How UK Sponsor can submit supporting docs in UK instead of through NYC HUB?

OK, we will ensure this. Yes, I saw on the forum some people's complaints regarding this, it's so unorganised it seems.

I had a quick question about the pictures. Almost everyone on the forum says we just need to include 1 or 2 photos, but we've read elsewhere to include more to show that this relationship is truly genuine. So we've compiled a few pages of pictures from our different trips to US/UK together and our wedding, etc.

Some people stated to name each picture, like write a date and say something about it. Do you see this as something that would strengthen the application overall, or just a waste of time?

Thank you!

I had a quick question about the pictures. Almost everyone on the forum says we just need to include 1 or 2 photos, but we've read elsewhere to include more to show that this relationship is truly genuine. So we've compiled a few pages of pictures from our different trips to US/UK together and our wedding, etc.

Some people stated to name each picture, like write a date and say something about it. Do you see this as something that would strengthen the application overall, or just a waste of time?

Nope, you don't need to do any of that.

1 photo is all you need, 2 at most. They should not be written on or annotated. We normally recommend sending one photo from when you first met, and one recent photo/from the wedding.

The ONLY reason you are including a photo is to meet the requirement that you have met 1 time in person. All they need to to do is tick a box to say they have seen ONE photo. You don't get a bigger or better tick for including more. It's still just 1 tick.

In fact, sending more than 1 or 2 photos could actually hurt your application, because the more unnecessary stuff you send, the more likely the important documents will get missed or lost among the extra stuff you didn't need to send.

Your relationship evidence is strengthened by providing evidence of regular COMMUNICATION. A photo is not communication, it's just a photo.

So, for the relationship requirement you provide evidence of spending time together and talking to each other, by way of:
- boarding passes/flight tickets
- letters/cards sent to each other
- calls, emails, messages to show you have been talking regularly while apart.

I've been a member of this forum for almost 13 years and by now, I've probably helped around 2,000 people successfully apply for a visa. Almost every single one of them sent no more than 2 photos and their visa was approved without issue.

This is what we have so far:

1. Several pages of pictures from each visit that UK husband made to the US, and that wife in US made to the UK.
2. Several pages of call logs and whatsapp chat screenshots
3. Marriage certificate (original)
4. UK sponsor's financial proof requirements: 6 month's of bank statements, employment letter,
5. Accommodation: 1 letter from home owner (in this case it is UK sponsor's father, in whose house we'd be living), house registry, property letter,
6. Completed application (will be printed out in full)
7. Verified UK sponsor's passport photo-page copy
8. E-ticket/email-itinerary copies from all visits to US that UK Sponsor made, and e-tickets/email-itinerary copies of when wife visited the UK

Questions:

1. Is there anything missing here?

2. For number 7, does UK sponsor send this verified photocopy of his UK passport to wife in the US?

3. As for number 8, we no longer hold any of the actual plane tickets, only what was sent to us by email from the airline companies. Will copies of these suffice?

4. What is the order in which we should organise these documents before sending off?

Thank you!

Have you also got your sponsor letter?

Wow, OK! In that case, we will amend the photos we compiled.

Since they look at call logs and screenshots of messages, should we show messages from years ago too if we've been talking for a few years?

We don't have any actual boarding passes as far as I am considered, I believe they were all disposed of (but hopefully never again as this opened our eyes that we may need them later!)

Will emailed etickets/itineraries suffice or will this cause a problem?

Thank you

I didn't know we'd need a sponsor letter. Does this mean the UK sponsor (i.e., husband in this case) would provide a letter and send a scanned copy to wife in US? Should this also be dated prior to application submission?

I didn't know we'd need a sponsor letter. Does this mean the UK sponsor (i.e., husband in this case) would provide a letter and send a scanned copy to wife in US? Should this also be dated prior to application submission?

Yes the UK sponsor writes a letter covering various things (eg their job title, salary, where they work, how long they’ve been there for, what kind of contract they’re on, accommodation plans, brief relationship timeline, details of all trips to UK/US to see each other, and reason for wanting to settle in the UK) and signs it. You should date it prior to the application date. If I was you I’d then scan the signed letter so your spouse has a copy, but if you’re going down the ‘UK sponsor takes documents to be scanned’ route then I imagine you’re the one who needs to have a physical copy in hand.

Have a look on the forums for some example letters

(And re: emailed itinerary/tickets, if that’s all you have then you should definitely include them)

Since they look at call logs and screenshots of messages, should we show messages from years ago too if we've been talking for a few years?

Yes, you must cover the ENTIRE length of the relationship, so for every single period you have been apart, you need to include evidence of communication between you.

For example, say you've been talking for 5 years, you might want to include 1 message per month. If it's only 1 year, you might go with 1 message per week.

We don't have any actual boarding passes as far as I am considered, I believe they were all disposed of (but hopefully never again as this opened our eyes that we may need them later!)

Will emailed etickets/itineraries suffice or will this cause a problem?

Yes, that's fine.

You likely won't need them later though, as assuming you get this visa with no issues, your next 2 visas over the next 5 years will require official mail addressed to both of you at the same address in the UK, instead of flights, boarding passes and messages.

I didn't know we'd need a sponsor letter. Does this mean the UK sponsor (i.e., husband in this case) would provide a letter and send a scanned copy to wife in US? Should this also be dated prior to application submission?

The sponsor letter is absolutely mandatory - the visa can be refused without it. The letter should be original, handsigned and submitted along with all of your supporting documents (i.e. either physically mailed to her in the US, or submitted in the UK by you if that is now an option).

Now that your application date has passed, you really should date it with the current date, because to back-date it would be lying.

The sponsor letter needs to include:
Paragraph 1: how you qualify to be a sponsor (your UK citizenship and history of living in the UK)
Paragraph 2: how you meet the financial requirement, which financial category, your current employment details, how long you have been with the company, current salary and how long you've been earning that salary
Paragraph 3: where you will live together in the UK, including full address, who owns it, property details and stating it will not be overcrowded
Paragraph 4: short, factual history of the relationship, including how, when and where you met, when/how you entered into a relationship, when/where you got engaged and married (no personal feelings just dates and locations) and explanation of why you are choosing to settle in the UK together.

Just a tip, in case you are worried about getting everything together in time, as long as your wife has NOT YET attended her biometrics appointment, it is still possible to cancel the application and request a refund (not sure what happens to the priority fee though). It can take a few weeks for the refund to come through though.

If you need to, you can do this, then spend some time getting all the documents together and checking they are all in the correct format (as the requirements are very specific), and then you can apply again when you have all the documents completely ready to go.

Thank you SO much for all this info! This forum is a tremendous help!

I was actually the one who commented about the sponsor letter as I did not know about it, but it is very possible my husband has already wrote it out because he went to one of the walk-in centers in the UK earlier today and explained everything and just informed me they agreed to it as far as supporting docs and him being able to take them there on my behalf to get them scanned... so I am really hoping it all goes well. I really hope we don't have to cancel this appointment/application and have to do this all over again!

...they agreed to it as far as supporting docs and him being able to take them there on my behalf to get them scanned...

Just a note to say not to rely on the staff in these places to check over your documents to make sure you have everything you need! Definitely check with your husband about the sponsor letter, and maybe post your finalised list of supporting docs here for us to check over before he takes them to be scanned

Great advice. Before he went to the Birmingham (I think) center earlier today, he called a solicitor and asked her about our situation and sending supporting docs and she said "Just send them into the Sheffield by mail" and my husband proceeded to inform her that this option was done with since late last March. She did not even know, even though she is an immigrations solicitor. So the point you made is right on! It seems most of those working in those centers arent well informed.

I will post everything we have soon for checking 

Again, thank you so much!

Great advice. Before he went to the Birmingham (I think) center earlier today, he called a solicitor and asked her about our situation and sending supporting docs and she said "Just send them into the Sheffield by mail" and my husband proceeded to inform her that this option was done with since late last March. She did not even know, even though she is an immigrations solicitor. So the point you made is right on! It seems most of those working in those centers arent well informed.

Yeah, you  haven't been able to send directly to Sheffield for ages now - it changed a year or two ago.

I would be very careful about talking to solicitors about your application - very few of them are up to speed on how to apply from the US and their advice is often incorrect and can be several years out of date. There have been a number of people here who have found the forum after having been given extremely bad advice by solicitors (advice which would have resulted in a visa refusal had it been taken).

These are all new changes introduced only 4 days ago, so I can't imagine any UK immigration solicitors will know about them at this point, since they mainly deal with in-country visa extensions and applications for refugees, asylum seekers, illegal overstayers etc. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if UKVI themselves still don't really know what's happening yet.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if UKVI themselves still don't really know what's happening yet.

Truer words have never been spoken.

Sorry student, they make changes so quickly and without communication, so sometimes things surprise us.  Especially lately. Changing all. The. Time.

I see... so did you confirm these changes only took place 4 days ago, about being able to have UK sponsor send docs in UK?

I am facing a problem now. I was advised that all docs must be dated before the date of application submission, including but not limited to: bank statements.

So my husband spoke with a solicitor yesterday who seems to know what he is talking about as he knew about the newest changes and advised us accordingly. My husband mentioned to him that we had ordered bank statements a couple days AFTER the application submission, and they take a couple weeks to come in the mail. the solicitor told him, "That's fine as long as your bank statement includes EVERYTHING up to the date of your application submission. So if you submit your application on October 1st, then on October 28th they send you your July statement, for example, then that is fine as long as all of July was included in there up to the date of application (Oct 1st in this case)".

I understood from this forum it had to be the other way around, that this document of bank statements needs to be dated BEFORE application date.

The problem now is that the last 2 or 3 days (before our application submission date) will not be included on the new bank statement we ordered, but we will still have over 6 full months of bank statements.

What do we do in this case? Should we delay biometrics appointment?

Thank you

I see... so did you confirm these changes only took place 4 days ago, about being able to have UK sponsor send docs in UK?

I am facing a problem now. I was advised that all docs must be dated before the date of application submission, including but not limited to: bank statements.

So my husband spoke with a solicitor yesterday who seems to know what he is talking about as he knew about the newest changes and advised us accordingly. My husband mentioned to him that we had ordered bank statements a couple days AFTER the application submission, and they take a couple weeks to come in the mail. the solicitor told him, "That's fine as long as your bank statement includes EVERYTHING up to the date of your application submission. So if you submit your application on October 1st, then on October 28th they send you your July statement, for example, then that is fine as long as all of July was included in there up to the date of application (Oct 1st in this case)".

I understood from this forum it had to be the other way around, that this document of bank statements needs to be dated BEFORE application date.

The problem now is that the last 2 or 3 days (before our application submission date) will not be included on the new bank statement we ordered, but we will still have over 6 full months of bank statements.

What do we do in this case? Should we delay biometrics appointment?

Thank you

What we mean is the date you hit submit online is the date of your application.  Say you hit submit on the 27th, but your pay went in on the 28th.  So you included your payslip from the 28th and bank statement showing the pay went in on the 28th.  Those don't "count" as they'll only look up until the 27th.  So you need to make sure your payslips cover a FULL six months and bank statements a FULL six months prior to the APPLICATION date.  It's okay if it includes more after.

What catches a lot of people out is the payslips.  Most payslips don't have a start date, so you need to include 7 full payslips and cover all of those with the bank statements.

Does that help?