Spouse Visa to ILR/UK citizenship

Good Evening. My wife (American) and I (British) moved back to the UK in Dec 2015 after she was granted her Spouse Visa. With 5 years approaching (Dec 2020), when can we apply for ILR and when can we apply for citizenship? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Now we are no longer on COVID lockdown, the life in the UK test can now be scheduled.

Good Evening. My wife (American) and I (British) moved back to the UK in Dec 2015 after she was granted her Spouse Visa. With 5 years approaching (Dec 2020), when can we apply for ILR and when can we apply for citizenship? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Now we are no longer on COVID lockdown, the life in the UK test can now be scheduled.

ILR-28 days before the 5 year anniversary of her entering the country.
Citizenship- as soon as she has her ILR.

Thank you. Other than passing (hopefully) the UK life test and completing the SET M online application (https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk/product/set-m?_ga=2.174796322.1081535998.1593710927-1097154523.1589363686), is there anything else you can advise we can start preparing for November's online application date?

Thank you. Other than passing (hopefully) the UK life test and completing the SET M online application (https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk/product/set-m?_ga=2.174796322.1081535998.1593710927-1097154523.1589363686), is there anything else you can advise we can start preparing for November's online application date?

You can start working on your correspondence evidence and get it all in place up to date.

You can start gathering your correspondence documents for the relationship requirement.

You need one document in each name spaced every 5 months for the last 2.5 years (since the last visa was issued. The documents must be from at least 3 different official sources.

So, if you are applying in November 2020, you will want to cover from May 2018 to November 2020, with 1 document in each name from each of the following months:
May 2018
October 2018
March 2019
August 2019
January 2020
June 2020
November 2020

You can also check which category you will be using to meet the financial requirement and make sure you will be able to get all the documents together for it.

Fabulous. Thank you! We both are in full time employment and earn above the necessary thresholds. We have no children.

Fabulous. Thank you! We both are in full time employment and earn above the necessary thresholds. We have no children.

No children makes the application easier.
If each of you alone meets the requirement, you will only provide financial evidence for one of you.

Fabulous. Thank you! We both are in full time employment and earn above the necessary thresholds. We have no children.

That's good .

If you both earn above the threshold, then you only want to include one income - so you fill out the application with that person's employment details and then leave the other person's employment blank, as if they don't work.

You'll also want to use the income that's easiest to provide the evidence for, for example, if one of you gets paper payslips and/or bank statements and the other gets online payslips and/or bank statements, using the income with the paper ones is probably easier.

Thanks @ksand24

Would you really only advise on listing one income and not both?

Thanks @ksand24

Would you really only advise on listing one income and not both?

Yes.

They only need to see one income - they do not care about the other one. In fact, in the past, when people have applied in person, the processing officer has deliberately only asked for one set of employment documents and has refused to look at the other one.

Also, if you include both incomes, that means providing two sets of financial documents... which is double the amount of necessary evidence, which means more chance of getting something wrong and risking a refusal (I.e. both sets of documents have to cover the same dates, and they both have to meet the formatting requirements and if they are slightly off, or one set of documents meets the requirement and the other doesn’t, you might not get the visa).


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For the evenly spaced (approx) addressed evidence is it 4 jointly addressed and/or 6 individually addressed? Can these be a mixture of Council tax, water utility, bank statements etc? Also, have they got to be from all different sources?

For the evenly spaced (approx) addressed evidence is it 4 jointly addressed and/or 6 individually addressed? Can these be a mixture of Council tax, water utility, bank statements etc? Also, have they got to be from all different sources?

It’s 6 documents in each name...

So that could be:
- 6 jointly addressed
- 12 individually addressed (6 each)
- or a combination of both, equalling 6 in each name... I.e. 1 joint and 10 individual, or 2 joint and 8 individual, or 5 joint and 2 individual etc.

You need at least 3 different sources in total.

They must be from an official sources and have been received in the mail. Online statements/bills cannot be used.


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Thank you. If we have mortgage statement for the period April 2019-April 2020, could that count as our joint submission for April 2020?

Thank you. If we have mortgage statement for the period April 2019-April 2020, could that count as our joint submission for April 2020?

In theory, yes, but it depends when you apply as to whether you will be able to include a document from April 2020.

Assuming you apply in November, as mentioned above, you will need to include documents from the following months:
May 2018
Oct 2018
March 2019
Aug 2019
Jan 2020
June 2020
Nov 2020

... Which means you cannot use the April 2020 mortgage statement because it is not from the correct required month.

If you wanted to be able to use it, you would need to wait and apply in February 2021, so that your documents were from the following months:

Aug 2018
Jan 2019
June 2019
Nov 2019
April 2020
Sept 2020
Feb 2021


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Ah ok. Do they have to be within those months you've suggested? Or can they be a month either side of those?