Fiance Visa Application Questions

Hello I am almost done with my fiance visa application but have a few questions before I hit submit.

I studied abroad in London in 2012 and have the visa in my old passport. No where on the application did it ask about this information. Should I include it in a statement or not worry about? I have scanned every page of that passport as it has the stamps for my last 10 years of travel.

Is it possible for my fiance who lives in the UK to log onto the VFS site and upload his documents straight there?

Lastly, my fiance and I do not have the ability to access the Skype conversations as they are no longer available through Skype. We do have access to Google Hangouts etc. Does this matter?

Thanks!

I studied abroad in London in 2012 and have the visa in my old passport. No where on the application did it ask about this information. Should I include it in a statement or not worry about? I have scanned every page of that passport as it has the stamps for my last 10 years of travel.

There should be a question asking if you have ever applied for a UK visa before and it should ask you to list all your trips to the UK in the last 10 years. This is where you enter the details about your student visa.

Questions like following should have been asked when you filled out the form (these are from the old paper form):

- Have you travelled to the UK in the last 10 years?
- Have you travelled outside your country of residence (excluding to the UK) in the last 10 years?
- Have you ever been refused a visa/EEA Family Permit for any country?
- Have you ever been refused, deported, removed or otherwise required to leave any country (including the UK) in the last 10 years?
- Have you ever voluntarily elected to depart the UK before you were served with an immigration decision and/or other
papers?
- Are you subject, or have you ever been subject to, an exclusion order from the UK?

If there really is not a question anywhere about your immigration history, then I would include an explanation of your student visa in a cover letter.

Is it possible for my fiance who lives in the UK to log onto the VFS site and upload his documents straight there?

Ideally your fiance would mail them to you and then you would upload them, just in case you needed to produce them in the US for any reason, but it should be possible for the documents to be uploaded to the VFS site from the UK, so I think that would be okay.

Lastly, my fiance and I do not have the ability to access the Skype conversations as they are no longer available through Skype. We do have access to Google Hangouts etc. Does this matter?

Basically, you want to provide evidence of your relationship from as many sources as you can, but if you do not have access to your old Skype conversations, then you can't provide them.

So, instead, try to gather evidence from other sources - like Google Hangouts, FB messages, WhatsApp, emails, phone calls, plus letters/cards you've sent to each other, and boarding passes from trips to see each other.

When it comes to including evidence of online communication, you don't want to send the actual messages, but just a log of dates and times copied and pasted onto no more than 2-3 pages for each type of communication.

So, you for example, if you have sent emails to each other, filter your inbox and then copy and paste a selection of your inbox listing the date of each email. If you have Instant messages, screenshot a selection of them, paste them into Word and then crop out all but the name, date and time - you should be able to get 20-30 messages on 1 page.

There should be a question asking if you have ever applied for a UK visa before and it should ask you to list all your trips to the UK in the last 10 years. This is where you enter the details about your student visa.

Questions like following should have been asked when you filled out the form (these are from the old paper form):

- Have you travelled to the UK in the last 10 years?
- Have you travelled outside your country of residence (excluding to the UK) in the last 10 years?
- Have you ever been refused a visa/EEA Family Permit for any country?
- Have you ever been refused, deported, removed or otherwise required to leave any country (including the UK) in the last 10 years?
- Have you ever voluntarily elected to depart the UK before you were served with an immigration decision and/or other
papers?
- Are you subject, or have you ever been subject to, an exclusion order from the UK?

If there really is not a question anywhere about your immigration history, then I would include an explanation of your student visa in a cover letter.

So I double checked my application and it asked me if I had visited the UK in the last 10 years and how many times which I said 4 but it only asked me to explain the last 3 visits which does not include my student visa. I will include a cover letter explaining my student visa. Thank you!

I had my fiance upload the docs for my fiance(e) visa from within the UK, as I lack patience with this sort of thing. Plus he had most of the docs and we wanted to apply ASAP and not spend a bunch of money sending them to me. All in all, all was okay there. He got them uploaded.

Thank you Cali for that information it is most helpful as my fiance has most of the documents as well.

Please find below the list of documents we plan to use. I do not have all of them yet but it's what I put together using other's lists as an example. Please let me know if I am missing anything.

Application Forms
Online Application, completed & signed

Applicants Documents
Applicants Passport
Applicants cover letter (Basic facts like how we met, when we met, mention of how relationship was maintained, mentioning my student visa and paid speeding ticket from 2013)
Letter for Lawyer saying that my ticket was handled and I pled guilty to violating a city code and paid a fine.

Sponsor non-financial documents
Photocopy of Sponsor passport (front cover and bio data page)
Sponsor cover letter (similar to applicant cover letter)

Sponsor financial documents
Print out of 7 Months of payslips (January to July 2020)
7 months of mailed Bank statements showing money entering account from work pay (January to July 2020)
Letter from employee of sponsor confirming sponsor is employed there, the job title, how long the sponsor has been employed, the type of contract, what sponsor earns before tax & NI, how long sponsor has been paid current salary and that any attached payslips are genuine.
Employment Offer Letter

Relationship proof
2 Pictures
Proof of communication (Google Hangouts, Cards/ Letters, Emails)
Proof of visits (flight receipts, hotel reservations)

Intention to marry
Wedding ring receipt
Engagement ring receipt
Wedding Dress Receipt
Emails sent to council booking an appointment with the registrar to hand in marriage forms with stated date to get married

Adequate housing
Written letter from parents (as we will be staying with parents at first) stating that we are allowed to live there indefinitely, also confirming number of rooms, size of rooms and how many people will be living in the house in total
Title Deed of the house showing parents are allowed to give permission for me to live there
Photocopies of Bio data page for all residents (parents and brother)

Applicants cover letter (Basic facts like how we met, when we met, mention of how relationship was maintained, mentioning my student visa and paid speeding ticket from 2013)

Okay, so only some of this should be included in a cover letter.

The facts about your relationship and regular contact ONLY go in the mandatory sponsor letter. And actually, the student visa information may also go in the sponsor letter too, for example, if it's the case that you met/were in a relationship while you were in the UK on your student visa.

Your cover letter should be about the documents in the package ONLY and about any bad immigration history or criminal convictions

So, in the cover letter you include:
- type of visa applied for and date you want visa to start
- explanation of criminal convictions/visa refusals/refused entries to the UK/illegal or overstaying working in the UK
[- mention of living in the UK on a student visa, if this is not mentioned in the sponsor letter]
- list of documents you are including

Sponsor non-financial documents
Sponsor cover letter (similar to applicant cover letter)

The sponsor letter should be completely different to the applicant cover letter. A cover letter is completely optional and is really just an introduction to the documents you are including.

But the sponsor letter is absolutely mandatory and should detail how the sponsor meets each requirement of the visa.

So, the sponsor letter should include:
Paragraph 1: how sponsor qualifies to sponsor a visa (their UK citizenship)
Paragraph 2: how sponsor meets the financial requirement (financial category, employment details etc.)
Paragraph 3: where you will live in the UK together (address and property details
Paragraph 4: very short history of your relationship... facts only, no emotional stuff. Just a timeline of your relationship, how you've kept in touch, and why you are settling in the UK together

Adequate housing
Photocopies of Bio data page for all residents (parents and brother)

I really don't think you need these at all... at most, you would only need to send the passport of the person(s) who are named on the deeds.

Hi Ksand24 I appreciate your help. My partner and I did meet while I was there on my student visa so I will have him include that in his sponsor letter.

I only included the passport info because on my application it asked who else lived in the house and asked for their passport numbers and information so I thought it might be helpful to include the first page of the passport as well. But if that is unnecessary I will go ahead and only include the first page for those listed on the title deed!

Hi Ksand24 I appreciate your help. My partner and I did meet while I was there on my student visa so I will have him include that in his sponsor letter.

Yes, that can go in the paragraph where he stares how and where you met and what date you entered a relationship .

I only included the passport info because on my application it asked who else lived in the house and asked for their passport numbers and information so I thought it might be helpful to include the first page of the passport as well. But if that is unnecessary I will go ahead and only include the first page for those listed on the title deed!

Actually, I would not include any of them... It has never been a requirement to include the passports of the owners of the house, so unless the online application explicitly states that you must include them, I wouldn’t send them.

All you need to include is:
- Land Registry document
- letter from the homeowner giving you permission to live there
- latest mortgage statement if they have a mortgage


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All you need to include is:
- Land Registry document
- letter from the homeowner giving you permission to live there
- latest mortgage statement if they have a mortgage


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So there is no mortgage as it has been paid off. So I will include the letter and the title deed.

Follow up question there is a box to explain any driving offenses so I explained my speeding ticket and the fee I paid. I feel like with that explanation and the sponsor letter including my student visa no cover letter is needed. Should I still write one and include the letter from my lawyer about my ticket? Thanks!

So there is no mortgage as it has been paid off. So I will include the letter and the title deed.

Follow up question there is a box to explain any driving offenses so I explained my speeding ticket and the fee I paid. I feel like with that explanation and the sponsor letter including my student visa no cover letter is needed. Should I still write one and include the letter from my lawyer about my ticket? Thanks!

You will need to include the official paperwork from your speeding ticket, plus a copy of your driving record.

Since it isn’t a criminal conviction, you don’t really need to explain it in a cover letter.


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You will need to include the official paperwork from your speeding ticket, plus a copy of your driving record.

Since it isn’t a criminal conviction, you don’t really need to explain it in a cover letter.


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Hi Ksand24 thank you! I have requested my driving record. I do not have the official paperwork from my speeding ticket anymore but I do have a letter from the lawyer handling my case detailing the outcome. I will include that with the driving record.

Sorry if this seems like a silly question but do the bank statements need to include the day you submit the application? For example if my fiance and I submit sometime next week but only have the bank statements including July but none for August is that a problem? Thanks for everyone's help.

Sorry if this seems like a silly question but do the bank statements need to include the day you submit the application? For example if my fiance and I submit sometime next week but only have the bank statements including July but none for August is that a problem? Thanks for everyone's help.

No, they don’t.

The latest payslip, latest bank statement and the employer letter must ALL be dated no more than 28 days before you submit the online application.

So, for example, if you are applying on say, August 5th, your latest payslip, latest bank statement and your employer letter must all be dated no earlier than 8th July.

And the 6 months that you need to use for the requirement will depend on the date of your latest payslip... so if the latest payslip is dated 31st July, then the 6 months you have to cover are:
31st January to 31st July
... which means including the January to July payslips and bank statements.


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I'm putting together a word document for proof of communication for our google hangouts. I did not feel like scrolling back 8 years so I am using the chat logs from our emails. I'm coping and pasting the top part that shows who sent the message and the date and time into a word document. Is this ok or does it have to be screenshots? I am doing one per month over the last 8 years.  Thanks.

   

I'm putting together a word document for proof of communication for our google hangouts. I did not feel like scrolling back 8 years so I am using the chat logs from our emails. I'm coping and pasting the top part that shows who sent the message and the date and time into a word document. Is this ok or does it have to be screenshots? I am doing one per month over the last 8 years.  Thanks.

Screenshots are better because they should show the formatting of the programme used to communicate whereas if you copy and paste, how will they know that the messages are genuine? You could have just made up all the communication logs yourself and typed them into Word.

Also,1 per month for 8 years is too many - you only want to send 40-60 messages total, so I would go with 1 every 2 months, which is 48 messages over 8 years.


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Screenshots are better because they should show the formatting of the programme used to communicate whereas if you copy and paste, how will they know that the messages are genuine? You could have just made up all the communication logs yourself and typed them into Word.

Also,1 per month for 8 years is too many - you only want to send 40-60 messages total, so I would go with 1 every 2 months, which is 48 messages over 8 years.


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Hi Ksand24, thanks for all your help. I went through and took screen shots of the chats from my email and did as you suggested one every two months.