FLR-M Document Check & Questions

Posted earlier but no responses. Could someone please take a look:

I am a US citizen (married to a British citizen).  Retired and collecting US private pensions, no UK employment.  I entered the UK on a Spouse Visa on February 22, 2018. My residence permit expires on November 7, 2020.  So – getting ready to submit FLR-M application later this month (July 25, 2020 at the earliest, correct?).  I’ve completed the on-line application (not submitted yet), paid the IHS Surcharge, and have gathered the documentation requested:

1.   My Passport
2.   My BRP
3.   My Pension Documents
4.   6 mos. bank statements showing pension deposits
5.   Declarations & consents
6.   Wife’s passport
7.   6 mos. bank statements showing savings balance(s)
8.   US passport to prove English language
9.   Declaration of source of cash savings
10.   Marriage certificate
11.   Previous divorce documents for myself
12.   Previous divorce documents for my spouse
13.   Previous divorce documents for my spouse
14.   2-years’ worth of correspondence
        Council Tax Statements: Feb 2018, June 2018, Feb 2019, July 2019, Mar 2020, May 2020
        Bank Statements: July 2018, Nov 2018, Nov 2019, May 2020
        BT Phone Bill: Mar 2019, July 2019, Mar 2020
       HMRC Tax Statements: May 209, Jun 2020
       TV License: Feb 2020
15.   Proof of Accommodation
        Land Registry Document
        2019-2020 Council Tax Bill

Questions:
1.   Do we need to gather and provide documents to prove our relationship as in the original application? e.g. photos, texts, etc.
2.   Do I need to submit details of past legal issues (arrests and convictions.) Questions were asked in the application but no request for backup documentation.
3.   Any thing I’m missing?

Posted earlier but no responses. Could someone please take a look:

I am a US citizen (married to a British citizen).  Retired and collecting US private pensions, no UK employment.  I entered the UK on a Spouse Visa on February 22, 2018. My residence permit expires on November 7, 2020.  So – getting ready to submit FLR-M application later this month (July 25, 2020 at the earliest, correct?). 

Yes, you reach 30 months on August 22nd, so you can apply from July 25th to November 7th 2020.

Okay, let's organise your documents into the correct upload sections:

PROOF OF IDENTITY / TRAVEL HISTORY
- Wife's UK Passport, full scan of every page
- Your BRP

PROOF OF APPLICATION
- Your US passport
- Signed declarations and consent to checks forms

RESIDENCE IN THE U.K.
Accommodation
- Land Registry Document
- 2019-2020 Council Tax Bill
Correspondence
From the list you've given, you can use the following documents as long as they are ALL either in both names, or you have one in each name from each of the months:
July 2018:
1. Bank statements - are these in both names? - Source 1
November 2018:
2. Bank statements - are these in both names?
March 2019
3. BT phone bill -  is this in both names? - Source 2
July 2019:
4. BT phone bill - is this in both names?
November 2019:
5. Bank statements - - are these in both names?
March 2020
6. Council tax statement - is this in both names? - Source 3
July 2020
7.  HMRC Tax Statements - are these in both names? - Source 4

FINANCES:
Category D: Cash Savings:
- 6 mos. bank statements showing savings balance(s) - do they cover every single day of the 6 months?
- Declaration of source of cash savings
Category E: Pension Income
- My Pension Documents
- at least 1 bank statement from the last 12 months showing pension has been received for at least 28 days

Can I just ask what your break down of pension income plus savings is? Just want to check that your figures definitely meet the requirement.

OTHER
- Marriage certificate
- Previous divorce documents for myself
- Previous divorce documents for my spouse
- Police record and any paperwork from previous arrests/convictions

You leave the following sections empty as they are not relevant to your application:
- PROOF OF BUSINESS,
- LIFE EVENTS,
- MEDICAL INFORMATION,
- SPONSOR'S/EMPLOYMENT
- EDUCATIONAL.

Questions:
1.   Do we need to gather and provide documents to prove our relationship as in the original application? e.g. photos, texts, etc.
2.   Do I need to submit details of past legal issues (arrests and convictions.) Questions were asked in the application but no request for backup documentation.
3.   Any thing I’m missing?

1. No. You now provide your correspondence documents to show you have been living together INSTEAD of the evidence of regular communication while living apart

2. Yes. I have listed these in the OTHER section of the documents

3. Your list looks good, as long as your correspondence documents are in both names (or you have 1 each for each month) and your pension + savings amounts meet the requirement.

ksand24 - thanks so much for the review.

All documents listed are in both of our names EXCEPT for the HMRC statements, they are in my name only.

Savings and income should be good. My pension income is around $XXX and the I have one savings account with a balance over $XX over the entire period.

"- 6 mos. bank statements showing savings balance(s) - do they cover every single day of the 6 months?"
indirectly - they show all transactions over the 6 months, it can be seen that the balance always exceeded the required amount. These are the same documents I used for my first visa, along with a cover letter from the bank (also signed on each page by the bank)

ksand24 - thanks so much for the review.

All documents listed are in both of our names EXCEPT for the HMRC statements, they are in my name only.

Great . In that case though, you will ALSO need another document in your wife's name dated in July 2020 to accompany the HMRC statements in your name.

Savings and income should be good. My pension income is around $67K and the I have one savings account with a balance over $200K over the entire period.

Okay, if your savings has been more than £62,500 for the entire 6-month period AND your pension income is more than £18,600 per year, you only need to include ONE of those sources, not both.

You should only ever use more than one financial category if you CANNOT meet the requirements using only one category and have no choice but to combine your pension and your savings together in order to qualify for the visa (i.e. your pension is less than £18,600/year AND your savings are less than £62,500)

So, you need to decide which one of the two Categories you want to apply under, either Category D: Cash Savings or Category E: Pension income and then go back and redo the financial part of the application form, leaving EITHER the savings part OR the pension part blank. And then you only include the documents for either the savings or for the pension, but not both.

So, the Financial documents you will need to provide are:

EITHER

FINANCES - Category D: Cash Savings of £62,500 or more
- 6 mos. bank statements showing savings balance(s)
- Declaration of source of cash savings

OR

FINANCES - Category E: Pension Income of £18,600 or more
- My Pension Documents
- at least 1 bank statement from the last 12 months showing pension has been received for at least 28 days

"- 6 mos. bank statements showing savings balance(s) - do they cover every single day of the 6 months?"
indirectly - they show all transactions over the 6 months, it can be seen that the balance always exceeded the required amount. These are the same documents I used for my first visa, along with a cover letter from the bank (also signed on each page by the bank)

If you decide to use the Cash Savings, they must explicitly show that the statements start on or before the beginning of the 6 months and end on or after the end of the 6 months.

If they are even 1 day short of 6 months, ending no more than 28 days before you submit the application, the visa can be refused.

Great . In that case though, you will ALSO need another document in your wife's name dated in July 2020 to accompany the HMRC statements in your name.

My HMRC Statement is dated June 2020 (not July) Can I submit a letter from the bank to my wife dated June 2020 or would it have to be from a separate source?

So, you need to decide which one of the two Categories you want to apply under, either Category D: Cash Savings or Category E: Pension income and then go back and redo the financial part of the application form, leaving EITHER the savings part OR the pension part blank. And then you only include the documents for either the savings or for the pension, but not both.

My online application is "locked" and I cannot revise it. I suspect this is because I "finished it" so I could pay the NHS Surcharge. It has not been submitted yet, though.

If you decide to use the Cash Savings, they must explicitly show that the statements start on or before the beginning of the 6 months and end on or after the end of the 6 months.

If they are even 1 day short of 6 months, ending no more than 28 days before you submit the application, the visa can be refused.

I'm submitting 7 months of statements just to be safe. 1-Dec-2019 through 30-June-2020.

My HMRC Statement is dated June 2020 (not July) Can I submit a letter from the bank to my wife dated June 2020 or would it have to be from a separate source?

Ah, sorry - I misread the date of the HMRC statement in your original post.

The other document can be from any source, as you already have more than the 3 required sources.

However:
a) the July 2020 documents are only optional (as you already have the required 6 documents, and your accommodation evidence will show you still live together in July 2020)
and
b) if you are going to include them, they need to be dated in July, not June, because otherwise they won't be evenly-spaced

... so if you don't have a document in each name for July 2020, then I would probably just not include them at all.

My online application is "locked" and I cannot revise it. I suspect this is because I "finished it" so I could pay the NHS Surcharge. It has not been submitted yet, though.

Hmm, are you able to cancel it and start again? (you would just use the IHS surcharge reference number on the new application form).

If you can't, it's not a massive issue... it's just that by filling out both the pension and the cash savings sections, you've made things more complicated for yourself. It means you now have to provide double the amount of required financial documents, which could be confusing for the officer processing the application, as they will wonder why you have applied under 2 categories and provided an extra set of unnecessary documents, when you already qualified using just one category.

I'm submitting 7 months of statements just to be safe. 1-Dec-2019 through 30-June-2020.

That's good - that's all I wanted to check .