My FLR(M) thread

Hi everyone,

Since I know I'm going to have a lot of questions along the way, I'm going to create this thread and stick to it when I ask about the different steps in the process.

So here's what we have for our joint mail that we've received over the course of my stay....

I arrived December 22, 2017.....

- Council tax bill Jan 2018
- Gas/Electric bill July 2018
- Water bill Jan 2019
- Gas/Electric bill July 2019
- Bank statement Dec 2019
- Council tax bill April 2020

Are those spaced out enough, and will they be sufficient?

As for a couple of other things we're thinking about right now....

- I work for a temp agency and while most weeks I work 40 hours, there are some weeks where it is only 32, therefore my pay can vary each paycheck (I am paid hourly, and payday is every Friday).  Does that mean I will need to include a full 12 months of payslips?  And I don't receive payslips, I just receive them in my online portal through the payroll company.  Will printing them myself at home be sufficient as long as I get a letter from my employer stating that they are authentic?

- As of right now (May 17th), I have yet to receive my P60 for the 2019-2020 tax year.  I don't know if it's delayed due to the COVID situation, but if we wanted to apply online in the next 10-14 days and it still hasn't arrived, is there any way to do that?  Like, could I use my final paycheck from the last tax year to show my income for the year?  Or would I have to wait for the P60?

- For the bank statements that we'll have to scan, does it need to be for the past 6 months?  Or 12?  And does the entire statement need to be scanned, or just the pages that reflect the direct deposits from my wages?

- And finally, our original tenancy agreement was for 12 months, and then when it expired we agreed with the landlady to just have it be a rolling month to month agreement.  Would we need a letter from her confirming this, in addition to a copy of the original agreement?  And if a letter is required, what bits of information should we have her provide?

Thank you for the information!

So here's what we have for our joint mail that we've received over the course of my stay....

I arrived December 22, 2017.....

- Council tax bill Jan 2018
- Gas/Electric bill July 2018
- Water bill Jan 2019
- Gas/Electric bill July 2019
- Bank statement Dec 2019
- Council tax bill April 2020

Are those spaced out enough, and will they be sufficient?

You only need to cover the last 2 years before applying, so your documents should be spaced every 4 months.

If applying in the next few weeks, you’ll want documents from each of the following months:
May 2018
September 2018
January 2019
May 2019
September 2019
January 2020
Optional extra: May 2020

As for a couple of other things we're thinking about right now....

- I work for a temp agency and while most weeks I work 40 hours, there are some weeks where it is only 32, therefore my pay can vary each paycheck (I am paid hourly, and payday is every Friday).  Does that mean I will need to include a full 12 months of payslips?

How long have you been with your employer, earning your current hourly wage?

If it’s more than 6 months, then you may be able to meet Category A and therefore would only need to provide 6 months of payslips and bank statements.

As you are non-salaried, for Category A, your income will be calculated as follows:
All 6 months of payslips will be added up, then they should be divided by the number of weeks of payslips provided and then multiplied by 52 to get your average annual salary. If this average is at least £18,600 you will meet the requirements under Category A. 

Having said that you may need to include 7 months of payslips and bank statements to cover every single day of the 6 months.

And I don't receive payslips, I just receive them in my online portal through the payroll company.  Will printing them myself at home be sufficient as long as I get a letter from my employer stating that they are authentic?

Yes, if they are online payslips each one will need to be verified by your employer in the employer letter.

- As of right now (May 17th), I have yet to receive my P60 for the 2019-2020 tax year.  I don't know if it's delayed due to the COVID situation, but if we wanted to apply online in the next 10-14 days and it still hasn't arrived, is there any way to do that?  Like, could I use my final paycheck from the last tax year to show my income for the year?  Or would I have to wait for the P60?

If you haven’t received it before you apply, you can either send the 2018/2019 P60 instead, or just not include a P60 at all. It is not mandatory to include it.

P60s are only optional and are not used  to determine your income.

- For the bank statements that we'll have to scan, does it need to be for the past 6 months?  Or 12?  And does the entire statement need to be scanned, or just the pages that reflect the direct deposits from my wages?

You must include the entire statement for each month.

And you must cover the same number of months as the payslips you are sending. So if you are Category A you send 6 months of each. If you are Category B, it’s 12 months of each.

- And finally, our original tenancy agreement was for 12 months, and then when it expired we agreed with the landlady to just have it be a rolling month to month agreement.  Would we need a letter from her confirming this, in addition to a copy of the original agreement?  And if a letter is required, what bits of information should we have her provide?

It depends what is stated on your tenancy agreement.

If it explicitly states that it goes to a rolling month-to-month after the initial term, then you do not need a letter from the landlady.

If it does not state this, then I would include a letter from the landlady confirming your tenancy particulars and that it is now month-to-month.


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It depends what is stated on your tenancy agreement.

If it explicitly states that it goes to a rolling month-to-month after the initial term, then you do not need a letter from the landlady.

If it does not state this, then I would include a letter from the landlady confirming your tenancy particulars and that it is now month-to-month.

It reads like they are on a (Statutory) Periodic Tenancy. Some tenants stay on this for years because then they only have to give 1 months notice to leave. Landlord has to give 2 months notice minimum.

"A fixed term tenancy becomes periodic if any joint tenants stay past the fixed term, without agreeing a new contract."
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/renewing_your_private_tenancy


There are two types, one by law made by parliament and the other by contract.

You have a statutory periodic tenancy if:

    your last agreement had a fixed term
    the end date has passed and you still live there
    your fixed term agreement didn’t say that it would become a periodic contract at the end of the term
...
You have a contractual periodic tenancy if your last agreement was either a:

    rolling contract with no end date
    fixed term tenancy with a clause that said it would become a periodic contract when the fixed term ended
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/ending_a_periodic_tenancy



https://www.gov.uk/private-renting-tenancy-agreements

Hi!  So we started the online application today, and I have a question....

"What is the start date of your current visa or leave to remain?" - would this be the "valid from" date on my UK entry clearance vignette in my passport?  Or the date my vignette was stamped upon arrival in the UK?  Or would it be the "place and date of issue" date on my BRP?

And for "What is the end date of your current visa or leave to remain?", that would that be the "valid until" date on my BRP, no?

Also another question...

"Do you have any Home Office reference numbers? (Required)
If you have previously made an application to remain in the UK, you can find a reference number on letters from the Home Office, called 'Our Ref' or 'Case ID'. If not known, select 'No'."

On my letter that I received when my spouse visa application was approved, there is an "our ref" number at the top - is that what they are referring to?  Or would this be something different?

Hi!  So we started the online application today, and I have a question....

"What is the start date of your current visa or leave to remain?" - would this be the "valid from" date on my UK entry clearance vignette in my passport?  Or the date my vignette was stamped upon arrival in the UK?  Or would it be the "place and date of issue" date on my BRP?

I would put the date of issue as printed on your BRP - because that is the start date of your visa.

And for "What is the end date of your current visa or leave to remain?", that would that be the "valid until" date on my BRP, no?

Yes. The BRP is your visa, therefore the end date on the BRP is the end date of your visa.

Also another question...

"Do you have any Home Office reference numbers? (Required)
If you have previously made an application to remain in the UK, you can find a reference number on letters from the Home Office, called 'Our Ref' or 'Case ID'. If not known, select 'No'."

On my letter that I received when my spouse visa application was approved, there is an "our ref" number at the top - is that what they are referring to?  Or would this be something different?

You won't have a Home Office Reference number, so select 'No'.

Thanks!

Now it's asking me a million questions about my son who lives with his mother in the US.  He is not a part of the application, so I said "no" to the question "will your child be joining you in this application".  It asked a bunch of general information questions, then it asks "when did Jacob enter the UK"?  Ummm never?  Is this some kind of a glitch in the application process?  Because I definitely put "no" to him being part of the application and they're still asking questions as if he's going to be coming here.

What type of visa, leave to enter or remain or other permission do you have to be in the UK? (Required)

-Visit

-Work

-Study

-Family

-EEA residence permit or card

-Settlement

-Other

The only thing I can think of where I could have answered something "incorrectly" is this question.  I put "family" - is that not correct?  Can't figure out why else it would keep asking me about my son who I've specified in my answers is NOT part of this application.

What type of visa, leave to enter or remain or other permission do you have to be in the UK? (Required)

-Visit

-Work

-Study

-Family

-EEA residence permit or card

-Settlement

-Other

The only thing I can think of where I could have answered something "incorrectly" is this question.  I put "family" - is that not correct?  Can't figure out why else it would keep asking me about my son who I've specified in my answers is NOT part of this application.

Family is correct. Your answer here has nothing to do with the questions about your son.

You are required to list all children under 18 on the application and answer questions about them, regardless of whether they are applying for a visa. So, just answer the questions as best you can.

You will also be required to provide the following documents for your son:
- his US passport
- his birth certificate
- a letter dated in the last 90 days confirming his address
- you may also need to provide evidence of where your son’s mother lives too


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Oof, ok.  Well my contact with my ex-wife is virtually non-existent and I don't think she'll be very willing to help me with any of this.  And as my son lives full-time with her, I don't have his birth certificate (nor a copy of it) to confirm anything.  I guess I'll just have to explain this in a section that allows me to write an explanation or possibly include it in a cover letter.

When it asks if my son was born in the UK, i pick "no", and then it asks "when did your child first enter the UK".  Since he hasn't, I tried to leave that date blank, and it prompts me to enter his date of birth in that box.  Like, what?  I don't understand.  It makes no sense to me.

Can you post here all the questions you are asked about your children?

The application adjusts itself depending on how you answer, so different people get different questions... so I'm wondering if the way you answered something related to your son changed what questions you were asked next.

Yes, I will do that.  Tomorrow, lol, sick of this thing now.  But yes I will post them tomorrow so you can see what they've asked and how I've answered.

OK I ended up turning the laptop back on (I'm a glutton for punishment).  Here is the line of questioning.  I answered truthfully, and here is how it went...

The section is "Non applying children"

"Do you have any children of 18 years old or under?" (Yes)
"Are all of your children applying with you on this application?" (No)
"Why are all of your children not applying with you as part of this application?" (My son lives with his mother, Lynn, in the United States)

Then it asks me questions about my child, his name, nationality, date of birth, gender as shown on their passport (even though he doesn't have a passport, I put male), and his relationship status.

Then it asks....

"Provide details of the role you take in Jacob's upbringing, including details of your parental responsibility or access arrangements" (I gave my answer...)

Then it asks who he normally lives with, the address, why he doesn't live with me, his spoken language, whether he has any extended family in the UK.

Then it gets a little weird....

"Was Jacob born in the UK?" (No)
"When did your child first enter the UK?" - it asks for a date.  When I tried to leave it blank since it doesn't apply to him, it prompted me to enter his date of birth in that section where it wants to know when he first entered the UK. 
"How long has your child lived in the UK?" - this is an answer it asks for in writing so that's when I explain that he's never lived in the UK, was born in the US, and has lived there with his mother his whole life.


I just want to make sure this is a normal line of questioning and that I haven't done something wrong along the way.  Should I say I don't have any children since he lives in America and isn't joining me here?  I mean that sounds awful but.....*shrugs*

Okay, so looking at the old paper form, it asked you to list DEPENDENT children under the age of 18, and from the questions it asked, it was assumed those children were living in the UK.

It said:

As well as children who are applying with you, you should also include details of any dependent children not applying with you, including those who are British citizens or settled in the UK.

And the questions were similar, but you wrote in the answers yourself.

The paper form also implied that you only needed to send the child's documents if they are living in the UK, as you were sending them to show your role in their upbringing.

So, I guess the questions are:
- do you even need to include your son since he does not live in the UK? (I'm not sure either way on this one)
- do you consider your son to be a dependent child... given that he lives in a different country with his mother?

And so I think your options are:
- tick No when it asks if you have other children, and then you can skip all the questions and move on to the next section of the application form
or
- tick Yes, answer all the questions about your son, put any old date in the boxes for when he entered the UK, and then explain in the next answer that he does not live in the UK but that it wouldn't let you leave it blank

Yeah I went ahead and put "no" to the children question, and if they come back with any questions on it I'll play dumb and say I thought it was referring to dependent children.  Those following questions all disappeared now and it's a lot neater haha.

So now we're to the section of my employment.  My income is irregular as I'm paid hourly and don't always work 40 hours every week, but my gross annual income exceeds the 18,600 threshold so I believe that means I'm qualifying under category A.  The question is....

"What is their annual income before tax for this employment in GBP (£)?" - is this where I will take my last 6 months of payslips, add them up, divide it by 6 to get a monthly average, and then multiply by 12 to get my annual income?