Help with FLR (M) confirming application date and correspondence

Hi all,

It's a bit early days, but with the stress of the pandemic and lockdown I want to start getting together my FLR(M) documents and considering the appropriate time to apply.

Some background: my entry to the UK was 27/12/2017. My BRP was issued with an expiration of 27/09/2020.

Calculating application date
If I understand correctly, I can apply for FLR (M) 28 days before 30 months in the UK, and no later than my BRP expiration/visa expiration. This would put the timing of June 1, 2020 - September 26, 2020. Is this correct? I intend to apply for ILR as soon as possible after my first extension, and my understanding is that it requires applying at the earliest 28 days before 60 months in the UK. If we applied in July of this year, would I be cutting myself short on time?

Correspondence queries
My husband and I have a various list of documents in joint and separate names - NHS letters, DVLA, HMRC, joint bank and joint business bank, energy, water, council tax, etc.. Are any of the following also acceptable?

• Debt collection letters (for him). I was questionable on these (from his early 20's - he made some stupid financial mistakes!). Some of these are payoff letters where we have dealt with the debt and it's been satisfied.
• Credit card statements (AMEX UK)
• Letters from our respective employers
• Pension letters - e.g. Scottish Widows
• Home Contents insurance from Aviva, similar insurance letters
• Private health plan correspondence

Our business bank account lists only our first name initials and full surname - is this acceptable? Similarly Virgin Media for our internet bill seems to think I am a Mr. even though we have tried to correct this with them.  I assume as the rest of my name is on there this won't be a problem.

I will post a more detailed list of documents with the timings once I gather everything. Lloyd's at multiple times has switched us to paperless which we did not request, and therefore I am a bit worried I won't have additional joint statements to fill in with.

We moved into our place April 2018, and have been here since, so I am hoping it's just the last 2 years to supply. It makes things a lot easier and my first few months in the UK was difficult to get my name on anything, including bank account. If the correspondence only needs to cover the previous 2 years before application date and I am understanding this correctly, if we applied July 1, 2020 we would need to provide correspondence for June 30 2018 - June 30 2020 spaced evenly roughly every 4 months:

July 2018
November 2018
March 2019
July 2019
November 2019
March 2020
June 2020/July 2020 for an additional month, as close as possible to the application date?

We used the forums for help back in 2017 when we applied for the initial visa. Appreciate the help in advance! Once I can gather documents based on my queries above I can be more specific about what dates everything covers and what we can supply.

========================================================
After searching every document we have in the house, I've found the following. We have a stack of 'alternatives' but we can't find a way to match them up. I can provide a list of those if needed.

(if needed) January 2018
Applicant: January 26, 2018 - GP registration for me
Spouse: January 26, 2018 - Payslip for husband

(if needed) March 2018
Applicant: March 9, 2018 - NHS appointment letter for me
Spouse: March 15, 2018 - HMRC letter for husband

July 2018
Applicant: July 2, 2018 - NHS appointment letter for me
Spouse: July 2, 2018 - NHS appointment letter for my husband

November 2018
November 26, 2018 - Lloyd's Bank joint savings letter

February 2019
February 22, 2019 - Joint Yorkshire Water

June 2019
Applicant: June 24, 2019 - Lloyd's Joint Business letter for me
Spouse: June 24, 2019 - Lloyd's Joint Business letter for my husband

November 2019
November 11, 2019 - Lloyd's Joint Business invoice

March 2020
March 9, 2020 - Joint Council Tax

June/July 2020
June/July 2020 - Joint Lloyd's Bank statement

Sources: 4 (6 if including pre-July 2018)
Lloyd's Bank
Yorkshire Water
Sheffield Council
NHS
HMRC (pre-July 2018)
Husband's employer (pre-July 2018)

Count of documents:
Applicant: 2 (3 pre-July 2018)
Spouse: 2 (3 pre-July 2018)
Joint: 5

Sorry, I realise this is a lot in one post - should I have separated it?

Sorry, I realise this is a lot in one post - should I have separated it?

No, there's no need to separate it. It's actually easier for us to help you if all your application information is posted in the same place, so we can easily see all the details and advice you've been given without having to go searching for it .

Will answer your first question in this post:

Some background: my entry to the UK was 27/12/2017. My BRP was issued with an expiration of 27/09/2020.

Calculating application date
If I understand correctly, I can apply for FLR (M) 28 days before 30 months in the UK, and no later than my BRP expiration/visa expiration. This would put the timing of June 1, 2020 - September 26, 2020. Is this correct?

If you entered the UK on 27th Dec 2017, you reach 30 months on 27th June 2020. The earliest you can apply is 28 days before 27th June, which is 30th May 2020.

So, your application window is 30th May to 27th September 2020.

I intend to apply for ILR as soon as possible after my first extension, and my understanding is that it requires applying at the earliest 28 days before 60 months in the UK. If we applied in July of this year, would I be cutting myself short on time?

The earliest you can apply for ILR is 28 days before 27th December 2022, which will be 29th November 2020.

If you apply for FLR(M) in July this year, you will have plenty of time, because at the moment, no visas can be processed because all the biometrics centres are closed. Therefore there is likely to be a backlog when everything opens up again, which means it could potentially be several months after you apply online before your FLR(M) is actually issued.

This is not a problem for you, because as long as you apply for FLR(M) online before your spousal visa expires, your current immigration status and right to work will simply be extended under 3C Leave until your FLR(M) is issued.

And actually, it would probably benefit you, because your FLR(M) would be valid for 30 months from when it's ISSUED, so you would therefore have several months leeway to apply for ILR in 2022 (i.e. you can apply for ILR at the end of Nov 2022, but your FLR(M) visa might actually be valid until mid-2023).

Correspondence queries
My husband and I have a various list of documents in joint and separate names - NHS letters, DVLA, HMRC, joint bank and joint business bank, energy, water, council tax, etc.. Are any of the following also acceptable?

• Debt collection letters (for him). I was questionable on these (from his early 20's - he made some stupid financial mistakes!). Some of these are payoff letters where we have dealt with the debt and it's been satisfied.
• Credit card statements (AMEX UK)
• Letters from our respective employers
• Pension letters - e.g. Scottish Widows
• Home Contents insurance from Aviva, similar insurance letters
• Private health plan correspondence

- I would think that credit card statements would be fine.
- I wouldn't use debt collection letters, as you probably don't want to advertise the fact that he was in debt.
- Not sure about the other documents... I would probably only use them as an absolute last resort if you don't have any other documents you can use.

The old FLR(M) paper form had a example list of acceptable documents:

Examples of acceptable items of correspondence
• Letters or other documents from government departments or agencies, for example HM Revenue and Customs, Department for Work and Pensions, DVLA, TV Licensing.
• Letters or other documents from your GP, a hospital or other local health service about medical treatments, appointments, home visits or other medical matters
• Bank statements/letters
• Building society savings books/letters
• Council tax bills or statements
• Electricity and/or gas bills or statements
• Water rates bills or statements
• Mortgage statements/agreement
• Tenancy agreement(s)
• Telephone bills or statements

Our business bank account lists only our first name initials and full surname - is this acceptable? Similarly Virgin Media for our internet bill seems to think I am a Mr. even though we have tried to correct this with them.  I assume as the rest of my name is on there this won't be a problem.

Yes, that's all fine.

We moved into our place April 2018, and have been here since, so I am hoping it's just the last 2 years to supply. It makes things a lot easier and my first few months in the UK was difficult to get my name on anything, including bank account. If the correspondence only needs to cover the previous 2 years before application date and I am understanding this correctly, if we applied July 1, 2020 we would need to provide correspondence for June 30 2018 - June 30 2020 spaced evenly roughly every 4 months:

July 2018
November 2018
March 2019
July 2019
November 2019
March 2020
June 2020/July 2020 for an additional month, as close as possible to the application date?

Pretty much... though there is some flexibility. You can essentially choose your 2 years to fit your document dates as best you can, as long as they basically correspond with your application date.

For example, you could use:
July 2018
November 2018
March 2019
July 2019
November 2019
March 2020
July 2020

Or you could use:
June 2018
October 2018
Feb 2019
June 2019
October 2019
Feb 2020
June 2020

Or if you applied a bit earlier in June, you could use:
May 2018
September 2018
January 2019
May 2019
September 2019
January 2020
May 2020

Thank you so much Ksand, you've been a huge help for our original visa in 2017 and again for my first renewal! After reading your comments and speaking with my husband, we would really like to apply in early June and are working on gathering the remaining documents (financials, a letter from employer, etc.). I can post that full list once we have reviewed it. As I'm sure you're aware it's just more complicated with everyone working from home right now and less access to delivery services.

My husband does not get much official addressed to him at the house that isn't yearly bills in Feb/March, so two months were difficult, I am hoping our alternative that I mention below is acceptable. We are going to see what we can add either of our names to this coming weekend, and sort out ensuring official documents come to the address so ILR is easier.

The Business account statements have our business name on the front, and our individual names on the second page. Should I include all pages? Am I allowed to highlight items or should I avoid this in case they do not scan correctly?? Some of these statements had blank pages, so we binned pages 2 and 4, but page 3 has all pertinent info. Could I just send page 3?

Would you please review the below and tell me if there is anything missing or that we can improve upon? Any comments are appreciated

May 2018
May 30, 2018 - Joint Council Tax statement

September 2018
September 5, 2018 - Joint Lloyd's Bank account statement

February 2019
February 22, 2019 - Joint Yorkshire Water
(alternative to January - we were unable to find anything but my credit card and Virgin Media bill in my name) We have ordered a January Savings statement from the bank as filler.

June2019
Applicant: June 11, 2019 - Virgin Media bill for me
Spouse: June 3, 2019 - Lloyd's Personal Bank account statement for my husband
(alternatives to May as we could not find anything in both names, so tried to use something early June) I have found a letter from EDF to my husband, and AMEX UK to me for May.

September 2019
September 10, 2019 - Joint Lloyd's Business invoice

January 2020
January 10, 2020 - Joint Lloyd's Business invoice

May 2020
May 10, 2020 - Joint Lloyd's Business invoice (when it arrives)

Sources: 4
Lloyd's Bank
Yorkshire Water
Sheffield Council
Virgin Media

Count of documents:
Applicant: 1
Spouse: 1
Joint: 6

Note: I realise the modified items of correspondence (February and June) are not ideal. I went through other alternative month combinations mentioned in your comments above, but they seemed worse off than what I could find for this set of dates. We are sorting this going forward for ILR, immediately. I don't want this stress again!

To add a bit more clarity to February and June 2019 (alternatives to January and May).

January - I have been through all of our paperwork at least a dozen times and we have absolutely nothing for January. We have asked Lloyd's Bank to send us in the mail a Savings account statement for January 2019 as filler. We had done this when we applied for my original spouse visa, and they arrived to us backdated with the proper address, so it would be mailed to us. I realise it wasn't mailed to us *in January* but I am not sure what else to do, unless I just use the February one.

May - I was able to find a few things we can use, so I am more comfortable with May.
My husband has a copy of an EDF Energy bill (our plan only allows online billing, no paper statements). EDF will not send this to us by mail, but his address is on the bill and the online statement looks exactly like ones we have received in the past. Can we print this?

Really appreciate the help - this is the only thing I am incredibly anxious about.

Back again with a question about our tenancy agreement.

My husband and I entered a 12-month tenancy agreement from 01 April 2018 - 01 April 2019. In the agreement, it states it would continue month-to-month after this time. So we have not had the need to sign a new tenancy agreement, and our landlord has not asked us to do so.

Do we require a letter from our landlord stating my husband and I are the only occupants and have the approval to live in the house? Or will the ECO understand how tenancy agreements work when they move on a month to month basis? I assume I should err on the side of getting our landlord to sign a letter stating as much.

Thanks 

Back again with a question about our tenancy agreement.

My husband and I entered a 12-month tenancy agreement from 01 April 2018 - 01 April 2019. In the agreement, it states it would continue month-to-month after this time. So we have not had the need to sign a new tenancy agreement, and our landlord has not asked us to do so.

Do we require a letter from our landlord stating my husband and I are the only occupants and have the approval to live in the house? Or will the ECO understand how tenancy agreements work when they move on a month to month basis? I assume I should err on the side of getting our landlord to sign a letter stating as much.

Thanks 

As the tenancy agreement states that it will go to a rolling month-to-month at the end of the initial term, you don’t need a letter from the landlord... though you can include one if you like.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks again ksand 

I've had a look over our tenancy agreement and scrutinised it. As I understand it, assured shorthold tenancy agreements automatically move to a rolling month-to-month, and it is not actually stated anywhere on the agreement as I thought it would. After looking into it, I suppose it's because it's statutory. In this case, can I just send our now expired tenancy agreement? Our council tax bill shows we are still in the property, as does our correspondence.

My other question is in regards to bank statements for the financial requirements. Not only does Lloyd's constantly try to switch us to paperless, I now find they have been sending us quarterly bank statements not monthly.

Should we go to the branch and have them print the monthly statements for us? Or will the ECO understand that one statement covers three months (2 payslip deposits per statement as it cuts off just before his pay date). I've changed it going forward to monthly for all of our accounts, but need to figure out what to do here.

If we go into the branch and have them print monthly statements, they do not have be stamped, is this correct? Only if we print off ourselves at home.

Next question - my husband has had multiple pay increases since we arrived in the U.K, but has been receiving his most recent salary for almost a year. We do not have a letter for each of his pay increases. Can we just provide his original employment contract (with the salary when we arrived in the U.K.), and then his employer letter from his boss? That states the date he has been receiving the most recent salary (regardless, he has always been above the limit).

Thanks again, sorry for all the questions!

Ok, hubby and I have gathered our final list of documents and I wanted to get an opinion on our list. I'd really appreciate any comments, thank you all for being so helpful 

To recap:
Arrival stamp: 29 December 2017 (double checked after my initial post and I was off by two days)
BRP expiration: 27 September 2020
Aiming to apply by: 10 June (I understand I cannot apply earlier than 28 days before 30 months, therefore anytime after 02 June)

Mandatory Documents
- Applicant: Biometric Residence Permit
- Applicant: U.S. Passport

Other Documents
- Applicant: U.S. Passport (again, for English language requirement)
- Sponsor: U.K. Passport
- Consent form - Family consent
- Consent form - Family declaration
- Our marriage certificate (no prior marriages)

Accommodation Documents
- Council tax bill for 2020/2021
- Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement for 01 April 2018 - 01 April 2019 (this is an email from our landlord with a scanned copy of the tenancy agreement. - This agreement moved to a rolling month-to-month, the agreement doesn't state that it moves to this)
- Letter from the landlord stating this is now a rolling month-to-month, how much rent we pay, and that we have the OK to continue living here (is this needed or will the ECO understand how assured shorthold works?)

Correspondence Documents for last 2 years

May 2018
May 30, 2018 - Joint Council tax bill

September 2018
September 20, 2018 - Joint bank statement

January 2019
Applicant: January 11, 2019 - Virgin Media bill
Spouse: January 11, 2019 - EDF bill for husband (printout, can explain in a letter, we provided February as well)

February 2019
February 22, 2019 - Joint Yorkshire Water bill (see note above for spouse)

May 2019
Applicant: May 10, 2019 - Virgin Media bill
Sponsor: May 2019 - EDF letter about smart upgrade meter (no 'day' date, just month)

September 2019
September 10, 2019 - Joint business bank invoice/statement

January 2020
January 10, 2020 - Joint business bank invoice/statement

May 2020
Applicant: May 12, 2020 - Virgin Media bill
Sponsor: May 5, 2020 - EDF bill

June 2020
Will include something if it arrives by the time we submit.

Sources: 5
Total documents: Applicant (3), Spouse (3), Joint (5) = 11

Financial Documents - Our statements are quarterly, and our bank will print them as such. Do I need to inform the ECO in a letter, or will they understand they are quarterly? Each statement will have at least 2 payslip deposits.
- 7 months of payslips to ensure we cover the full 6 months - hubby is paid 27th of each month.

• November 2019
• December 2019
• January 2020
• February 2020
• March 2020
• April 2020
• May 2020

- 7 months of joint bank statements showing dates and amounts of deposit (these are ordered from the bank, and will come on official bank letterhead - do we still need to get them stamped?)

• November 2019
• December 2019 - was paid early due to the Christmas holiday, this is mentioned in employer letter (see next item)
• January 2020
• February 2020
• March 2020
• April 2020
• May 2020 - Partial statement, will go to the bank to get this and have it (hopefully) stamped.

- Letter from employer confirming the payslips are genuine, as we have the pre-lockdown payslips in physical form, the rest since are online. Also includes confirmation of title, gross salary, how long current employment has been held (also how long he has been with the company in total), and type of employment (permanent)
- P60 for 2019-2020 (will be online, arrive end of May with payslip)
- Original signed contract for the title he currently holds (he is not issued letters for subsequent pay rises/changes in OTE - so we included this in the letter from employer)

I realise there hasn’t been a response to my previous message yet but had an additional question. We’ve sent off the employer letter to his boss to sign, and am concerned we were meant to add a list of payslips in that letter? Seems excessive. It does list the one pay that was a different date (due to Christmas holiday) and that the payslips are genuine.

Aside from that, it lists all the things the application asked for (confirmation of type of employment, gross salary, etc..)

Do we have to get him to sign another letter now with a list of the payslips? He is salaried and paid the same amount every month except when he receives bonuses. His boss is handling the cost of courier to us and I don’t want to make him do this all over again.
Thanks!

I realise there hasn’t been a response to my previous message yet but had an additional question.

Sorry - must have missed it. Will see if I can reply to the other message in a minute.

We’ve sent off the employer letter to his boss to sign, and am concerned we were meant to add a list of payslips in that letter? Seems excessive. It does list the one pay that was a different date (due to Christmas holiday) and that the payslips are genuine.

If the payslips are electronic and you are printing them off, then the employer MUST authenticate EACH payslip in the letter.

They should list the following for every payslip:
- payslip date
- pay period
- gross pay
- net pay
- date deposited into bank account
- explanation for any discrepancy between payslip date and pay deposit date.

To recap:
Arrival stamp: 29 December 2017 (double checked after my initial post and I was off by two days)
BRP expiration: 27 September 2020
Aiming to apply by: 10 June (I understand I cannot apply earlier than 28 days before 30 months, therefore anytime after 02 June)

Actually, you can apply from June 1st .

Accommodation Documents
- Letter from the landlord stating this is now a rolling month-to-month, how much rent we pay, and that we have the OK to continue living here (is this needed or will the ECO understand how assured shorthold works?)

I'd probably include the letter just to be safe.

January 2019
Applicant: January 11, 2019 - Virgin Media bill
Spouse: January 11, 2019 - EDF bill for husband (printout, can explain in a letter, we provided February as well)

February 2019
February 22, 2019 - Joint Yorkshire Water bill (see note above for spouse)

Printouts are not acceptable for the correspondence, so if you have any other document you can use for these months for the sponsor, I would use them instead. Do you have monthly bank statements you could include?

If not, you'll have to write the letter explaining the reason you can't provide an original document.

June 2020
Will include something if it arrives by the time we submit.

You don't need anything here. Documents should be spaced every 4 months, so you don't need something for May AND June. In fact, you don't even really need the May 2020 document, but you can include it anyway.

Financial Documents - Our statements are quarterly, and our bank will print them as such. Do I need to inform the ECO in a letter, or will they understand they are quarterly? Each statement will have at least 2 payslip deposits.

No, this does not need to be explained. All they need to see is that each day of the 6 months is covered and each payslip deposit is shown. It doesn't matter if they are submitted as monthly, quarterly, 6-monthly or annual statements.

- 7 months of joint bank statements showing dates and amounts of deposit (these are ordered from the bank, and will come on official bank letterhead - do we still need to get them stamped?)

No, as they were mailed, they are original documents.

The only time bank statements need to be stamped is when you have printed them at home from online banking because the bank has to confirm they are genuine and that you have not tampered with them.

• May 2020 - Partial statement, will go to the bank to get this and have it (hopefully) stamped.

If the bank are printing it for you, it doesn't need to be stamped.

- P60 for 2019-2020 (will be online, arrive end of May with payslip)

The electronic P60 will also need to be verified by the employer letter, along with the May payslip.[/list]

As always, thank you ksand24 

Thankfully his boss has not yet signed the letter we provided, so I have asked him to send an altered version with a list of each payslip date and the items you listed. We will wait to have him send this until after his pay date on the 27th of May, so as to include that payslip in the letter.

His payslips are a mix of electronic and original (they changed their payroll system), and his P-60 is original. I'm providing a copy of what we have sent to the employer, if you could have a look I'd really appreciate it!

We are reaching out to our landlord and have drawn up a letter stating that the tenancy was from April to April, but has become a rolling month-to-month, at £xxx.xx per month, that he and I are the only occupants, and we have the OK to continue living there.

Hoping we can pull all this together by the 10th. What is the latest in June we could apply without having to gather additional correspondence documents? Obviously applying on or after the 27th of June means we will need additional bank statements and payslips and letter, etc etc... Just hoping we still have until say the 15th in case this takes longer! Royal Mail is very slow at the moment, so considering a courier for the letters.

We absolutely do not have anything for January 2019 for my spouse. We looked high and low - every bank account we have issued quarterly statements and the date of mailing is not in January (even though it covers January in the statement). I will provide the February water bill and a letter explaining January.

=======================================================
To the Entry Clearance Officer                                                30 May 2020

I am writing to confirm that [NAME] has been employed on a fulltime, permanent contract by [COMPANY] since [DATE].

[NAME] is currently in the position of [POSITION], earning a monthly gross salary of [GROSS MONTHLY] ([GROSS ANNUAL] annual gross salary) plus commission based on performance of up to [COMMISSION] per annum. [NAME] has been earning this salary since 01 August 2019.

Payslips are provided electronically. I can confirm that all the payslips provided to support the FLR (M) application for his spouse are genuine and are provided by [COMPANY]. Electronic P-60s are printed and issued directly via mail, and I confirm that the P-60 received for 2019/2020 is genuine and is issued by [COMPANY].

Payslip date                        Pay Period   Gross Pay   Net Pay   Date deposited into bank account
Month 8 – 27/11/2019                              x                  x   27/11/2019
Moth 9 – 27/12/2019                               x                  x   20/12/2019* - paid into bank early due to Christmas holidays
Month 10 – 27/01/2020                                 x                  x   27/01/2020
Month 11 – 27/02/2020                              x                  x   27/02/2020
Month 12 – 27/03/2020                              x                  x   27/03/2020
Month 01 – 27/04/2020                              x                  x   27/04/2020
Month 02 – 27/05/2020                              x                  x   27/05/2020

* Month 9 (Payslip date of 27/12/2019), salaries were paid into [NAME] bank account on 20/12/2019 due to the Christmas holidays.

I hope you will find this information useful and should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,
[SPACE FOR SIGNATURE]
[NAME]
[TITLE]

***I still need to figure out what the pay periods are, as they only say Month 1, Month 2, etc... on his payslips - no to/from dates***

We are reaching out to our landlord and have drawn up a letter stating that the tenancy was from April to April, but has become a rolling month-to-month, at £xxx.xx per month, that he and I are the only occupants, and we have the OK to continue living there.

Sounds good .

Hoping we can pull all this together by the 10th. What is the latest in June we could apply without having to gather additional correspondence documents? Obviously applying on or after the 27th of June means we will need additional bank statements and payslips and letter, etc etc... Just hoping we still have until say the 15th in case this takes longer! Royal Mail is very slow at the moment, so considering a courier for the letters.

The exact dates of the correspondence documents don't matter so much. It's the latest payslip, bank statement and employer letter that are the important ones.

So, you can apply on any date in June you like as long as your financial documents are still in date.. your correspondence will still be fine.

We absolutely do not have anything for January 2019 for my spouse. We looked high and low - every bank account we have issued quarterly statements and the date of mailing is not in January (even though it covers January in the statement). I will provide the February water bill and a letter explaining January.

No problem - just wanted to check. Since you are providing something for those months, it should be okay with the explanation as well.

***I still need to figure out what the pay periods are, as they only say Month 1, Month 2, etc... on his payslips - no to/from dates***

The employer letter looks good .

The pay periods are usually either the dates that the payslip covers, (i.e. 1st - 30th April) or they are defined as the months of the tax year (i.e. Pay Period 1 = April, Pay Period 12 = March)

From what you've put on your list, it looks like you have:
Payslip Date:  27/11/2019       Pay period: 8
Payslip Date: 27/12/2019        Pay Period: 9
etc.