spouse visa - bank statements, accommodation, VFS uploading

Hi,

I am the UK sponsor of my USA wife. We are hoping to apply in a few weeks and have found the advice on this site extremely helpful. I have some questions regarding the evidence required for the spouse visa and the process.

1. I have savings of over £62,500. However, they are in a Tesco Bank savings account that does not create monthly statements. Tesco said they can provide an ad-hoc statement for any time period. In Appendix FM 7.4.3, it states that regular bank statements should be provided. Does this mean I need monthly statements from Tesco or would one statement that covers the whole 6 months work?

2. For accommodation, I am currently living in a one bedroom flat owned by my sister. She is working in Australia. What evidence do I need to provide to satisfy the accommodation requirement in this instance?

3. I have heard people discussing uploading their documents to VFS website and only physically posting their passport and biometrics page. Is this accurate and a new procedure?

Appreciate any help, thanks

Welcome .

In regards to your questions:

1. One statement covering the entire 6 months is fine, but you’ll need to make sure it covers every single day of the 6 months and you can prove that the balance of the account did not drop below £62,500 for even one day during the 6-month period.

2. You will need:
- your sister’s Land Registry document (if you don’t have a copy, you can download an official copy from the Land Registry website for about £3)
- a hand-signed letter from her confirming that you and your wife have permission to live in the property
- her latest original mortgage statement (optional but recommended)


3. Yes, it’s accurate - the uploading of documents option was brought in just over a year ago. However, some people have had problems with actually being able to upload their documents to VFS, so you may find you end up having to send them all to New York anyway (where they will scan them for you).



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for your reply a while back, we are almost getting there with the docs.

For the accommodation requirement this is what I have:
(I live in a 1 bed owned by my sister)

Letter from my sister
Copy of her passport
Land registry documents from when she bought the flat (dated 2017)
Mortgage Statement (Dated Jan 2018)
Council Tax and Water Bill showing I currently live in the flat

I'm a bit concerned about the mortgage statement as we only have access to one from Jan 2018. We can't locate the one from this year and the bank are being difficult about sending a new one.

Do you think the documents we have are enough to satisfy the accommodation requirement or should I wait and try and get a more recent mortgage statement?

You don't need most of those documents.

The only things you definitely need are:
- Letter from your sister
- Land registry document

An optional extra document you can include is the most recent mortgage statement. However, if she no longer has it, it's not a problem - you just don't include it.

And just as an update, you will now be required to upload your supporting documents to VFS or pay $100 to send them to NYC. You will still have to send your passport, stamped bio confirmation, and signed document checklist to NYC along with your UPS return label and envelope but sending your entire application package will cost you. The docs upload is still finicky so take it one upload at a time and although VFS says the size limit is 10MB per file the smaller they are the better, the 10MB almost never actually works.