FLR(M) checklist

The whole point of the correspondence documents is that you are proving you were living in the same house as each other at the same time (in the same month).

So, you need 1 document in each name for each specified month (i.e. if not jointly-addressed, you need 2 documents for that month, one each), ideally dated as close to each other within that month as possible... therefore, if you have a document for him from August 2018, you must also have a document for you from August 2018, preferably dated within a few days of his document.

So, in regards to your document list, you currently have:

December 2017:
1. Him = Joint electric
1. You = Joint electric

April 2018:
2. Him = Joint council tax
2. You = Joint council tax

August 2018:
3. Him = Letter from HCPC, husband's name
3. You = ?

December 2018:
4. Him = Joint electric
4. You = Joint electric

April 2019:
5. Him: Joint council tax or joint water bill
5. You: Joint council tax or joint water bill

August 2019:
6. Him = BT internet bill, husband's name
6. You = ?

[Optional = December 2019:
7. Him = ?
7. You = Letter from bank]

So, you are missing 2 documents in your name (August 2018 and August 2019) to match his two August documents (this is where receiving monthly bank statements can come in handy, because if you had them, you could just add your August 2018 and August 2019 bank statements to his August documents).

I wouldn't worry too much about December 2019 though, as it's not required anyway, so you can always just leave that one out.

I'll have a look back through, but I think the months that we have joint or separate names but are in the same month are still that Sept/March so I wouldn't have the perfect April and August format you've advised. If I go to my bank and have them print out my statements from August 2018/2019, would that be okay? I realise that they would say they were printed this month, but would that be good enough? The issue being that I don't have anything of mine from that period, but we do have overlapping separate bills in September 2018/2019

Or could I call my water/electric and have them backdate a bill for the missing months? Because I have done that previously, but I don't know if it would show the date printed as being in Jan or not

You can’t use reprinted documents or backdated documents because again the point of the correspondence is to prove they were physically mailed to your house in August 2018 and August 2019.

What are the exact dates on his August documents and the joint September documents?

I’m wondering whether, if the August and September documents aren’t dated too far apart from each other you could use his August documents, plus the joint ones as ‘your’ documents for the same time period?

Alternatively, I’m wondering if you might be able to get away with using the September documents instead? But it may depend on the dates on the documents and how far apart they are from the April and December documents (I.e. if the April document is dated April 30th and the September document is dated September 1st, that’s still the required 4-month gap).



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You can’t use reprinted documents or backdated documents because again the point of the correspondence is to prove they were physically mailed to your house in August 2018 and August 2019.

What are the exact dates on his August documents and the joint September documents?

I’m wondering whether, if the August and September documents aren’t dated too far apart from each other you could use his August documents, plus the joint ones as ‘your’ documents for the same time period?

Alternatively, I’m wondering if you might be able to get away with using the September documents instead? But it may depend on the dates on the documents and how far apart they are from the April and December documents (I.e. if the April document is dated April 30th and the September document is dated September 1st, that’s still the required 4-month gap).



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Sorry having a bit of a freak out about this now because I'm going into that death-worry-spiral of "my visa is going to get rejected, and I'm going to have leave my husband and to go back to the US" etc. Not a fun day at work.... I've put the dates below so I hope this makes sense and we're able to get something that might work? Now a bit worried that nothing will work because the dates are still wonky

December 2017: dated 22 December
1. Him = Joint electric
1. Me = Joint electric

April 2018: dated 27 April 2018
2. Him = Joint council tax
2. Me = Joint council tax

August 2018:
3. Him = Letter from HCPC, husband's name dated 21 August 2018
3. Me = ?

September 2018:
-Me: HRMC letter, dated 5 September
-Him: Dental letter, dated 11 September
-Joint: Electric bill, dated 25 September

December 2018: dated 21 December 2018
4. Him = Joint electric
4. Me = Joint electric

April 2019: dated 8 April 2019
5. Him: Joint council tax or joint water bill
5. Me: Joint council tax or joint water bill
Optional: Another bill, joint, dated 10 April

August 2019:
6. Him = BT internet bill, husband's name dated 9 August 2019

I do have bills in his name dated for end of August if that, by any chance, would help

September 2019:
-Joint bill dated 13 September 2019, water
-Joint bill dated 30 September 2019, electric

Optional = 31 December 2019:
7. Him = Joint electric
7. Me = Joint electric

Sorry having a bit of a freak out about this now because I'm going into that death-worry-spiral of "my visa is going to get rejected, and I'm going to have leave my husband and to go back to the US" etc. Not a fun day at work.... I've put the dates below so I hope this makes sense and we're able to get something that might work? Now a bit worried that nothing will work because the dates are still wonky

Don't panic - you want to try to get the documents dated as evenly as possible, but if you really can't make it work, sometimes you have to fiddle it a little bit. And if you really can't meet the document requirements, all you have to do is write a letter explaining why you don't have enough. So, something like this is not going to cause a visa refusal or mean you have to leave the UK and go back to the US.

You're in a good position because you're only missing a couple of documents, and you do have enough from other months - we have seen some people who have got to their FLR(M) application and hadn't realised they were supposed to save mail so they have almost nothing... literally, only 1 or 2 items each from the entire 2 years.

I would recommend using the following documents:

December 2017: dated 22 December
1. Him = Joint electric
1. Me = Joint electric

April 2018: dated 27 April 2018
2. Him = Joint council tax
2. Me = Joint council tax

August 2018:
3. Him = Letter from HCPC, husband's name dated 21 August 2018
3. Me = HRMC letter, dated 5 September

December 2018: dated 21 December 2018
4. Him = Joint electric
4. Me = Joint electric

April 2019: dated 8 April 2019
5. Him: Joint council tax or joint water bill
5. Me: Joint council tax or joint water bill

August 2019:
6. Him: Joint bill - water dated 13 September 2019
6. Me: Joint bill - water dated 13 September 2019

Optional = 31 December 2019:
7. Him = Joint electric
7. Me = Joint electric

Don't panic - you want to try to get the documents dated as evenly as possible, but if you really can't make it work, sometimes you have to fiddle it a little bit. And if you really can't meet the document requirements, all you have to do is write a letter explaining why you don't have enough. So, something like this is not going to cause a visa refusal or mean you have to leave the UK and go back to the US.

You're in a good position because you're only missing a couple of documents, and you do have enough from other months - we have seen some people who have got to their FLR(M) application and hadn't realised they were supposed to save mail so they have almost nothing... literally, only 1 or 2 items each from the entire 2 years.

Sorry I misread one of the bills. It was 13 September 2018. The only 2019 one I have is an electric dated 30 September 2019. Will that still work?

Also reading through, the balance on the recommended list is:

Joint: 6
Him: 1
Me: 1

I know I've got the optional December bit so it's a bit weird, but does that fit the applications' requirements? Because I thought it would still be

If you do not have enough items in your joint names, you may also provide items addressed to each of you individually if they show the same address for both of you. For example - 4 items of correspondence in joint names to the same address and 2 items addressed to each partner at the address. In total 8 items would need to be submitted.

I know my total is still 8, with 6 items of joint correspondence. I'm just concerned about the little "2 items each" part.

Sorry I misread one of the bills. It was 13 September 2018. The only 2019 one I have is an electric dated 30 September 2019. Will that still work?

Also reading through, the balance on the recommended list is:

Joint: 6
Him: 1
Me: 1

I know I've got the optional December bit so it's a bit weird, but does that fit the applications' requirements? Because I thought it would still be

I know my total is still 8, with 6 items of joint correspondence. I'm just concerned about the little "2 items each" part.

The requirement is 6 items in each name, 1 every 4 months... you currently have 7 items in each name which is more than you need because you have an extra month in there... and this is why I said you don’t need to include the December 2019 document because it is an unnecessary extra that is not required. Some people like to include it just for completeness though to show the full 2 years.

You can have any combination of joint and individual documents providing you have 6 each in total.

This could be:
- 6 joint, 0 separate
- 0 joint, 12 separate (6 each)
- 1 joint, 10 separate (5 each)
- 4 joint, 4 separate (2 each)
Etc.

In your case you have:
- 5 joint and 2 separate (1 each)
Plus you have 1 extra joint document that is not required (Dec 2019)


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The requirement is 6 items in each name, 1 every 4 months... you currently have 7 items in each name which is more than you need because you have an extra month in there... and this is why I said you don’t need to include the December 2019 document because it is an unnecessary extra that is not required. Some people like to include it just for completeness though to show the full 2 years.

You can have any combination of joint and individual documents providing you have 6 each in total.

This could be:
- 6 joint, 0 separate
- 0 joint, 12 separate (6 each)
- 1 joint, 10 separate (5 each)
- 4 joint, 4 separate (2 each)
Etc.

In your case you have:
- 5 joint and 2 separate (1 each)
Plus you have 1 extra joint document that is not required (Dec 2019)


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Ahhh that makes much more sense! It was very confusing on the application form. So what should I exactly put in the explanation letter?

I was going to put a cover letter in with my documents anyway to explain where I have lived with my husband since we've lived together on/off since 2015. But there's nowhere on the application I've seen to put all the addresses where I have lived with my husband.

Ahhh that makes much more sense! It was very confusing on the application form. So what should I exactly put in the explanation letter?

You have enough items so you don't need the letter. That's only used when people don't have the correct amount which is almost always when coming from fiancee to first FLR.

Ahhh that makes much more sense! It was very confusing on the application form. So what should I exactly put in the explanation letter?

You don’t really need to write an explanation letter, as there’s isn’t much to explain.

You might just want to make a note somewhere, maybe in a short cover letter, that you are unable to provide documents in both names for August, so you have included documents from September instead.

Though I’m not sure if you even need to do that.

was going to put a cover letter in with my documents anyway to explain where I have lived with my husband since we've lived together on/off since 2015. But there's nowhere on the application I've seen to put all the addresses where I have lived with my husband.

If the application doesn’t ask for previous addresses, then you probably don’t actually need to include them.

If you want to include them though, you don’t need to write a letter, just include a separate sheet of paper that says something like:

“My sponsor and I have lived together at the following addresses since 2015:

Address 1
Dates from and to

Address 2
Dates from and to

Etc.”



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You have enough items so you don't need the letter. That's only used when people don't have the correct amount which is almost always when coming from fiancee to first FLR.

You don’t really need to write an explanation letter, as there’s isn’t much to explain.

You might just want to make a note somewhere, maybe in a short cover letter, that you are unable to provide documents in both names for August, so you have included documents from September instead.

Though I’m not sure if you even need to do that.

Good to know! I was worried I was going to have to write a big formal piece of paper to include with all the papers for this visa. I've had to have my husband take all my papers and their special folder into the next room because I keep putting a piece of paper down, misplacing it and freaking out a bit 

So to triple check before I start scanning everything:

Applicant

Copy of current passport (I have no other passports)
Optional: The letter I got with my last visa rejection

Sponsor

Copy of my husband’s current UK passport (has no other passport)

Finances

6 months certified payslips (June, July, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec 2019), dated within 28 days
6 months certified bank statements showing the deposit of every single payslip (June, July, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec 2019), dated within 28 days, all pages are stamped by my bank
Letter from my employer (dated within 28 days) stating ALL of the following:

• current employment and salary
• length of employment
• length of time earning current salary
• type of employment
• Confirming that my payslips are accurate

Optional: my job contract


Accommodation
Tenancy agreement for current residence, also have a council tax bill for this address


Relationship
Marriage certificate
My 7 sets of correspondence documents:

• 22 December 2017: Joint electric
• 27 April 2018: Joint council tax
• August/September 2018: Him = Letter from HCPC, husband's name dated 21 August 2018; Me = HRMC letter, dated 5 September
• 21 December 2018: Joint electric
• 8 April 2019: Joint council tax
• 30 September 2019: Joint bill, electric

• Optional 31 December 2019: Joint electric

[/list]

Good to know! I was worried I was going to have to write a big formal piece of paper to include with all the papers for this visa. I've had to have my husband take all my papers and their special folder into the next room because I keep putting a piece of paper down, misplacing it and freaking out a bit 

Omg, I've been doing the same thing! I even misplaced the folder with my marriage license and my last approval letter from the home office. If course, after finding it, my memory of putting it there returned. *facepalm* Good luck hun! I had letter spacing issues stressing me massively for my flr so I know how that stress is. It will be all over soon for another 2.5 years

Omg, I've been doing the same thing! I even misplaced the folder with my marriage license and my last approval letter from the home office. If course, after finding it, my memory of putting it there returned. *facepalm* Good luck hun! I had letter spacing issues stressing me massively for my flr so I know how that stress is. It will be all over soon for another 2.5 years

Nahhhh, it'll be me calling all my utilities/bank/signing up for a new mobile contract/hassling the council to make sure I get those sweet, sweet monthly statements  Then I rest

Nahhhh, it'll be me calling all my utilities/bank/signing up for a new mobile contract/hassling the council to make sure I get those sweet, sweet monthly statements  Then I rest

Haha. Other than banks, I couldnt get auto monthly...had to call every month. CANNOT WAIT till that monthly hell is over. While you are at it, make sure at least one source has your name exactly matching your BRP. This will be important when you take the Life in the UK test.
Out of curiosity, are the payslips electronic? You keep saying "certified" for them. I've only seen anyone talk about anything like that or having the employer letter verify them if they are electronic and you have to print.

While you are at it, make sure at least one source has your name exactly matching your BRP. This will be important when you take the Life in the UK test.

Luckily this is not a thing any more. It changed very recently.

https://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=97384.msg1290701#msg1290701