Evidence of cohabitation?

This is what the ILR application asks for:

'If you have added a spouse or civil partner to this application form who is applying at the same time as you, please provide documentary evidence of cohabitation since you were last granted leave (up to a maximum of two years). Evidence provided should cover the whole period and be in the form of official letters or documents, addressed to yourself and your spouse.'

Would bank statements with both of our names on them suffice? What else is considered an official document? It needs to cover 2 years but how many documents are needed, one per month?

You’re applying for ILR based on 5 years on a Tier 2 work visa, correct?

I’m not sure if there are different rules for cohabitation documents that you need to provide if you have been living together while on a Tier 2 visa, but for spousal/FLR(M) visas and subsequent ILR visas, the cohabitation document requirements are:
- 6 items of mail in each name
- spread evenly over the last 2 years (so 1 document in each name dated every 4 months)
- from at least 3 different official sources.

They can either be jointly-addressed (so 1 document every 4 months), individually-addressed (so 2 documents every 4 months, one in each name) or a combination of joint and individual making 6 in each name.

Examples of official sources (each counts as 1 source):
- bank statements
- tenancy agreements
- mortgage statements
- council tax bills
- water bills
- electricity/gas bills
- phone bills
- credit card bills
- letters from the NHS
- letters from government departments (HMRC, DVLA, DWP etc.)


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Thank you.  I'm not sure if the rules are different for Tier 2, but I suppose it's always better to send more rather than fewer documents so this is a good place to start.  I know we have never needed to send anything like this for our Tier 2 visas. 

Do you think it's ok if a couple of our documents are from the US? I have an official letter from the IRS addressed to both of us, and also joint statements from Charles Schwab (which is global anyway, and we opened our accounts here)

Do you think it's ok if a couple of our documents are from the US? I have an official letter from the IRS addressed to both of us, and also joint statements from Charles Schwab (which is global anyway, and we opened our accounts here)

That's fine.

Thank you for your quick reply, that's good to know

Just to chime in…we used doctors letters, water bull, council tax bill, dentist letters, etc. Credit card statements can be a bit iffy but utility bills and doctor letters are good, if you don’t mind them knowing your business. I sent my request for a Pap smear because I was like “you want all of my info? Here ya go!”