My initial Fiance visa questions...

For the sponsor letter, is there some kind of template in order to cover everything they want? I'm also wondering whether to give them the whole story of how we ended up wanting to apply for the fiancee visa. We had originally planned to marry in the US in October 2020 (we even had our venue, photographer, everything booked and paid for) but when Covid happened we decided that we'd have to postpone due to travel restrictions and general health and safety concerns for everyone. Originally we wanted to get married in the US, then apply for a Spouse visa for the UK, and for my fiancee to then move to the UK. And  so, we figured due to the Covid situation, the quickest way we could marry and for her to move here and for us to be together was to instead apply for the fiancee visa, her to move here, and us get married here in the UK. Would it be a good idea to explain all this in the Sponsor letter?

You don't need to explain any of that.

Just say something like
'We wish to marry in the UK on X date at Y location because it has not been possible for us to marry in the US due to Covid.'

We also obviously have receipts for venue, photographer, etc in the US which although they don't show our intent to marry here (I've been in contact with a registry office for that) they do show the seriousness of our relationship (weddings are not cheap! we are keeping all our bookings for a recommitment ceremony October 2021)

None of that is relevant for the visa, or your sponsor letter, or to show relationship seriousness. So, you should not include any of it.

The ONLY thing UKVI care about is that you are planning to marry IN THE UK and have contacted the relevant registry office to enquire about it.

I think I'm about half-way through collating all necessary documents and evidence now, and of course I have more questions! I really hope this thread will serve as a good reference point to others in the future because I think I've asked about everything possible at this point 

1. Whatsapp continued communication evidence. My fiancee (the applicant) and I are primarily in contact via Whatsapp so want to use our chats and call logs as evidence. We've discovered that she can't get screenshots with her iphone that include the date of our conversations. Her call logs also only go back a few months. Is it ok if this evidence is from my point of view? i.e. I screenshot the conversations/call logs on my phone, which means they're from the point of view of the Sponsor not the Applicant? Am I overthinking this?! 

2. Sponsor's passport scans. Does this need to be just the photo pages, or all pages, or all pages with stamps?

There's no specific template for the sponsor letter, but the stucture should be:

Paragraph 1: How you qualify to be a sponsor (your UK citizenship)

Paragraph 2: Your employment details and which financial category you meet.

Paragraph 3: Where you will live together in the UK, including full address property type, who owns it, and how many bedrooms + living rooms, along with total number of people who will be living there, to show it won't be overcrowded

Paragraph 4: Short, factual history of your relationship... facts and dates only, no personal feelings. No more than 4 or 5 sentences.
Basically: when and where you met, what date you entered into a relationship, what date you got engaged, when and where you plan to marry, how often you visit each other, how you keep in touch while apart (email, Skype, messages etc.), and the reason you are choosing to settle in the UK together.

That's really helpful, thank you very much

Is it worth writing an Applicant letter as well? Or is that seen as trying too hard?

You don't need to explain any of that.

Just say something like
'We wish to marry in the UK on X date at Y location because it has not been possible for us to marry in the US due to Covid.'

None of that is relevant for the visa, or your sponsor letter, or to show relationship seriousness. So, you should not include any of it.

The ONLY thing UKVI care about is that you are planning to marry IN THE UK and have contacted the relevant registry office to enquire about it.

Ok, thank you. The less I have to scan and upload the better I guess!

One thing that I've just noticed though is that on my fiancees wedding dress receipt it has our original wedding date listed. Should I address this in my letter in case they see it as not matching up to our plans? Like just saying something like "they needed a date for their system so we chose an arbitrary date", or do you think it's best not to point it out?

1. Whatsapp continued communication evidence. My fiancee (the applicant) and I are primarily in contact via Whatsapp so want to use our chats and call logs as evidence. We've discovered that she can't get screenshots with her iphone that include the date of our conversations. Her call logs also only go back a few months. Is it ok if this evidence is from my point of view? i.e. I screenshot the conversations/call logs on my phone, which means they're from the point of view of the Sponsor not the Applicant? Am I overthinking this?! 

Ideally you want to include screenshots from both the sponsor and the applicant, so show you are both communicating with each other. So, just send what you can from each phone.

Having said that, I have an iPhone and you can easily see the date above the first message sent on each day:

2. Sponsor's passport scans. Does this need to be just the photo pages, or all pages, or all pages with stamps?

For an application made in the US, I believe only the biometric page of the sponsor's passport needs to be scanned - the page with your photo and personal details on it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Is it worth writing an Applicant letter as well? Or is that seen as trying too hard?

The sponsor letter is absolutely mandatory - the visa can be refused without it.

An applicant letter is not necessary and will have no bearing on the application.

However, if they want to, the applicant can write a contents letter for their documents - this can be useful to include if they need to explain anything unusual about the documents being provided (like a large transaction on a bank statement) or if they have to explain any of the following:
- criminal convictions
- previous bad UK immigration history, such as refused visas, illegal working or illegal overstaying in the UK

So, if they have nothing to explain, then an example contents letter from the applicant would be:

To The Entry Clearance Officer,

Please find included my application for a marriage visa to join my fiance in the UK. I would like my visa to start on [DATE] as per the Intended Travel Date listed on my application form.

The following documents are included with my application:
List of Documents

Yours Faithfully,
[NAME]

One thing that I've just noticed though is that on my fiancees wedding dress receipt it has our original wedding date listed. Should I address this in my letter in case they see it as not matching up to our plans? Like just saying something like "they needed a date for their system so we chose an arbitrary date", or do you think it's best not to point it out?

Personally, I would just not include the receipt for the wedding dress at all. That way there's nothing to explain.

The only thing you actually need to include is the communication with the registry office. Receipts for other things are just optional extras.

Ideally you want to include screenshots from both the sponsor and the applicant, so show you are both communicating with each other. So, just send what you can from each phone.

Having said that, I have an iPhone and you can easily see the date above the first message sent on each day:




For an application made in the US, I believe only the biometric page of the sponsor's passport needs to be scanned - the page with your photo and personal details on it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ah ok, we'll send half from my phone and half from hers. Thank you

The sponsor letter is absolutely mandatory - the visa can be refused without it.

An applicant letter is not necessary and will have no bearing on the application.

However, if they want to, the applicant can write a contents letter for their documents - this can be useful to include if they need to explain anything unusual about the documents being provided (like a large transaction on a bank statement) or if they have to explain any of the following:
- criminal convictions
- previous bad UK immigration history, such as refused visas, illegal working or illegal overstaying in the UK

So, if they have nothing to explain, then an example contents letter from the applicant would be:

To The Entry Clearance Officer,

Please find included my application for a marriage visa to join my fiance in the UK. I would like my visa to start on [DATE] as per the Intended Travel Date listed on my application form.

The following documents are included with my application:
List of Documents

Yours Faithfully,
[NAME]

Ok, thank you. I assume we can just upload this with the rest of the documents?

Personally, I would just not include the receipt for the wedding dress at all. That way there's nothing to explain.

The only thing you actually need to include is the communication with the registry office. Receipts for other things are just optional extras.

That's true. But I thought ring and dress receipts help as proof of intention to marry? If that's not the case, then I won't bother to complicate things!

That's true. But I thought ring and dress receipts help as proof of intention to marry? If that's not the case, then I won't bother to complicate things!

They can help, but it doesn't really matter if you don't have them... not everyone will have bought their dress and rings yet at the time of application, so they won't have any receipts to include.

So, if you think it could confuse things because the receipt for the dress has a different wedding date on it, then just leave it out. If the ring receipt doesn't have a wedding date on it, though, I would still include it.

Hello all, hope you haven't missed my incessant questions too  much 

I think we're very close to being able to submit now, which seems to be making me more anxious about whether everything is right! A few questions that have been nagging me, mainly because I've been trawling forums and maybe stuff I've been reading is out of date?? But I thought I'd better check!

1. Should I include a copy of my work contract? It's many, many pages long! I already have my payslips, P60 and employment letter.
2. Whatsapp messages (I think this is the bit that I'm spending most time on!) Should I crop off all the actual conversations? So just the name and date remain? I'm having trouble trying to limit just over a years worth of screenshots (just one per week) to a couple of pages! What exactly are they trying to see here?! Just the constant contact?
3. I remember someone saying that it doesn't really count to include flight booking confirmations, but rather just boarding passes. Should I not include flight bookings at all? As my fiancee isn't sentimental like I am  and airlines use mobile boarding passes now, all I have are boarding passes that show we were on one flight together (thank God I saved hers because I'm mushy!!) and others for me visiting her city. Maybe I should just include those?? I'm trying not to clutter the application!
4. Just to make sure I've got the payslip/bank statement part right: my bank statements run from the 21st of one month to the 21st of another, so that means that I should include whatever payslips are on those statements? I'm paid weekly so I have on average 4 on each bank statement. I thought I could include my April-September bank statements, but then realised that my last September payslips will be on my October bank statement  If I include my last few March payslips (as they're listed on my April statement) that's not going to be penalised, right? Same with if I include my March bank statement just to be sure it's all covered? 
5. The one that has recently freaked me out. Do I have to print and send all these documents somewhere?! I thought they just all had to be scanned? Please tell me this posting stuff is the old way?!

Whew! As usual, thank you in advance. You're life savers!!! 

1. Should I include a copy of my work contract? It's many, many pages long! I already have my payslips, P60 and employment letter.

The mandatory financial documents are:
1) 6 full months of payslips showing at least £1,550 before tax each month (or £360.47 weekly) (usually this means including 7 months to cover every single day of the 6 months
2) 6 full months of bank statements showing the deposit of every single payslip (usually this means including 7 months to cover every single day of the 6 months
3) employer letter

The optional but recommended (as you may be asked to show them) financial documents are:
4) Original, full job contract
5) Latest P60

2. Whatsapp messages (I think this is the bit that I'm spending most time on!) Should I crop off all the actual conversations? So just the name and date remain? I'm having trouble trying to limit just over a years worth of screenshots (just one per week) to a couple of pages! What exactly are they trying to see here?! Just the constant contact?

Yes, crop out everything except the name, date and time. You should only include 40-60 screenshots covering your entire relationship/length of communication... so you just take a selection. You should only include 2-3 pages in total and you should be able to get 20-30 screenshots on 1 page.

As an example, here is 6 months worth of weekly WhatsApp messages:


(I’ve just duplicated the same message, just to show what it looks like, and you also want to show the name of the person sending the message at the top of each one)

3. I remember someone saying that it doesn't really count to include flight booking confirmations, but rather just boarding passes. Should I not include flight bookings at all? As my fiancee isn't sentimental like I am  and airlines use mobile boarding passes now, all I have are boarding passes that show we were on one flight together (thank God I saved hers because I'm mushy!!) and others for me visiting her city. Maybe I should just include those?? I'm trying not to clutter the application!

Boarding passes are the best to include because they prove you actually got on the plane and travelled, rather than booking a flight which you may have never actually boarded.

If you don't have boarding passes for certain flights, you can include the flight booking/e-ticket for those flights instead.

4. Just to make sure I've got the payslip/bank statement part right: my bank statements run from the 21st of one month to the 21st of another, so that means that I should include whatever payslips are on those statements? I'm paid weekly so I have on average 4 on each bank statement. I thought I could include my April-September bank statements, but then realised that my last September payslips will be on my October bank statement  If I include my last few March payslips (as they're listed on my April statement) that's not going to be penalised, right? Same with if I include my March bank statement just to be sure it's all covered? 

You work out which payslips you MUST include and then you also include the corresponding bank statements to prove each payslip was deposited into an account in your name. The ONLY reason for including bank statements is to verify all of the payslips you are including.

So you need to be thinking of it as payslips first, then bank statements,

So, you ask yourself:
- what payslips do I need to include in order to cover 6 full months?
and then
- what bank statements do I need in order to show that every payslip I am including was deposited into my bank account?

If your last payslip is going to be on the October bank statement, you MUST Include that bank statement. But you do not have to wait until that statement has been issued. Just go into the bank and request a partial statement that covers the September payslip deposit date.

As an example, if your latest payslip is dated, say, Friday September 25th, then the 6 months of both payslips and bank statements that you have to cover are:

25th March to 25th September 2020

That means you must include the following payslips:
March (making sure the 25th is covered... so say you get paid on Fridays, you would need to include the March 20th payslip)
April
May
June
July
August
September (including the 25th Sept payslip)

And the following corresponding bank statements:
Feb 22nd - March 21st (if the first payslip is dated before March 21st)
March 22nd - April 21st
April 22nd - May 21st
May 22nd - June 21st
June 22nd - July 21st
July 22nd - Aug 21st
Aug 22nd - Sept 21st
Sept 21st - current date (partial statement)

5. The one that has recently freaked me out. Do I have to print and send all these documents somewhere?! I thought they just all had to be scanned? Please tell me this posting stuff is the old way?!

In the past, the UK sponsor would mail all their documents to the US applicant by FedEx or UPS, and then the UK applicant would mail all the documents to New York for processing.

However, now that the documents can be scanned, although it's best if the US applicant has all of them in their hands, it is technically possible for you to scan them here in the UK and either email them to the applicant or upload them to VFS Global yourself.

There is also now an option for the sponsor to pay a bit extra and submit their documents from within the UK. This used to be done in person at designated centres in the UK, but I think it is done by mail to Birmingham only at the moment due to Covid.

See here for more information about submitting supporting documents:
https://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/us/en/vacs/supporting-documents

Thank you again ksand24 

The mandatory financial documents are:
1) 6 full months of payslips showing at least £1,550 before tax each month (or £360.47 weekly) (usually this means including 7 months to cover every single day of the 6 months

I've just gone to check the required document list on the application and it says I need to include 12 months of payslips?! Why might that be? Is type of employment a factor? I tend to earn a different amount each month (because I work overtime) but my basic is above the threshold. Soo confused! 

(I’ve just duplicated the same message, just to show what it looks like, and you also want to show the name of the person sending the message at the top of each one)

Superbly helpful, thank you!

As an example, if your latest payslip is dated, say, Friday September 25th, then the 6 months of both payslips and bank statements that you have to cover are:

25th March to 25th September 2020

That means you must include the following payslips:
March (making sure the 25th is covered... so say you get paid on Fridays, you would need to include the March 20th payslip)
April
May
June
July
August
September (including the 25th Sept payslip)

And the following corresponding bank statements:
Feb 22nd - March 21st (if the first payslip is dated before March 21st)
March 22nd - April 21st
April 22nd - May 21st
May 22nd - June 21st
June 22nd - July 21st
July 22nd - Aug 21st
Aug 22nd - Sept 21st
Sept 21st - current date (partial statement)

Thank you, it was all really confusing me!

Thank you again for all your help It's so close! 

I've just gone to check the required document list on the application and it says I need to include 12 months of payslips?! Why might that be? Is type of employment a factor? I tend to earn a different amount each month (because I work overtime) but my basic is above the threshold. Soo confused! 

Which box did you tick when it asked you whether your income has been continuous or not, and if it has been above or below the requirements for the entire time?

There seems to be a bit of a bug in the online application where if you tick the 'wrong' box it tells you to send 12 months instead of 6 months, even though you actually only need to send 6 months.