Spouse visa process

Hello everyone.

I'm trying to help a friend of mine with his spouse visa application to bring his spouse to the UK.

It's been more than 4 years since we did my spouse application, so I wanted to get an up to date information on the spouse visa application, and if any changes took place.

Some general questions first please:
- What forms need to be filled in nowadays?
- Is it still the applicant's responsibility to submit the application in the country she's applying from? Or can the sponsor do the whole submission from the UK?
- Is the Appendix 2 form still relevant, or has that been replaced by something else?
- What is the visa fee, and the NHS charge?

Based on memory, following is a general list of what we had to submit, meeting category A financial requirements. Is it more or less the same, or are there any significant additions/removals?

A. Applicant
-Letter of introduction
-Passport
-2x passport sized photos
-Printed online Visa4UK application
-Appendix 2 form (category A)
-Bio-metric information
-English test results
-Proposed flight itinerary

B. Sponsor
-Sponsorship letter
-Sponsorship declaration
-Passport photocopy

C. Financial
-Employment letter from employer (includes type of employment, length, salary, type of payment, start of employment, holiday entitlement)
-Letter of confirmation from employer accountant
-P60 (current year)
-6 months payslips
-6 months bank statements printed from bank branch (with salary payments marked - don't think this is advised anymore?)

D. Accommodation
-Letter from property owner approving that me and my spouse can live in the property
-Inspection report
-Gas utility bill/Council tax
-Couple of photos from the property
-Land registry in owner name

F. Relationship
-Attested marriage certificate with attested translation in English
-Air ticket of first travel where I met spouse
-Air tickets of subsequent travels before and after getting married
-Photocopies of passport pages with travel stamps on them
-Photos together from visits to my spouse
-Photos from engagement party
-Chat logs from WhatsApp, Facebook and Yahoo IM (I translated the body text of the logs to English at the time, not sure if it was necessary)
-Western Union money transfers from UK to spouse
-Post office parcel receipt from UK to spouse

Thanks.

Hello everyone.

I'm trying to help a friend of mine with his spouse visa application to bring his spouse to the UK.

It's been more than 4 years since we did my spouse application, so I wanted to get an up to date information on the spouse visa application, and if any changes took place.

Some general questions first please:
- What forms need to be filled in nowadays?
- Is it still the applicant's responsibility to submit the application in the country she's applying from? Or can the sponsor do the whole submission from the UK?
- Is the Appendix 2 form still relevant, or has that been replaced by something else?
- What is the visa fee, and the NHS charge?

Based on memory, following is a general list of what we had to submit, meeting category A financial requirements. Is it more or less the same, or are there any significant additions/removals?

A. Applicant
-Letter of introduction
-Passport
-2x passport sized photos
-Printed online Visa4UK application
-Appendix 2 form (category A)
-Bio-metric information
-English test results
-Proposed flight itinerary

B. Sponsor
-Sponsorship letter
-Sponsorship declaration
-Passport photocopy

C. Financial
-Employment letter from employer (includes type of employment, length, salary, type of payment, start of employment, holiday entitlement)
-Letter of confirmation from employer accountant
-P60 (current year)
-6 months payslips
-6 months bank statements printed from bank branch (with salary payments marked - don't think this is advised anymore?)

D. Accommodation
-Letter from property owner approving that me and my spouse can live in the property
-Inspection report
-Gas utility bill/Council tax
-Couple of photos from the property
-Land registry in owner name

F. Relationship
-Attested marriage certificate with attested translation in English
-Air ticket of first travel where I met spouse
-Air tickets of subsequent travels before and after getting married
-Photocopies of passport pages with travel stamps on them
-Photos together from visits to my spouse
-Photos from engagement party
-Chat logs from WhatsApp, Facebook and Yahoo IM (I translated the body text of the logs to English at the time, not sure if it was necessary)
-Western Union money transfers from UK to spouse
-Post office parcel receipt from UK to spouse

Thanks.

Where will the applicant be applying from?

Where will the applicant be applying from?

Morocco

Morocco

I know nothing about the process from Morocco unfortunately but the requirements are broadly the same, with the addition of the English Language requirement and the TB test.

Here is the general starting point. https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa

English requirement. https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa/knowledge-of-english

TB testing. https://www.gov.uk/tb-test-visa/countries-where-you-need-a-tb-test-to-enter-the-uk

All documents must be in English or translated as mentioned specifically here.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-fm-se-family-members-specified-evidence

That link also covers the formatting for the financial requirements.

The financial requirements in detail. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/826340/Appendix-FM-1-7-Financial-Requirement-ext_1.pdf

In order to know what they would need to provide we'd need a bit more information.
How will your friend meet the financial requirements?
What kind of accommodation will he be using for the application? For example, renting, owns own property, living with friends.
Have the couple lived together or is it a long distance relationship?

- What is the visa fee, and the NHS charge?

The spouse visa fee is £1,523 and the IHS is £1,200.

I know nothing about the process from Morocco unfortunately but the requirements are broadly the same, with the addition of the English Language requirement and the TB test.

Here is the general starting point. https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa

English requirement. https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa/knowledge-of-english

TB testing. https://www.gov.uk/tb-test-visa/countries-where-you-need-a-tb-test-to-enter-the-uk

All documents must be in English or translated as mentioned specifically here.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-fm-se-family-members-specified-evidence

That link also covers the formatting for the financial requirements.

The financial requirements in detail. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/826340/Appendix-FM-1-7-Financial-Requirement-ext_1.pdf

In order to know what they would need to provide we'd need a bit more information.
How will your friend meet the financial requirements?
What kind of accommodation will he be using for the application? For example, renting, owns own property, living with friends.
Have the couple lived together or is it a long distance relationship?

Sorry for the late reply, just been trying to get further info from my friend.

He will meet the financial requirements through category A.

It will be rented accommodation.

They have lived together (they're married) during his visits (he visited 5 times).

Thanks.

They have lived together (they're married) during his visits (he visited 5 times).

Living together on visits does not count as 'living together' for the purpose of the visa, because he was just a visitor to the country and not legally allowed to live there.

If they say they have lived together, they must provide evidence of officially living together by way of things like:
- tenancy agreements with both names on
- utility bills in both names
- bank statements in both names
- joint annual tax returns
etc.

But because he was just visiting, he was not legally allowed to do/receive any of that, so therefore, they aren't considered to have been living together.

Instead, what they will need to provide is things like:
- boarding passes from his trips to visit her
- letters/cards sent to each other
- evidence of regular communication while apart, by way of a selection of emails/call logs/messages covering the length of the relationship

Living together on visits does not count as 'living together' for the purpose of the visa, because he was just a visitor to the country and not legally allowed to live there.

If they say they have lived together, they must provide evidence of officially living together by way of things like:
- tenancy agreements with both names on
- utility bills in both names
- bank statements in both names
- joint annual tax returns
etc.

But because he was just visiting, he was not legally allowed to do/receive any of that, so therefore, they aren't considered to have been living together.

Instead, what they will need to provide is things like:
- boarding passes from his trips to visit her
- letters/cards sent to each other
- evidence of regular communication while apart, by way of a selection of emails/call logs/messages covering the length of the relationship

Yes they will provide boarding passes, photos with each other, communication logs, etc. Standard stuff for spouse visa, so of no concern really.

The thing I'm mainly asking about is if there is any major difference in the application process since 2015?
- Is the method of applying different?
- Is it all online, or are there still paper forms to fill like Appendix 2?
- Who actually submits the application, applicant or sponsor?

And I guess the main question is, if someone is applying under category A and providing relationship evidence, and is also renting, is the list I provided close to what's required these days, or are there extra items missing?

Thanks.

The thing I'm mainly asking about is if there is any major difference in the application process since 2015?
- Is the method of applying different?
- Is it all online, or are there still paper forms to fill like Appendix 2?
- Who actually submits the application, applicant or sponsor?

The exact application process differs depending on where in the world you apply from. I don't remember there ever being a spouse visa applicant from Morocco on this forum before, we primarily see applicants from the US. Even if we had seen one before, because the process changes so frequently, any information from that would likely be out of date.

I did manage to find this regarding the TLScontact centre in Casablanca but other than that, information was pretty sparse. Hopefully this helps a bit though.

https://uk.tlscontact.com/ma/cas/page.php?pid=procedure

This gives the option of Rabat or Casablanca.

https://pos.tlscontact.com/morocco

Thanks for the links. I'll have a look at them.

The process from the USA is COMPLETELY different than it was 6 months ago, never mind many years ago.  No idea about the process from Morocco I’m afraid.  Immigrationboards.com will likely have Moroccan specific information. 

/r UKvisa is also a good place to go to ask about applying from Morocco.