We're gettin' hitched - Spousal Visa Questions and Document Check :)

Hello All,

I'm so relieved and happy we found this forum- what a great resource! My fiance and I have been pouring through old posts trying to get a handle on the application process.

We are 2-3 weeks away from applying for my spousal visa.  He's English, and I'm American, and we're getting married in the US on November 26th (woo!)  We're incredibly excited as it's so soon now!! I'm hoping to apply for my spousal visa shortly after the wedding, so I can rejoin him in the UK as soon as possible

I wanted to make sure we have all our ducks in a row, so I'm hoping someone can confirm these are the correct documents we need ... TIA!!!

Proof of Relationship:
- certified copy of marriage license
- 3 pictures of us
- 80 whatsapp messages from over the course of our relationship with the content blacked out.  *** Do i need to include other forms of communication like face time/phone logs/ imessages / G Chat or will the whatsapp messages suffice?
- copy of birthday card I sent him and another 'I love you' card
- boarding passes from our vacations together, my recent trip to visit him in London, his recent trips to visit me in the US

Proof of Financial:
- My fiance's 6 months bank statements verified by NatWest
- 6 months payslips (he doesn't receive physical copies of these, so he's going to print off copies from his company's online portal)
- copy of his current work contract (and the previous one as he's received a pay rise within the past 6 months)
- letter from his employer stating the following: Job title & salary, his FT employment status, the length he's been earning his salary, and length of total employment  *** we're still working on this one.  Does this have to come directly from the HR department, because my fiance thinks it's going to be an issue, but his Director has agreed to write the letter.  Will that suffice?  Do we also need to include something in the letter about how my fiance's payslips are genuine and accurate?

Proof of Accommodation:
We'll be staying with my fiance's mum for the first month or two when I arrive until we're all settled and can find our own flat
- a copy of her land registry document
- a letter from her stating the following: there's 3 bedrooms in the house, 2 living rooms,  1 adult/ 0 children living there, and we have permission from her for my fiance and I to live there
-copy of her most recent mortgage statement showing mortgage has been paid

Additional Documents:
- copy of my fiance's passport
- UK Sponsor Letter from my fiance stating the following: he's a UK citizen employed by X and making X gross annual income, brief description of our relationship, and that we're planning to reside in the UK (is this necessary, and do I need to write some sort of letter as well? )

Do the copies of our documents need to be in color or is black & white fine for pictures/ messages/ passport copy/etc?

It's my understanding that when we apply, we will fill out the online application, upload all of these documents, pay the fees, and then I will book my biometrics appointment.  Following the appointment, I will mail in all of the application documents, my physical passport, return shipping label, a passport size photo of me, and my biometric receipt to New York scanning hub. When I mail in our documents, do I need to organize them in a pretty fashion with tabs and table of contents of can I just clip them together and send all of it in?

Are we missing anything?

I was on a general tier 2 work visa a year ago, but was laid off in February and with that, means I lost my immigration status and my visa is inactive.  I came back to America in June where we continued to date long distance, and now we're obviously engaged Will that previous visa have any impact on this new visa- do we need to mention it anywhere?  My curtailment isn't up until January 2020, but I left willingly long before that.

I'm also really excited to change my last name Is that something I should wait to do until after the visa has gone through, and I've picked up my BRP? And then if we do wait, how do I go about changing my name for the visa? I assume there is some sort of government form to fill out, but I haven't found it and was wondering what everyone else normally does.

Any advice is very much appreciated and thank you again SO much!!

Welcome to the forum .

For proof of relationship:
- you only need 1, maybe 2, photos of you at most. They are literally to show you have met 1 time in person. I normally say to include 1 photo from early in the relationship and 1 from your wedding.
- if you have other forms of communication, then include them all too... so you might send 40-60 WhatsApp messages, 40-60 emails, 40-60 phone calls etc. Essentially, the more communication you can show, the better.

For the finances:
- if his payslips are electronic, they must be accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the employer, on company letterhead and signed by a senior official. This can be combined into one letter along with the mandatory employer letter. It should come from a senior official, so a Director is great. Otherwise, HR or his direct line manager can write the letter.

The sponsor letter should include all the things you've mentioned, plus more:
- Paragraph 1: how he qualifies to be a sponsor (his UK citizenship)
- Paragraph 2: how he meets the financial requirement
- Paragraph 3: where you will live in the UK, including full address, who owns the house, property details and stating no overcrowding
- Paragraph 4: short history of the relationship (dates and locations, no personal feelings) and why you are choosing to live in the UK together

You don't need to write a letter as well. The sponsor letter is mandatory, while the applicant can include an optional contents letter if they like.

Do the copies of our documents need to be in color or is black & white fine for pictures/ messages/ passport copy/etc?

Will you be uploading your documents or mailing them to New York to be scanned? Apparently as of November 7th, you now have to pay something like $75 to get the documents scanned by New York, so if you can upload them to VFS Global yourself, that would save you some money.

If you upload, you should scan your original documents in colour... in that case, you don't need any copies. You should keep all the originals in your possession just in case.

It's my understanding that when we apply, we will fill out the online application, upload all of these documents, pay the fees, and then I will book my biometrics appointment.  Following the appointment, I will mail in all of the application documents, my physical passport, return shipping label, a passport size photo of me, and my biometric receipt to New York scanning hub. When I mail in our documents, do I need to organize them in a pretty fashion with tabs and table of contents of can I just clip them together and send all of it in?

If you are uploading your documents you DO NOT mail them to New York... you only mail your passport, printed application, stamped biometrics sheet and return shipping label... oh, and your priority processing receipt if purchasing.

So, you apply online and pay for the visa, then you will choose to attend biometrics at an ASC... so you will be directed to the VFS Global website to book your biometrics appointment, and upload your documents. Then you attend biometrics and mail your passport, application and biometrics sheet to NYC.

The process literally just changed 4 days ago though, so I would read through the VFS Global website to make sure you know how everything is working now.

I was on a general tier 2 work visa a year ago, but was laid off in February and with that, means I lost my immigration status and my visa is inactive.  I came back to America in June where we continued to date long distance, and now we're obviously engaged Will that previous visa have any impact on this new visa- do we need to mention it anywhere?  My curtailment isn't up until January 2020, but I left willingly long before that.

Nope, no need to mention anything about leaving the UK (because you left before the curtailment was up), though I believe the application will ask if you have applied for/been granted any visas before.

I'm also really excited to change my last name Is that something I should wait to do until after the visa has gone through, and I've picked up my BRP? And then if we do wait, how do I go about changing my name for the visa? I assume there is some sort of government form to fill out, but I haven't found it and was wondering what everyone else normally does.

It's much, much easier and cheaper to change your name on your passport BEFORE you apply for the visa. Your visa can only be granted in the name on your passport, and if you don't change it before you apply, it's a pain to change it later. If you wait to change your name on your passport until after you have your visa, you have 3 months to change your name on your BRP as well, or you can be fined £1000 and have your visa cancelled - but it costs about £160 to change the BRP and it takes about 2 months... so it's much easier to just change your name before you apply for the spousal visa.

You just have to apply for a US passport renewal, with a name change - I think it takes about 3 weeks or so. You can also change your name on your SSN and US driver's licence if you want as well.

ahh thank you!!

and oh my gosh thank you so much for the speedy reply! This is great info It puts me slightly at ease and confirms that I think we're basically on the right track minus a few tweaks with the letters and correspondence proof.

I didn't realize that about the new process starting November 7th- It makes it easier if we can just upload everything to VFS Global and don't need to worry about sending it all in as well. 

Bummer about the name change- that's going to delay our application a little bit. 

thank you again!!! really, really appreciate it  We can't wait to get married

Well, it’s been a choice of upload OR mail the documents for well over a year now, but it’s only since 7th November that you now have to pay NYC to scan them for you (before last week it was free).

There had been issues with people not being able to upload to the VFS website (they weren’t given the option) and so they had no choice but to mail copies to NYC, but hopefully they have fixed this now.


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Hi again!!

I thought I had everything together, but I have two more questions that have popped up as we're gathering all our documents.  I tried to search the forum, but couldn't find the exact answer

1. My fiance no longer has any of his boarding passes from our trips together/trips to visit me in America, he deleted them from his apple wallet/email. I have all of mine though so if we combine those with his booking and flight itineraries, will that suffice? I'm not even sure how we'd go about retrieving them at this point, would have to contact all the different airlines customer service..

2.  As It turns out my MIL owns her house outright and doesn't have a "most recent mortgage statement."  Instead will we provide a verified copy of her deed and will she need to mention that she owns the property in her letter?

Thanks again!!

Welcome to the forum .

For proof of relationship:
- you only need 1, maybe 2, photos of you at most. They are literally to show you have met 1 time in person. I normally say to include 1 photo from early in the relationship and 1 from your wedding.
- if you have other forms of communication, then include them all too... so you might send 40-60 WhatsApp messages, 40-60 emails, 40-60 phone calls etc. Essentially, the more communication you can show, the better.

For the finances:
- if his payslips are electronic, they must be accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the employer, on company letterhead and signed by a senior official. This can be combined into one letter along with the mandatory employer letter. It should come from a senior official, so a Director is great. Otherwise, HR or his direct line manager can write the letter.

The sponsor letter should include all the things you've mentioned, plus more:
- Paragraph 1: how he qualifies to be a sponsor (his UK citizenship)
- Paragraph 2: how he meets the financial requirement
- Paragraph 3: where you will live in the UK, including full address, who owns the house, property details and stating no overcrowding
- Paragraph 4: short history of the relationship (dates and locations, no personal feelings) and why you are choosing to live in the UK together

You don't need to write a letter as well. The sponsor letter is mandatory, while the applicant can include an optional contents letter if they like.

Will you be uploading your documents or mailing them to New York to be scanned? Apparently as of November 7th, you now have to pay something like $75 to get the documents scanned by New York, so if you can upload them to VFS Global yourself, that would save you some money.

If you upload, you should scan your original documents in colour... in that case, you don't need any copies. You should keep all the originals in your possession just in case.

If you are uploading your documents you DO NOT mail them to New York... you only mail your passport, printed application, stamped biometrics sheet and return shipping label... oh, and your priority processing receipt if purchasing.

So, you apply online and pay for the visa, then you will choose to attend biometrics at an ASC... so you will be directed to the VFS Global website to book your biometrics appointment, and upload your documents. Then you attend biometrics and mail your passport, application and biometrics sheet to NYC.

The process literally just changed 4 days ago though, so I would read through the VFS Global website to make sure you know how everything is working now.

Nope, no need to mention anything about leaving the UK (because you left before the curtailment was up), though I believe the application will ask if you have applied for/been granted any visas before.

It's much, much easier and cheaper to change your name on your passport BEFORE you apply for the visa. Your visa can only be granted in the name on your passport, and if you don't change it before you apply, it's a pain to change it later. If you wait to change your name on your passport until after you have your visa, you have 3 months to change your name on your BRP as well, or you can be fined £1000 and have your visa cancelled - but it costs about £160 to change the BRP and it takes about 2 months... so it's much easier to just change your name before you apply for the spousal visa.

You just have to apply for a US passport renewal, with a name change - I think it takes about 3 weeks or so. You can also change your name on your SSN and US driver's licence if you want as well.

FYI -
I submitted my priority application on October 28th. I paid the priority fee directly to UKVI...it was  added to the application fee. Both the application and documents checklist stated priority service on them when I printed them out...there is no separate VFS receipt to include anymore.

Hi Everyone,

I feel like I've just gone through this visa process and can't believe it's that time I need to start thinking about this again.  I'm already stressed haha.

To get this going, I have a couple questions about timing and hoping someone can help me out . I entered the UK  with my spousal visa on February 26th, 2020 so I think this means the earliest I can apply is September 1st ish? and the latest is November 18th when my visa expires.

I have some travel I have to do in the fall between a best friends wedding and a couple conferences abroad, so I'm trying to decide when the best time to apply would be and if I can avoid having to pay for the expedited fees. 

1. If I apply really early how does that effect the timing of my ILR application in the future?
2. If I wait until the last minute to apply (the wedding in the US is November 12th, say I get back to the UK on the 14th or 15th) will I have any issues at border control because it's so close to my visa expiration date?
3. If I wait to apply until November 14th and pay for the expedited fees how long does that typically take? I have another conference in Cannes the first week of December
4.  If end up applying right at the 2.5. year mark and do not pay for expedited fees how long does that process typically take? I have another conference in LA mid October.

Originally I thought it would be best to wait until November after the wedding and pay the expedited fees so I can make it to Cannes, but now I'm thinking maybe if I can apply really early I might be able to forgo the expedited fees and still make my conference in LA, but I'm not sure how doable that is and how that effects the next step in the immigration process. 

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated! Thank you

I think FLR(M) is currently a 12 week processing time.  This is changing constantly due to the influx of Ukraine applications.

If you are able to get a super priority appointment (these are like gold dust but if you log in at 1am, you have a shot), you usually get the decision within 24 hours and the BRP card within 10 working days.

1.  An early application could simply limit the window you have to apply for ILR.  Especially if you were to apply as early as possible and have a 24 hour decision.  You could literally leave yourself a window of a day to apply ILR.  So it's something you should consider now.

2.  Personally I think returning on the 12th and applying on the 18th is too close for comfort.  I know someone who got stuck in the US due to cancelled flights at Christmas and missed their FLR window and had to reapply for a spouse visa from the USA to reenter the UK.  While a HIGHLY unlikely situation, I would ensure you have a buffer of about 3 weeks personally (gives you long enough to get ill, recover, and return.  I say this is a mother who has had a child spend their USA holiday in ICU, so I definitely have a warped perception and am cautious).
3.  Even with expedited fees, I think it's unlikely you'd find an appointment before December, let alone ATTEND the appointment and have the 10 days to have your BRP back. 

If I'm honest, I think your only option is to apply early and pay super priority (with persistence and flexibility on location and date, you should be able to get an appointment).  If you don't, AT LEAST one of your trips will have to be cancelled, possibly more.  While it's easy for me to say now (and of course the wedding date was out of your control), best to plan no travel around visa or passport renewal dates.  We had an important meeting at work today and someone couldn't attend in person as their passport is being renewed.  Work places understand that this is a part of life and not everyone can attend everything.  If it's critical that you attend, hopefully they will pay the super priority fees for you!   

omg i'm so glad i asked - thank you!!!

I didn't even think that through with applying after the wedding but you're so right - that's cutting it way too close.  That's not an option. 

I had always budgeted paying for the super priority, but if processing times were down to like 6 weeks it would have been great to save us the £800 - but that's ok.  I don't mind stalking the website at 1 am either or traveling for it as long as I can get there by some type of rail/bus line haha. 

So I think you're right applying early is the best option.  So I know for the future, how does the ILR application timeline work then?

omg i'm so glad i asked - thank you!!!

I didn't even think that through with applying after the wedding but you're so right - that's cutting it way too close.  That's not an option. 

I had always budgeted paying for the super priority, but if processing times were down to like 6 weeks it would have been great to save us the £800 - but that's ok.  I don't mind stalking the website at 1 am either or traveling for it as long as I can get there by some type of rail/bus line haha. 

So I think you're right applying early is the best option.  So I know for the future, how does the ILR application timeline work then?

Yes, everything KFD said was spot on. For ILR you can apply between 28 days before the 5 year anniversary of entering the country, up until the expiry of the BRP.

Hi All,

Following your previous advice, I'm hoping to apply in the next two weeksish.  My obligations in LA in October have been cancelled, so I think this leaves me a little more breathing room.  Regarding the mail portion of the application  - Is this the correct timings?

September 2020
January 2021
May 2021
September 2021
January 2022
May 2022
September 2022

Starting in March 2020, we rented from my MIL and then on to rent from some family friends so we only had one utility in our name pretty much this whole time period.  We've got BT bills, EE phone bills, separate bank statements, joint bank statements,  separate AMEX statements.  I have a few things from HMRC, Companies House, and the NHS but the months are off.  Will this suffice as enough 'official mail sources?' To be honest, I've tried to save as much as I could, but we really don't get much mail!

Also the bank statements aren't mail, we'll have to print them off.  Do we need to go into the bank and have them verified/notarized?

Hi All,

Following your previous advice, I'm hoping to apply in the next two weeksish.  My obligations in LA in October have been cancelled, so I think this leaves me a little more breathing room.  Regarding the mail portion of the application  - Is this the correct timings?

September 2020
January 2021
May 2021
September 2021
January 2022
May 2022
September 2022

Starting in March 2020, we rented from my MIL and then on to rent from some family friends so we only had one utility in our name pretty much this whole time period.  We've got BT bills, EE phone bills, separate bank statements, joint bank statements,  separate AMEX statements.  I have a few things from HMRC, Companies House, and the NHS but the months are off.  Will this suffice as enough 'official mail sources?' To be honest, I've tried to save as much as I could, but we really don't get much mail!

Also the bank statements aren't mail, we'll have to print them off.  Do we need to go into the bank and have them verified/notarized?

The spacing is fine and you only need 3 sources altogether so you have more than enough there. What you can't do is use online statements. While stamped online statements are fine for the financial requirement, the whole point of the correspondence requirement is that it is mail which is physically posted to you at your address.

ohhhh ok yeah that's not good.  We don't have any physical bank statements, they're all online.  So all in all we hardly have any mail let alone it actually being in the same month- the main reason being the lack of bank statements plus our first flat we lived in we rented from my MIL - i had the BT bill in my name and that was it.  The second flat we moved into we had zero utilities in our names, and we put a redirect on our mail  (i have a letter saying this) without actually updating our addresses with MHRC/ pensions etc..  So we received some mail but it was to the old address and then made it's way to our flat. 

Does this work - if I piece together documents from each of us from the random months I actually have and explain why? I can provide the redirect and our tenancy agreement from the last place and get a letter from our landlord that we had no utility bills in our name?

ohhhh ok yeah that's not good.  We don't have any physical bank statements, they're all online.  So all in all we hardly have any mail let alone it actually being in the same month- the main reason being the lack of bank statements plus our first flat we lived in we rented from my MIL - i had the BT bill in my name and that was it.  The second flat we moved into we had zero utilities in our names, and we put a redirect on our mail  (i have a letter saying this) without actually updating our addresses with MHRC/ pensions etc..  So we received some mail but it was to the old address and then made it's way to our flat. 

Does this work - if I piece together documents from each of us from the random months I actually have and explain why? I can provide the redirect and our tenancy agreement from the last place and get a letter from our landlord that we had no utility bills in our name?

Yes, if you can't manage the correct spacing, you can explain why not in a letter.

But change your bank statements to paper now. If you have one statement a month coming in for each of you, then you just work round the other documents and fill in the gaps with bank statements. It's much less stressful!

Just wanted to give a quick update for other people applying- I finished filling out my application yesterday evening around 9 ish and the only option was a standard 8 week processing time.  I logged back on at 12:55 am, refreshed right at 1 am and the super priority option popped up.  First appointment I could get  was September 28th.  It was £230!  Feels like they're taking the piss there, but just glad it's in the diary now.