FLR(M) Application, General Document and Cohabitation Proof Questions

Hello! My unmarried partner (sponsor; UK citizen) and I (applicant from USA) are just about to submit our FLR(M) application (I am currently on a Tier 4 visa) and I wanted to ask the forum some questions about the application questions and required documents and get some opinions regarding our cohabitation correspondence evidence. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this monster of a post, any input is very very appreciated!

Application Questions
1) “When did you start living together in a relationship?”: I am not sure how to answer this because my partner and I lived together in Ireland for just under a year (exact dates hard to say because we didn't sign a lease until a month or so into our move to Ireland) in 2016 and then moved back home to our respective countries for a year before moving in together in England a little over two years ago, where we’ve lived together ever since. Because of the long gap, I am not sure what time to put for this question. At the moment, I have written the start of living together in the UK (September 2018) and left a note in our cover letter clarifying this.

2) “Where Have you Lived Together?”:  There was only one space for an address on the form. I have put our current address, but we have moved in the past two years. Is this correct?

3) From the immigration history section, “When did you enter the UK?”: Does this mean enter at the start of my current visa (Tier 4)? I had a previous Tier 4 visa in 2014/15 but afterwards lived out of the UK up until 2018.

4) Similarly, under Immigration details, it asks “Have you previously lived in a country outside the UK including your country of birth?" and asks for details of every instance of this: As previously mentioned, I lived in the UK in 2014/15 on a Tier 4 visa. I know the question is asking about countries lived in outside the UK, but should I include my time in the UK during that period to avoid an unexplained gap in time between periods of living in the USA? At the moment, I have this gap explained in the explanations for my time in the US on either side of the gap (i.e. “I moved back to the US to continue my university studies after studying abroad in the UK in 2014/15”)

General Documents Questions
5) My partner receives electronic payslips and so we are providing a letter from his boss stating that they are authentic. However, he still believes we should print out his electronic payslips and then scan them. Is this necessary or can we just upload the original PDFs?

6) My partner meets the financial requirements for FLR(M) with his job. However, he has some other (legal) sources of income beside his job. Does he need to explain these or provide additional documentation for these or will just the documents regarding his income (payslips, bank statements, letters from boss, contract) suffice?

7) On my partner’s bank statements, should we highlight his work pay transactions to make them easier to find or is that not ok?

8 ) For different categories of documents (i.e. proof of cohabitation, proof of genuine/subsisting relationship etc), would it be helpful to put all of the documents in each category on one long pdf with a “table of contents” at the very top to help structure it?

9) For the proof of cohabitation, the application says leases are acceptable- would our digitally signed lease be acceptable? We do not have hand-signed leases. The leases provide proof of cohabitation for the date that our tenancy started, right?
 
10) For the cohabitation requirement, should our proof span just over 2 years to show we’ve lived together at least 2 years (rather than having proof that's just under and doesn't prove we’ve spent the last few weeks of the 2 years together)?
 
11) We lived together in Ireland in 2016/17, as previously mentioned. Do we need to provide documentation showing we lived together during that time to prove our “genuine and subsisting relationship”? We do not have our lease anymore, did not fly in or out of Ireland together and neither of us had jobs that spanned the entire period of time. Would screenshots of conversations and pictures during this time be sufficient, especially since this time period is not part of our 2 year cohabitation period? I am very unsure of how to provide evidence for this period of our relationship.

Cohabitation Questions/Documents
 12) Before asking for opinions on our cohabitation proof, I just want to explain that because we received most of our bills digitally in the first year of living together and we moved in the second year and lost a lot of what we did have in the move, we are not able to stick strictly to the documents exactly every four months. Also, for one time period, we are having to use some alternative documents. To answer in advance, yes, we have ransacked the flat multiple times to find any good evidence for the missing time periods (i.e. I know ideally we would have May 2019 and January 2020 documents but we sadly don’t). It is so stressful knowing we have lived together for 2+ years but do not have the perfect documents to prove it and I have spent days trying to piece together what we do have to create the best group of correspondences to submit. I am planning to include a letter explaining the less-than-ideal evidence and lack of exact gaps between correspondences. I will write out our two best options for proof of cohabitation and would really appreciate any input! For context, we have lived together from September 4th 2018 to now (October 3rd 2020).

Option 1 (More evenly spaced but less evidence)
Sep 4th 2018: Lease (JOINT)
Jan 21st 2019: Water Bill (JOINT)
April (24th) 2019: Registered Charity letter confirming Sponsor’s registration for Half Marathon (The Great North Run) (Sponsor) 
April (26th): 2019: USA Government tax return cheque, includes date and applicant’s address (Applicant)
Aug 7th 2019: Current Lease (JOINT) → this and the following correspondence are only 1.5 months apart, which isn’t evenly spaced, but this prevents any gaps longer than 4.5 months
Sep (26) 2019: Council Tax (JOINT)
Feb 4 2020: NHS letter (Applicant)
Feb 5th 2020: Bank statement (Sponsor)
May 1st 2020: Building Society letter (Sponsor), Bank Statement (Applicant)
Sep 29th 2020: Gas and Electric Bill (JOINT) →  alternatively could do individual evidence from the 1st and 18th if it's better to have it earlier.

Option 2 (Less evenly spaced but more evidence, which might be beneficial considering our weak evidence for Jan-->Aug 2019)
Sep 4th 2018: Lease (JOINT)
Jan 21st 2019: Water Bill (JOINT)
April (24th) 2019: Registered Charity letter confirming Sponsor’s registration for Half Marathon (The Great North Run) (Sponsor) 
April (26th): 2019: USA Government tax return cheque, includes date and address (Applicant)
August 7th 2019: Lease (JOINT)
Nov 27th 2019: Council tax (JOINT)
Feb 24th 2020: Water bill (JOINT)
May 1st 2020: Bank statement(Applicant) and Building Society (Sponsor)
August 27th 2020: Gas and Electric (Sponsor)
August 28th 2020:  NHS letter (Applicant)
October 1st 2020: Bank Statement (Applicant) + Bank Statement (Applicant) ---> alternatively, we could do late September (29th) gas & electric bill (JOINT)


Thank you again for your input and feedback. This process is very stressful and despite reading as much of the existing relevant forum posts as possible, it's so easy to second-guess yourself, especially because everyone’s case is so individual.

Just a gentle bump, since I never got any responses on this (not that I feel entitled to any, but I think I just posted at a bad time!). Really only looking for feedback on my documents now. Thank you so so much in advance if anyone gives any input!

Application Questions
1) “When did you start living together in a relationship?”: I am not sure how to answer this because my partner and I lived together in Ireland for just under a year (exact dates hard to say because we didn't sign a lease until a month or so into our move to Ireland) in 2016 and then moved back home to our respective countries for a year before moving in together in England a little over two years ago, where we’ve lived together ever since. Because of the long gap, I am not sure what time to put for this question. At the moment, I have written the start of living together in the UK (September 2018) and left a note in our cover letter clarifying this.

I don't know for sure what date you should put. I would probably go with September 2018.

2) “Where Have you Lived Together?”:  There was only one space for an address on the form. I have put our current address, but we have moved in the past two years. Is this correct?

You put your current address.

3) From the immigration history section, “When did you enter the UK?”: Does this mean enter at the start of my current visa (Tier 4)? I had a previous Tier 4 visa in 2014/15 but afterwards lived out of the UK up until 2018.

Start of your current visa.

4) Similarly, under Immigration details, it asks “Have you previously lived in a country outside the UK including your country of birth?" and asks for details of every instance of this: As previously mentioned, I lived in the UK in 2014/15 on a Tier 4 visa. I know the question is asking about countries lived in outside the UK, but should I include my time in the UK during that period to avoid an unexplained gap in time between periods of living in the USA? At the moment, I have this gap explained in the explanations for my time in the US on either side of the gap (i.e. “I moved back to the US to continue my university studies after studying abroad in the UK in 2014/15”)

No, you shouldn't include the time in the UK, because that's not what the question is asking.

It is asking for all the times you have NOT lived in the UK.

General Documents Questions
5) My partner receives electronic payslips and so we are providing a letter from his boss stating that they are authentic. However, he still believes we should print out his electronic payslips and then scan them. Is this necessary or can we just upload the original PDFs?

No, the original PDFs should be fine. No need to give yourselves extra work by printing and then scanning them when they are already in PDF format.

6) My partner meets the financial requirements for FLR(M) with his job. However, he has some other (legal) sources of income beside his job. Does he need to explain these or provide additional documentation for these or will just the documents regarding his income (payslips, bank statements, letters from boss, contract) suffice?

No, only mention the income he is actually using to meet the requirements. Any extra income is irrelevant to the application.

7) On my partner’s bank statements, should we highlight his work pay transactions to make them easier to find or is that not ok?

No, you should not highlight anything on the statements -  as that is considered tampering with/defacing an official document. UKVI know what they are looking for and will be able to find his pay deposits.

8 ) For different categories of documents (i.e. proof of cohabitation, proof of genuine/subsisting relationship etc), would it be helpful to put all of the documents in each category on one long pdf with a “table of contents” at the very top to help structure it?

No, each document must be in a separate file, with a filename that makes it obvious what that document is.

For example,
March_2020_council_tax_statement.pdf
or
April 2020_ bank_statement.pdf

9) For the proof of cohabitation, the application says leases are acceptable- would our digitally signed lease be acceptable? We do not have hand-signed leases. The leases provide proof of cohabitation for the date that our tenancy started, right?

Yes, they should be fine to use. And yes, they will count for the month you signed them.
 

10) For the cohabitation requirement, should our proof span just over 2 years to show we’ve lived together at least 2 years (rather than having proof that's just under and doesn't prove we’ve spent the last few weeks of the 2 years together)?

It should cover exactly 2 years and no more, but if you need to, you should be able to use Sept 2018 to Sept 2020, rather than Oct 2018 to Oct 2020

If you are using September 2018- September 2020 you need documents from the following months:
Sept 2018
Jan 2019
May 2019
Sept 2019
Jan 2020
May 2020
Sept2020
 

11) We lived together in Ireland in 2016/17, as previously mentioned. Do we need to provide documentation showing we lived together during that time to prove our “genuine and subsisting relationship”? We do not have our lease anymore, did not fly in or out of Ireland together and neither of us had jobs that spanned the entire period of time. Would screenshots of conversations and pictures during this time be sufficient, especially since this time period is not part of our 2 year cohabitation period? I am very unsure of how to provide evidence for this period of our relationship.

As you have lived together for the last 2 years, you shouldn't need to provide any other documents from before Oct 2018.

From your list, you can use the following documents:

Sept 2018
1. Joint: Sep 4th 2018: Lease

Spacing: 4.5 months

Jan 2018
2. Jan 21st 2019: Water Bill

Spacing: 3 months

May 2019 - I think you will have to use the April 2019 documents here
3. Applicant: April (26th): 2019: USA Government tax return cheque, includes date and applicant’s address
3. Sponsor: April (24th) 2019: Registered Charity letter confirming Sponsor’s registration for Half Marathon (The Great North Run)

Spacing: 5 months

Sept 2019
4. Joint: Sep (26) 2019: Council Tax

Spacing: 4 months and 1 week

Jan 2020 - I think you will have to use the Feb documents here
5. Applicant: Feb 4 2020: NHS letter
5. Sponsor: Feb 5th 2020: Bank statement

Spacing: 3 months

May 2020
6. Applicant: May 1st 2020: Bank Statement
6. Sponsor: Building Society letter

Spacing: just over 4 months

Sept 2020
7. Applicant and Sponsor: I would use the evidence from the 1st and 18th

So, you just need to write a letter explaining the reason why the documents are not evenly-spaced.

From your list, you can use the following documents:

Sept 2018
1. Joint: Sep 4th 2018: Lease

Spacing: 4.5 months

Jan 2018
2. Jan 21st 2019: Water Bill

Spacing: 3 months

May 2019 - I think you will have to use the April 2019 documents here
3. Applicant: April (26th): 2019: USA Government tax return cheque, includes date and applicant’s address
3. Sponsor: April (24th) 2019: Registered Charity letter confirming Sponsor’s registration for Half Marathon (The Great North Run)

Spacing: 5 months

Sept 2019
4. Joint: Sep (26) 2019: Council Tax

Spacing: 4 months and 1 week

Jan 2020 - I think you will have to use the Feb documents here
5. Applicant: Feb 4 2020: NHS letter
5. Sponsor: Feb 5th 2020: Bank statement

Spacing: 3 months

May 2020
6. Applicant: May 1st 2020: Bank Statement
6. Sponsor: Building Society letter

Spacing: just over 4 months

Sept 2020
7. Applicant and Sponsor: I would use the evidence from the 1st and 18th

So, you just need to write a letter explaining the reason why the documents are not evenly-spaced.

Wow, thank you so much for that detailed response! That feedback is really helpful! In regard to my cohabitation documents (the bane of my existence!), I've been playing around with some other documents and was wondering if the following might be better because it doesn't have gaps larger than 4ish months anywhere (even though the gaps are not consistently spaced, which is unavoidable unfortunately):

Sep 4th 2018: Lease (JOINT)
(Gap: about 4.5 months)
Jan 21st 2019: Water Bill (JOINT)
(Gap: 3 months)
April (24th) 2019: Registered Charity letter confirming Sponsor’s registration for Half Marathon (The Great North Run) (Sponsor) 
April (26th) 2019: USA Government tax return cheque, includes date and address (Applicant)
(Gap: 3.5ish months)
August 7th 2019: Lease (JOINT)
(Gap: 3.5ish months)
Nov 27th 2019: Council tax (JOINT)
(Gap: 3 months)
Feb 24th 2020: Water bill (JOINT)
(Just over 3 months)
June 1st 2020: Bank Statement (applicant)
June 5th 2020: NHS Letter (sponsor)
(Gap: 3.5ish months)
September 29th, 2020: Gas and Electric bill (JOINT)  -- or individual documents from September 1st and 18th as mentioned in last post


Would it be better to stick to your suggestion or go with what I've posted above in order to reduce the gaps? Also, is there a reason why you recommended the individual documents in September 2020 that are spaced 18 days apart rather than the joint document? If it absolutely needs to be less than 2 years, we could provide two late august 2020 individual documents (NHS and bill). We will be providing a letter explaining the spacing and atypical April 2019 documents no matter what document combination we provide.  No pressure to respond as just the first response was super helpful enough, but would love your feedback if you have time!  Thanks!

Would it be better to stick to your suggestion or go with what I've posted above in order to reduce the gaps?

No, stick to the September, January and May dates only.

They need to be dated every 4 months, starting and ending with September... so using August and November instead will not meet the requirements at all and will make things worse, because you are supposed to be providing documents from Sept, Jan and June only.

Also, is there a reason why you recommended the individual documents in September 2020 that are spaced 18 days apart rather than the joint document?

The joint document is dated too long after May 1st to meet the requirements... it gives a 5-month gap between documents instead of the required 4-month gap.

By using the documents dated on 1st and 18th September, it gives you:
- the required 4-month gap between 1st May and 1st Sept
- a 4.5 month gap between 1st May and 18th September.
...which is better than a 5-month gap between all of them.

We will be providing a letter explaining the spacing and atypical April 2019 documents no matter what document combination we provide.  No pressure to respond as just the first response was super helpful enough, but would love your feedback if you have time!  Thanks!

You will need to explain:
- the 3-month spacing between Jan 2019 and April 2019
- the reason for providing documents from April 2019 instead of May 2019
- the 5-month spacing between April 2019 and Sept 2019
- the reason for providing documents from Feb 2020 instead of Jan 2020
- the 3-month spacing between Feb 2020 and May 2020

No, stick to the September, January and May dates only.

They need to be dated every 4 months, starting and ending with September... so using August and November instead will not meet the requirements at all and will make things worse, because you are supposed to be providing documents from Sept, Jan and June only.

The joint document is dated too long after May 1st to meet the requirements... it gives a 5-month gap between documents instead of the required 4-month gap.

By using the documents dated on 1st and 18th September, it gives you:
- the required 4-month gap between 1st May and 1st Sept
- a 4.5 month gap between 1st May and 18th September.
...which is better than a 5-month gap between all of them.

You will need to explain:
- the 3-month spacing between Jan 2019 and April 2019
- the reason for providing documents from April 2019 instead of May 2019
- the 5-month spacing between April 2019 and Sept 2019
- the reason for providing documents from Feb 2020 instead of Jan 2020
- the 3-month spacing between Feb 2020 and May 2020

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks again for your help!

For anybody looking back on this thread, I was granted FLR(M) using the cohabitation docs and explanation letter recommended by ksand24!

Congratulations!