopy or Certified Copy?)
Boarding Passes from Travel
iMessage/Call Logs (1/2 per week we have been together ? is this enough ? )
Photos (1/2 from each trip ? Or more required ?)

Any help with the above queries on documents, or if there is any documents I am missing would be so helpful!

Thank you so much!

Hi and welcome!

Fees, first:
Application fee is £1523
Immigration Health Surcharge is £1200
Priority is £573

These fees will all be paid in USD, though, at the stated rate when you apply (it is updated a few times a year, and I'm not sure what the current prices are).

Documents:
The applicant letter is optional and if used, it's usually just to provide a table of contents, or to explain any issues in the application (legal issues, prior immigration issues, etc.).  If your application is straightforward, there is no need for an applicant letter.

The sponsor letter is required.  In it, the sponsor outlines how they are eligible to sponsor the application (British national, employed permanently making £xx,xxx, etc.) , and a brief summary of the relationship and how you keep in touch.

If you/the sponsor own the home, there is no need for a letter.   You just provide the Land Registry document showing you as owner and the most recent mortgage statement.  If someone else owns the home, the owner will need to write a letter saying the appkicant and sponsor have permission to live in the house, and you will still need the Land Registry document and mortgage statement if available.

Mortgage statements are typically sent out as an annual summary document, so it's expected to be months old.  It's fine.  Only the most recent payslip, bank statement, and employer letter have to be within 28 days of the application date.

The employer letter needs to be from someone who has authority to write the letter and can confirm your employment details.  Some get theirs from HR, some from owners, ... it really depends on the size/structure of the company.  My husband got his letters from the office manager (highest ranked person at the local office) of his old job, and HR from his new job.

For your message history, you've been together since August, yes?  So that's 1-2 messages per week for almost a year... that's probably a reasonable amount.

For photos, you only want a maximum of two (I sent one because my husband and I both avoid cameras, so one was all we had).  Only you and your partner in the photo(s), usually one from early in the relationship and one more recent one.  Take out all the other photos.  These are just to show UKVI that you have actually met in person at least once.

Now, for the link... the old link was visa4uk (yes, a government official thought a '4' in the link was reassuringly official-looking, apparently).

https://www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk

However late last summer, they started switching everything to online applications, and I'm not sure of the details of the new site.  As far as I can tell, you are in the right spot.  It is a UK government link, at any rate.

I think I might have missed some questions, but just ask again if you still have questions. 

Hi and welcome!

Fees, first:
Application fee is £1523
Immigration Health Surcharge is £1200
Priority is £573

These fees will all be paid in USD, though, at the stated rate when you apply (it is updated a few times a year, and I'm not sure what the current prices are).

Documents:
The applicant letter is optional and if used, it's usually just to provide a table of contents, or to explain any issues in the application (legal issues, prior immigration issues, etc.).  If your application is straightforward, there is no need for an applicant letter.

The sponsor letter is required.  In it, the sponsor outlines how they are eligible to sponsor the application (British national, employed permanently making £xx,xxx, etc.) , and a brief summary of the relationship and how you keep in touch.

If you/the sponsor own the home, there is no need for a letter.   You just provide the Land Registry document showing you as owner and the most recent mortgage statement.  If someone else owns the home, the owner will need to write a letter saying the appkicant and sponsor have permission to live in the house, and you will still need the Land Registry document and mortgage statement if available.

Mortgage statements are typically sent out as an annual summary document, so it's expected to be months old.  It's fine.  Only the most recent payslip, bank statement, and employer letter have to be within 28 days of the application date.

The employer letter needs to be from someone who has authority to write the letter and can confirm your employment details.  Some get theirs from HR, some from owners, ... it really depends on the size/structure of the company.  My husband got his letters from the office manager (highest ranked person at the local office) of his old job, and HR from his new job.

For your message history, you've been together since August, yes?  So that's 1-2 messages per week for almost a year... that's probably a reasonable amount.

For photos, you only want a maximum of two (I sent one because my husband and I both avoid cameras, so one was all we had).  Only you and your partner in the photo(s), usually one from early in the relationship and one more recent one.  Take out all the other photos.  These are just to show UKVI that you have actually met in person at least once.

Now, for the link... the old link was visa4uk (yes, a government official thought a '4' in the link was reassuringly official-looking, apparently).

https://www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk

However late last summer, they started switching everything to online applications, and I'm not sure of the details of the new site.  As far as I can tell, you are in the right spot.  It is a UK government link, at any rate.

I think I might have missed some questions, but just ask again if you still have questions. 

Thank you so much for the reply.

Noted on the fees!

Great, i'll remove the applicant letter from my list of documents as there are no complexities such as legal issues or previous immigration issues.

Thank you, i'll get the Sponsor letter written with the information required.

The owner of the home is not myself, so I will write a letter on their behalf and get them to sign it detailing that they own the property and they give us permission to live in the property.

Cool on the employer letter, I can get that sorted with the highest up person in my office.

Yes correct we have been together since August last year. Thanks for confirming the number of messages that'll be acceptable for the application. I'll get started on this mammoth task! Hahaha.

Yeah, we actually started an application on the previous site, and then ended up on the second site as it had been a while since we started the application and I clicked the link on the Family Visa gov site and ended up on the new site. It looks similar in its questioning, but it actually seems like they're asking for the less information on the new site, which i'm not sure if a good thing or a bad thing!

In regards to the documents that i'm providing. Letters from Employer, Housing letter+mortgage statement+land registry + Payslips and bank statements etc, as it is the Applicant who has to send this documentation to New York, am I going to have to post all those original documents out to her in the US for her then to post to NYC ? It seems like a strange set up as i'm the one who is providing most of the documentation, and her the passport + a few other bits. I read somewhere that there is an option to scan yourself and upload on the VFS website, but it looks like this service is really glitchy. Does anyone have any experience with using this service, or is it going to be better for me to just send my documents recorded delivery to my wife as quickly as I can so that they are dated within 28 days of the application ?

Thanks again for your help!

The owner of the home is not myself, so I will write a letter on their behalf and get them to sign it detailing that they own the property and they give us permission to live in the property.

It also needs to state the number of bedrooms and living rooms and the total number of people who will be living there, and explicitly state it will not be overcrowded.

Yes correct we have been together since August last year. Thanks for confirming the number of messages that'll be acceptable for the application. I'll get started on this mammoth task! Hahaha.

Don’t include any message content, just names and dates. You should be able to get them all on 2-3 sheets of A4.

In regards to the documents that i'm providing. Letters from Employer, Housing letter+mortgage statement+land registry + Payslips and bank statements etc, as it is the Applicant who has to send this documentation to New York, am I going to have to post all those original documents out to her in the US for her then to post to NYC ? It seems like a strange set up as i'm the one who is providing most of the documentation, and her the passport + a few other bits. I read somewhere that there is an option to scan yourself and upload on the VFS website, but it looks like this service is really glitchy. Does anyone have any experience with using this service or is it going to be better for me to just send my documents recorded delivery to my wife as quickly as I can so that they are dated within 28 days of the application ?

It should be the applicant who has all the documents in their hands and scans everything in, so you will need to mail all the documents to the US anyway, regardless of whether you upload or mail them to New York

The upload site is glitchy, but personally I would recommend the applicant does the uploading themselves, because there have been problems with New York not even bothering to upload all the documents and Sheffield never receiving half of them, meaning they then have to contact the applicant to ask them to scan in send all their documents a second time !

But if you do it yourself, you will know that everything has been submitted and uploaded the way you want it to be.

However, NEVER use recorded delivery or ANY Royal Mail service (including Parcel Force) to send important visa documents. They cannot be reliably tracked and will likely get stuck in US customs for several weeks and may never even arrive in the US.

ALWAYS use a registered international courier like UPS, FedEx or DHL as they have full tracking and their own customs.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It also needs to state the number of bedrooms and living rooms and the total number of people who will be living there, and explicitly state it will not be overcrowded.

Don’t include any message content, just names and dates. You should be able to get them all on 2-3 sheets of A4.

It should be the applicant who has all the documents in their hands and scans everything in, so you will need to mail all the documents to the US anyway, regardless of whether you upload or mail them to New York

The upload site is glitchy, but personally I would recommend the applicant does the uploading themselves, because there have been problems with New York not even bothering to upload all the documents and Sheffield never receiving half of them, meaning they then have to contact the applicant to ask them to scan in send all their documents a second time !

But if you do it yourself, you will know that everything has been submitted and uploaded the way you want it to be.

However, NEVER use recorded delivery or ANY Royal Mail service (including Parcel Force) to send important visa documents. They cannot be reliably tracked and will likely get stuck in US customs for several weeks and may never even arrive in the US.

ALWAYS use a registered international courier like UPS, FedEx or DHL as they have full tracking and their own customs.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Okay thanks, noted on stating the number of bedrooms, living rooms & total occupants in the house.

Understood on the scanning, I also feel that we would like to scan to make sure nothing is missed. I should be able to scan/upload documents from my side as well though I presume, even though its my spouse who is making the application. I just feel like it's taking a risk sending documents across the atlantic to be scanned and uploaded by my spouse when I can scan them here in the UK. I could always scan them and send her the documents to then upload herself.

I will use UPS however if I do end up sending, have suffered the consequences of using Royal Mail sending to the US before at my job.

Thanks for your help!

I just feel like it's taking a risk sending documents across the atlantic to be scanned and uploaded by my spouse when I can scan them here in the UK. I could always scan them and send her the documents to then upload herself.

You need to mail them to her as she should have all the original documents in her hands before she submits the online application. People have been doing this for years with no issues - I’ve seen well over 1,000 people mail their documents across the Atlantic for the last 12.5 years and they have all been safe.

In fact, if you had been applying this time last year, the documents would have had to be sent across the Atlantic three times. You would have had to send them all to her in the US before applying, then she would have had to send them back to the UK, to Sheffield, for processing (as you were not allowed to send them to Sheffield yourself and no copies were accepted), and then Sheffield would have had to send them back to her in the US.

Now though, you send them to the applicant in the US, the applicant either scans them or makes copies to mail to New York, and the originals all stay safely with the applicant in the US.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You need to mail them to her as she should have all the original documents in her hands before she submits the online application. People have been doing this for years with no issues - I’ve seen well over 1,000 people mail their documents across the Atlantic for the last 12.5 years and they have all been safe.

In fact, if you had been applying this time last year, the documents would have had to be sent across the Atlantic three times. You would have had to send them all to her in the US before applying, then she would have had to send them back to the UK, to Sheffield, for processing (as you were not allowed to send them to Sheffield yourself and no copies were accepted), and then Sheffield would have had to send them back to her in the US.

Now though, you send them to the applicant in the US, the applicant either scans them or makes copies to mail to New York, and the originals all stay safely with the applicant in the US.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Okay great, thank you for re-assuring. Will get all those documents across to her to scan and upload.

Hi everyone.

Is the attached message acceptable for the application ? This is from iMessage on my laptop as apposed to phone.

https://i.imgur.com/fPgRqKP.jpg

This is just to show regular contact right, so the attached should be acceptable ?

Thanks!

Just bumping this to check on my previous post. Don’t want to send off incorrect message evidence.

Thanks

Sorry - forgot to reply before.

Yeah, that looks fine .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Amazing, thank you!

Apologies, I had another additional question.

In regards to the letter from the employer, and the payslips, being dated with 28 days of the application. Is this within 28 days of submitting the application online, or within 28 days of the biometrics appointment ?

Thanks!

The must be dated no earlier than 28 days before the date you submit the online application and pay for the visa, as that is your official application date.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The must be dated no earlier than 28 days before the date you submit the online application and pay for the visa, as that is your official application date.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Great, thank you!

Sorry, I have another question! Hopefully my last one.

My (then fiance) travelled to UK to see me on the 28th December 2018. We then travelled to Paris via the Eurostar on the 29th December, and returned to the UK on the 3rd Jan 2019.

On entering UK travel history as part of the online application, we are required to state the last two visits to the UK. We have put the most recent visit as March 2019 (the last time she came here), and her previous visit as December 2018. However, as she re-entered the UK after us returning from France, her most recent visit to the UK would actually be January right ?

Apologies if this is a dumb question, just want to make sure i'm getting everything right as I know everything will be looked at through a microscope and don't want any small mistakes to impede the visa.

Thanks!