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Topic: Marrying stateside & applying for spouse visa in UK while wife on student visa  (Read 466 times)

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Hi all.
First off - really appreciate in advance any advice and information you can give us! I think I only have a basic understanding of what we need to do, and am sure there are things that I've overlooked.

Our details:
I'm a British Citizen. I met my American now-fiancée 3 years ago (today!) while I was starting my final year at university, and she was on a semester-long exchange trip from her uni in the US.
We began a long distance relationship and visited each other's home countries several times (in 1-2 week stints) to see each other, until I got a job and she got a place on a Masters course in the same city in England a year and a half ago (March 2018). So in September 2018 she moved to the UK on a student
 tier 4 visa (which allows her to work fulltime outside of term-time, and part-time during term). She is able to stay in the UK until her course officially finishes (and she gets her degree grade) plus four months, so March 2020 is the official end to her permission to be in the UK according to her BRP.
We got engaged last Christmas and have been prepping to get married in October in the States (less than a month now!). We started renting a place together back in early August this year and plan to live here once married and back in the UK.

My fiancée and I's plan is to apply for a UK spouse visa as soon as we get back from the wedding in the States since we then have a few months where she can still live and work legally (on her student visa) in the UK and we don't have to wait to be together.

Dumb Question #1: Are we correct in believing this is a viable and legal way of doing it?
Dumb Question #2: What is the exact visa name we need to apply for, for this circumstance? Trying to get to grips with the terminology.
Dumb Question #3: If we apply early November, with my wife-to-be's student visa finishing next March, is that too much of a squeeze for time? Worst case scenario (if nothing's wrong with the application), will she just have to briefly leave the UK and return on the 30-day visit visa? Would you recommend we pay for the priority process?

Reading onwards, I'll just refer to "my wife" to avoid confusion (we will be coming back in October to the UK to start the application, as husband and wife - no fiancée visa stuff required, unless I'm mistaken).

So far my (probably rough) understanding is that based on the requirements I've found on the government website etc, we need to prepare:

- I (the sponsor) need to be a British Citizen - Yep. Can provide my passport / birth certificate etc. to prove this. I also have UK SC clearance for my job because we work on some military-related contracts, but not sure if it's helpful to mention that.
- My wife needs to have originally been given leave to remain in the UK for more than 6 months and isn't in the UK on a visit visa - Yes, her student visa is valid from Sept 2018-March 2020 according to her BRP.
- I need to be earning at least £18.6k - Yes, I am full-time employed earning £24K and I can provide 6 (or more) months of bank statement evidence of this, the payslips themselves, plus I can obtain a letter from my firm confirming job position, type, and pay.
- Proof of genuine relationship: - Working on this.
----- We have a large amount of Whatsapp, Messenger, WeChat messages and texts. Not sure how best to present this. I assume they won't want it all - what exerpts should be provided? I am decent at data visualisation, so could do some statistical analysis on our texts and show some charts of effectively how much / frequently we have contacted each other over the years, etc.? Too much?
----- Letters and cards: Got a fair few we've sent each other: though not a huge amount. Perhaps between 5-10 excluding birthday cards. I've also been saving all the cards and letters from last Christmas from both our families that congratulated us on our engagement (blessed to have grandparents who meticulously sign all their cards with dates!). Any advice on this? What quantities should we be looking at digging up?
----- Photos: lots spanning the 3 years we've known each other with coupley ones over the last 2 years, engagement ones, ones with both our families and our parents meeting each other, and will have wedding pics soon. Don't imagine this will be a major problem.
----- We can definitely dig up all the electronic tickets for flights we've made to see each other (plus a couple of paper tickets, unfortunately I can't find all that many of those).
----- We will also be able to provide a scan of the marriage license if required (or does it have to be the real thing?).
----- Both our names are on the tenancy lease and bills (and I suspect council tax too). We're also considering opening a joint bank account together but we've only got a few weeks before getting married - is it worth it / a major benefit to the application?
Would appreciate advice on what kind of format(s) to prepare this evidence in.
- Wife's Passport, BRP and National Insurance Number - Yes, can provide these. However, will she get them back before March 2020 if we apply early November?
- Proof of how well my wife speaks and understands English - Yes, if bachelors and masters qualifications in english will count for this.

Are we missing anything?

Apologies for having to ask so much in one go.
We've had quite a tough time trying to find people we know who have done this or know anything about the process, and I just recently discovered this site.
Trusting that you guys will give me some constructive, realistic answers and can tell me straight up if something's really not right! Thanks so much.


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Quote
We've had quite a tough time trying to find people we know who have done this or know anything about the process, and I just recently discovered this site.
Trusting that you guys will give me some constructive, realistic answers and can tell me straight up if something's really not right! Thanks so much.

I don't have any specific comments for you right now, but the posters who will answer really know what they're doing, and you're in the best place for solid advice :)

... although that said, I think you might need to write a letter yourself explaining how you meet those sponsor requirements. It can be quite brief and formal, I understand!



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Welcome to the forum :)

First off, your questions aren’t dumb at all :).

Second, the answers:

1. Yes, this is a viable and legal way of doing it

2. The visa is called FLR(M) - Further Leave to Remain based on Marriage to a U.K. citizen.

3. Nope, not too much of a squeeze for time at all. The visa takes about 8 weeks to be processed and the only requirement is that you submit the online application before her visa expires in March. No need to pay for priory service unless she has to travel urgently before Christmas.

You’ll need to include a full copy of your passport. Having SC Clearance is not relevant (I have SC Clearance myself as I work with the military).

For relationship evidence, if you live together, you need to send evidence of living together in the form of bills/official mail. You need to provide as many as you can of the following:
- 6 official documents in each name showing you live at the same address as each other, from at least 3 different official sources, evenly spaced over the time you have lived together, up to 2 years.

All other relationship evidence is only needed for the time you DID NOT live together.

When it comes to cards and letters, ONLY letters/cards you and your wife have sent to each other will be considered, so you should NOT send ANY cards/letters from family or friends.

In terms of emails/ messages, you just want to select some of them from your relationship, when you were not living together. Copy and paste them into Word and crop out all message content, so you just have a list of dates and times. You want them evenly spaced, maybe 50 messages/50 emails etc. In total... for example, 1 or 2 per week or per month of each communication type.

DO NOT send LOTS of photos. Only 1 photo is needed, simply to prove you have met in person at least 1 time. We usually recommend sending 1 photo from early in the relationship and 1 from the wedding.

Boarding passes/tickets are important so send as many as you have from when you visited each other.

The marriage certificate is absolutely mandatory and must be an official copy

Your wife will get her passport and BRP back when the visa has been processed. This generally takes up to 8 weeks, but if her visa expires before she gets them, her Tier 4 status will be extended until a decision is made.

Assuming she is a US citizen, she is except from the English Language Requirement. Her US passport will be proof of this.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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Thanks so much for the replies, both of you! This is hugely, hugely heplful.

I will bear in mind that we will have to write a letter of explanation of intent and elaboration on our relationship - Thanks!

I have a follow up question for ksand24:

6 official documents in each name showing you live at the same address as each other, from at least 3 different official sources, evenly spaced over the time you have lived together, up to 2 years.

Given that we have only started officially living together this August (a month and a half ago), how spaced out should these be? Also, most things are paperless - would it be worthwhile in your opinion to get paper copies of the documents, or will printouts of online statements etc. be sufficient?

Could you give a yea or nay to each of these documents we were considering using for this. Which are the best / ones we should prioritize?

1. Flat Lease document (either from the letting agent or the private landlord) - both our names are on this.

2. Council Tax - both names.

3. Water Bill confirmation letter - both names.

4. Gas & Electricity Bill confirmation letter - currently only my wife's name as we're paying specific bills from her account. Is it worth pursuing to add my name to this too?

6. Voting registration confirmation letter - Just my name, obviously.

7 & 8. Mine and my wife's respective bank letters of confirmation of change of address - Currently in the process of obtaining these, since we only recently moved in.

9. - Bank letters / statement from a new joint bank account that we're planning to set up in the next couple weeks, in both our names.

10 & 11. Mine and my wife's respective UK driving license renewal letters per our new address

Any other documents that could be used - we're not sure what counts as 'official' sources? Could a contents insurance quote and registration letter in our names count?

Thank you again for your advice so far! It's already made me much more sure of myself going forward with this.


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Given that we have only started officially living together this August (a month and a half ago), how spaced out should these be? Also, most things are paperless - would it be worthwhile in your opinion to get paper copies of the documents, or will printouts of online statements etc. be sufficient?


You would just send whatever you have for that period, the spacing will not matter because if's such a short timeframe. Provide letter to explain that the short length of time spent living together is the reason that you don't have the full amount of documents, if this is the case.

You need to turn off paperless, printouts are not acceptable for the correspondence evidence, everything needs to be official and sent to you through the post.

1-You need the lease for the accommodation evidence in any case.

2-This is great evidence but needs to be original.

3- Good if it is original.

4-Bills are preferable to letters but use this if you need to. Does your electricity company provide paper bills? Not all do. Yes add your name if they do provide paper bills. If they don't you won't have this as a source to choose from.

6- Good.

7&8- Again, statements are better but use these this time if you have to. Make sure you are set for monthly paper statements.

9-See 7&8- Also, be aware of the US tax and reporting requirements of having a joint account with a USC. Research FBAR,

10&11- These are good. Letters from government agencies are solid as long as they are original and sent through the post.

This list looks like you have more than enough but you mention many being paperless. Can you re-write only including original paper mail which you have received through the post?




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A followup on 9 - be SURE to get bank statements mailed to you; do not do paperless statements. This will be a saving grace when it comes to applying for the second FLR/M and ILR.
Sept '11: premium service same-day tier 4 visa granted in NYC
July '13: tier 4 visa - applied from boston
October '14: FLRM - applied priority in sheffield office
March '17: FLRM 2 - applied priority in sheffield office
Sept 2019: IRL, priority at Croydon, granted same day
October 2019: submitted naturalisation application
January 2020: citizenship approved!
March 2020: last citizenship ceremony before covid :-O


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