Question about UK Spouse Visa - married 25 years with no call logs

For evidence of a relationship the advice is to have call logs etc.   American wife and I have been married almost 25 years and as we have almost never been apart we never whatsapp, email etc to each other. 

In these circumstances will a few  photos of the two of us over the years as well as joint bank account statements and a selection of  jointly named property tax bills suffice?

We could message each other between now and when we plan to move back to blighty from the US (maybe 2022 or 2023) but seems daft to message someone sitting on the other end of the sofa!

What do people do in our situation?  Thanks in advance for your advice.

For evidence of a relationship the advice is to have call logs etc.   American wife and I have been married almost 25 years and as we have almost never been apart we never whatsapp, email etc to each other. 

In these circumstances will a few  photos of the two of us over the years as well as joint bank account statements and a selection of  jointly named property tax bills suffice?

We could message each other between now and when we plan to move back to blighty from the US (maybe 2022 or 2023) but seems daft to message someone sitting on the other end of the sofa!

What do people do in our situation?  Thanks in advance for your advice.

You don't need call logs if you have been living together, they are used to prove that a couple living apart keeps in touch on a regular basis.

Send at least one item of proof for each year you've been together. Bank statements and property tax bills are great. Also commonly used are tax returns showing joint filing. Anything else that names the two of you eg insurance of all kinds is good. If you don't have enough joint items, things in each name to the same address will work too.

They do like to see some physical letters and cards you have sent each other and the photos are mandatory but you just need two or three.
And don't forget your marriage and any divorce certificates.

Take care that you send enough, we've seen refusals on the relationship requirement for those in long marriages because they didn't provide sufficient evidence.

Thank you for your clear and detailed response larrabee.  It’s very much appreciated.

They do like to see some physical letters and cards you have sent each other and the photos are mandatory but you just need two or three.

Physical letters and cards are not needed if you have been living together.

They’re like the call logs... they show proof of communication while living apart. If you live together, you won’t have needed to write letters to keep in contact... because you will have been talking to each other in person.

If you have been living together what you need is:
- 2 photos (usually recommend sending one from the wedding, and one recent. If you want you could include one from say, the middle of your relationship as well)
- evidence of living together at the same address as each other for the last 25 years (1 item of mail per year)
Plus your marriage certificate and any divorce decrees


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Physical letters and cards are not needed if you have been living together.

They’re like the call logs... they show proof of communication while living apart. If you live together, you won’t have needed to write letters to keep in contact... because you will have been talking to each other in person.

If you have been living together what you need is:
- 2 photos (usually recommend sending one from the wedding, and one recent. If you want you could include one from say, the middle of your relationship as well)
- evidence of living together at the same address as each other for the last 25 years (1 item of mail per year)
Plus your marriage certificate and any divorce decrees


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I always think of that as love letters and birthday/anniversary cards. Things that you may exchange even if you live with someone. 

I always think of that as love letters and birthday/anniversary cards. Things that you may exchange even if you live with someone. 

Fair enough, but those aren’t needed for FLR(M) or ILR where the couple have been living together in the UK for 2.5 years and 5 years, so I don’t see why they would be needed for a spousal visa where the couple has been living together for 25 years.

I’ve always understood the relationship requirements to be:

For the period of time that couple has been living together:
- evidence of cohabitation
(bills, bank statements, tax returns, rental agreements/house deeds, mortgage statements)

For the period of time where the couple has been unable to live together:
- boarding passes to show they’ve visited each other while living apart
- letters/cards mailed to each other to show communication while living apart
- call/email/message logs to show regular communication while living apart


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for your input ksand24. 

It does seem a little OTT to provide documentation from every single year of a 25 year relationship.  To my mind if I had a mortgage interest statement showing both our names from 1997 and another of the exact same account from 2000 one could reasonably infer that 1998 and 1999 statements also existed and provided evidence of a continuing relationship.  But I guess that since official guidance is somewhat vague it’s better to ba safe than sorry.

Thanks for your input ksand24. 

It does seem a little OTT to provide documentation from every single year of a 25 year relationship.  To my mind if I had a mortgage interest statement showing both our names from 1997 and another of the exact same account from 2000 one could reasonably infer that 1998 and 1999 statements also existed and provided evidence of a continuing relationship.  But I guess that since official guidance is somewhat vague it’s better to ba safe than sorry.

I see your point of course but UKVI don't think like that. Everything needs to be spoon fed to them as much as possible.
One of our own members who had been married a similar length of time was refused for not sending enough evidence of their relationship. I'm always more concerned when couples have been married a long time, I'd say you need to be even more careful.

It does seem a little OTT to provide documentation from every single year of a 25 year relationship.  To my mind if I had a mortgage interest statement showing both our names from 1997 and another of the exact same account from 2000 one could reasonably infer that 1998 and 1999 statements also existed and provided evidence of a continuing relationship.  But I guess that since official guidance is somewhat vague it’s better to ba safe than sorry.

You definitely want to provide something from every single year if possible. If you don’t have something from every year, you should write an explanation for why you are missing documents from certain years.

It’s very important to provide evidence of living together for the entire length of your marriage. We have seen spousal visas refused to people who have been married 20 years and have kids together, because they did not provide evidence of living together for the entire 20-year marriage. They had to apply again, providing mail from every single year, in order to get a visa approval.

Only providing something from 1997 and something from 2000 isn’t enough, because they may question whether or not you were living together in 1997 and 1998 as well, or if you separated during that time.

If there was any period of the 25 years that you lived apart from each other (I.e. due to a temporary separation or having to travel long term for work), it should be explained and you would need to provide evidence of your relationship subsisting during that period (this is where boarding passes/letters/cards/call logs would come in).

It’s better to provide something from every single year, even if it seems OTT, than to only provide something from some of the years and risk a visa refusal.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you both.  I shall give them what they want - better safe than sorry!

Thank you both.  I shall give them what they want - better safe than sorry!

Just continuously remind yourself that EVERYTHING in the UK is about “ticking a box”.  Don’t try to make it logical...  there is no logic.  You can have £30,000 of annual earnings, and £50,000 of annual expenses and qualify for the visa.  They only care about what they care about.  You can be married 25 years and have 4 children together.  But if you don’t show proof that you’ve lived together for those 25 years, they will say they don’t believe the relationship is genuine.  It’s baffling, but is what it is!

Thanks for chiming in KFdancer. Ours not to reason why - ours but to do and file!