Spousal Visa Declaration of Funds Statement

Thank you!! I will get to work on an applicant's letter next then and will probably post a rough draft here in a little while. Oh and somehow missed that you mentioned you were from Bristol yesterday - so is my wife! Small world 

And thanks for clarifying the documents list issue, I was really confused about that!

Okay, this is the rough draft of the applicant's letter. I'm worried it may be too similar to the sponsor's letter, so please let me know if I should cut out certain parts of it, or if there's anything important I've left out.

Also wanted to ask about whether to include evidence of bank transfers between us. I didn't see this listed among the things to either include or exclude from the previous response about supporting documents. I thought that including these and also the savings account beneficiary form which you previously said to exclude might be helpful since we are lacking some evidence of our relationship. I know they don't prove that we shared a home together, but do you think it might strengthen our case anyway? If not I can exclude them. Thanks!!



To The Entry Clearance Officer,

I am applying for a spousal visa in order to join my wife, [wife's name], in the UK in February 2022.

I have known [wife] since February 2011 and been in a relationship with her since August 2013. We were legally married in the UK on 21 December 2016. During the span of our relationship we maintained a home together in the following places: X from July 2013 until September 2015, X South Korea from September 2015 until September 2016, and X from June 2018 until February 2020. I entered the UK on a fiance visa on 26 October 2016 and we lived together at the home of [wife]’s mother, Y at [address], until March 2017, aside from a four week trip taken to Greece from November until December 2016.

Although we have always lived as openly as possible, as a same-sex couple working together overseas we have sometimes been forced to keep our relationship a secret from our employers in order to avoid discrimination. This was the case when we lived in X, South Korea and as a result I received mail at an apartment provided by my school despite the fact that I was actually living with [wife] in an apartment provided by her school. I have included other evidence of our life together in Korea in the form of our work visas and contracts showing we lived in the same city for the same period of time, photos of us during our time there, and travel receipts from trips we took together within Korea.

Below please find a full list of supporting documents included in this application.


Yours Faithfully,


[name]

Signed:                     Dated:


Supporting Documents

Applicant’s Documents:
- full copy of my current and previous passport
Sponsor’s Documents:
- copy of biometrics page from current passport
- letter of support
Financial Documents:
- my bank statements from past 6 months
- [wife's] bank statements from past 6 months
- declarations regarding the source of funds for myself and [wife]
- letter from [wife]'s father regarding gifted money
Accommodation Documents:
- Land Registry Certificate
- letter from [wife]'s mother regarding accommodation
Relationship Evidence:
- marriage certificate
- two photos of us
- communication records including mail, email, video call logs, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat
- proof of shared home overseas including work visas, work contracts, an Accommodation Registration Form, and mail
- tickets and receipts from trips taken together or to visit one another during separation
- document from my bank account listing [wife] as my beneficiary
- statements and other records showing the transfer of funds between us

Okay, this is the rough draft of the applicant's letter. I'm worried it may be too similar to the sponsor's letter, so please let me know if I should cut out certain parts of it, or if there's anything important I've left out.

It's a bit too detailed - this is literally a contents letter only. It should only be about the application documents and be short and sweet. No mention should be made of the details of your relationship, other than to explain the lack of living together evidence. The relationship details are for the sponsor letter, not this one.

For example:

To The Entry Clearance Officer,

Please find enclosed my supporting documents for a settlement visa to join my wife, [wife's name], in the UK. I would like my 30-day vignette to start on [DATE] as per the Intended Travel Date listed on the application form.

Regarding our relationship evidence, although we both lived in [CITY], South Korea together for work between [DATES], we were unable to officially live together during that time due to potential discrimination as a same-sex couple. As a result, we were each assigned our own separate apartments by the school we were teaching at and received mail at those addresses. As I cannot provide evidence of living together for that period, I have included our work visas and contracts showing we lived in the same city, photos of us during our time there, and travel receipts from trips we took together within Korea.

I am including the following documents with my application:
- full copy of my current and previous US passports
- copy of biometrics page from wife's current UK passport
- sponsor letter of support
- my bank statements from past 6 months
- [wife's] bank statements from past 6 months
- declarations regarding the source of funds for myself and [wife]
- letter from [wife]'s father regarding gifted money
- Land Registry Certificate
- letter from [wife]'s mother regarding accommodation
- marriage certificate
- two photos of us
- communication records including mail, email, video call logs, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat
- proof of shared home overseas including work visas, work contracts, an Accommodation Registration Form, and mail
- tickets and receipts from trips taken together or to visit one another during separation

Yours Faithfully,

[YOUR NAME]

Also wanted to ask about whether to include evidence of bank transfers between us. I didn't see this listed among the things to either include or exclude from the previous response about supporting documents. I thought that including these and also the savings account beneficiary form which you previously said to exclude might be helpful since we are lacking some evidence of our relationship. I know they don't prove that we shared a home together, but do you think it might strengthen our case anyway? If not I can exclude them. Thanks!!

DO NOT include evidence of bank transfers. I took them out when I listed your documents earlier because they are irrelevant to the application and will not be considered.

DO NOT include the savings account beneficiary form - is is irrelevant to the application and will not be considered. It will have no bearing on your relationship evidence.

Quick question:
Are you able to detail how you are meeting the Cash Savings requirement, in regards to how much money you have and whose accounts it is held in?

I ask because your first post only mentions a declaration of source of savings written by your wife, but then your supporting documents lists YOUR bank statements as well, and a savings sources declaration from you as well as from her.

Can your wife meet the £62,500 savings using only money in her accounts? Or do you need to combine savings accounts in both your names in order to meet the £62,500 requirement?

If your wife can meet the £62,500 requirement using only the savings in HER accounts, you DO NOT need to include ANY of your bank statements, as they will be irrelevant to the application.

Remember that only the LOWEST balance in each account on any day during the last 6 months will be considered... and so the lowest balance in each account will be added together to make the total amount of savings that can be used to meet the requirement.

Also, be aware that you will likely need 7 months' worth of statements from each account in order to make sure that every single day of the 6 months has been covered. If you are using multiple accounts, you will need to make sure that the statements from each account cover ALL of the same dates... so if bank statements for the accounts are issued at different times of the month, you may need to include more than you think to cover all of the same dates for every account.

And just to note that this visa is a tick-box visa... all they need to do for you to meet the financial requirement is tick a box to say that:
- the provided bank statements show at least £62,500 in total has been held in your account(s) every day for a full 6 months
- the source of the savings has been declared

First of all, thanks a ton for editing the applicant's letter for me. I tried to follow the guidelines that you provided before, but still wasn't entirely clear on what needed to be included in that. I also appreciate you clarifying the bank transfers and beneficiary issue, I will leave those things out as instructed.

As for the other question, we are using savings from accounts held by both of us to meet the requirement. I only included the declaration from my wife in the first post to get a sense of what the format should be - my own declaration is basically identical to hers except for the part mentioning money gifted by her father. Sorry for the confusion, I didn't think it'd be necessary to post both letters.

And thanks for the advice on how many bank statements to include. I used a date calculator to check the exact date of six months ago (from Nov 5th so there's even more cushion now) and the statements we're providing cover the entire period. We definitely have not dipped below the threshold during that time (just doubled checked it today to be sure by adding up the lowest balances from each account at any time - that is the correct way to calculate it, right?).

One other question: it turns out my mother in law doesn't have a copy of the Land Registry Certificate for her house. She bought the house in 2011 but purchased the land lease in 2016. She has the deed of release from 2016 but not the documents from buying the house in 2011. My wife just downloaded a copy of the Land Registry Certificate on the website below, but we can see there that it says the one available for download is not an "official copy". Do you know which of these things will be best to use, or if none of them will work do we need to apply by post for the official copy? Just worried how long it will take to get it, but if it's necessary we can do so.

https://eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/eservices/FindAProperty/view/QuickEnquiryInit.do?_ga=2.253235023.772254199.1610363163-2074224573.1608443038

First of all, thanks a ton for editing the applicant's letter for me. I tried to follow the guidelines that you provided before, but still wasn't entirely clear on what needed to be included in that. I also appreciate you clarifying the bank transfers and beneficiary issue, I will leave those things out as instructed.

There's no guidance on the applicant's letter, because it is not a required document... it's only optional, and has no bearing on the application, it just clarifies the documents for the entry clearance officer.

The sponsor letter, however, is mandatory, so it has to include specifics about how each visa requirement is met.

As for the other question, we are using savings from accounts held by both of us to meet the requirement. I only included the declaration from my wife in the first post to get a sense of what the format should be - my own declaration is basically identical to hers except for the part mentioning money gifted by her father. Sorry for the confusion, I didn't think it'd be necessary to post both letters.

Ah, okay - it was a little confusing because it read as if all the savings were coming from her account and none from your account... so I adjusted my advice and the document list for that.

And thanks for the advice on how many bank statements to include. I used a date calculator to check the exact date of six months ago (from Nov 5th so there's even more cushion now) and the statements we're providing cover the entire period. We definitely have not dipped below the threshold during that time (just doubled checked it today to be sure by adding up the lowest balances from each account at any time - that is the correct way to calculate it, right?).

That's good . Yes, you take the lowest balance in each account across the entire 6 months and add those numbers together.

Are your savings in US dollars?

If so, they will use the OANDA exchange rate on the date you submit your online application to work out the amount in GBP that it's equivalent to...so you'll just need to make sure that your savings are still above the required amount based on the exchange rate on that date.

One other question: it turns out my mother in law doesn't have a copy of the Land Registry Certificate for her house. She bought the house in 2011 but purchased the land lease in 2016. She has the deed of release from 2016 but not the documents from buying the house in 2011. My wife just downloaded a copy of the Land Registry Certificate on the website below, but we can see there that it says the one available for download is not an "official copy". Do you know which of these things will be best to use, or if none of them will work do we need to apply by post for the official copy? Just worried how long it will take to get it, but if it's necessary we can do so.

https://eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/eservices/FindAProperty/view/QuickEnquiryInit.do?_ga=2.253235023.772254199.1610363163-2074224573.1608443038

No, the downloaded copy (costs £3) is fine for the visa as UKVI consider it an official copy. The majority of people on this forum have used the downloaded copy for their applications and the visas have all been granted without issue.

I did use Oanda.com to do the currency conversion today, and I'll check it again when we finally submit everything just to be sure.
And I am really happy to hear we can use the downloaded land registry form. I actually found that website via this forum but when I saw it wasn't an "official copy" it made me nervous. Thanks for clarifying!! Looks like we're nearly there now, which is very exciting - I really couldn't have done this without your help

Question about declaring gifted money from my wife's father: she's been calculating how much he's given, and overall it's not a huge amount. Over the past five years (what she's been able to find records of so far), he's given about 800 pounds. None of this will appear in the six months of bank statements that we are submitting. Do you think it's worth declaring this amount of money? If so, how far back in time does she need to account for given that he's been doing this for many years now and it may be difficult/impossible for her to calculate the exact amount.

And one other question regarding documentation of our travel together or to visit one another: how much is too much? We've been together for many years and travel frequently; the PDF I'm putting together of screenshots of various tickets, hotel receipts, etc is already 18 pages long and I'm concerned that's way too much. Same question regarding communication - I've seen elsewhere that about 2-3 pages of screenshots is best, is that correct? Or is it all right to be longer than that given I need to cover a time span of about nine years?

Question about declaring gifted money from my wife's father: she's been calculating how much he's given, and overall it's not a huge amount. Over the past five years (what she's been able to find records of so far), he's given about 800 pounds. None of this will appear in the six months of bank statements that we are submitting. Do you think it's worth declaring this amount of money? If so, how far back in time does she need to account for given that he's been doing this for many years now and it may be difficult/impossible for her to calculate the exact amount.

Yes, it's a requirement that if ANY of the money you are using towards the cash savings has been gifted, the person gifting the money must confirm it wasn't a loan and will not be repaid.

It doesn't have to be an exact calculation, but the letter should just say something like:

"To The Entry Clearance Officer,

Over the last few years, I have given my daughter, [SPONSOR] approximately £X amount in total in cash Christmas gifts. I confirm that this money was a gift, not a loan, and will not be repaid to me.

Yours Faithfully
[NAME]"

And one other question regarding documentation of our travel together or to visit one another: how much is too much? We've been together for many years and travel frequently; the PDF I'm putting together of screenshots of various tickets, hotel receipts, etc is already 18 pages long and I'm concerned that's way too much. Same question regarding communication - I've seen elsewhere that about 2-3 pages of screenshots is best, is that correct? Or is it all right to be longer than that given I need to cover a time span of about nine years?

Okay, so for the years you have proof that you lived in the same apartment, you just provide:
- company-provided housing paperwork for each year if you have any
AND/OR
- one item of mail in each name per year showing you lived together

For the year that you cannot provide evidence of housing in South Korea (Sept 2015 to Sept 2016), you want to provide maybe:
- 1 item per month showing that you saw each other in person (i.e. tickets)...  hopefully you can get at least 4 items on a page, so that you have 3 pages total covering the entire year

For the time you've lived apart in the US and UK since February 2020, you provide:
- 2-3 pages total of screenshots of Facebook message logs... no actual message content should be included, so it should just be a copied, pasted and cropped list of dates, times and names (think old-school itemised phone bill). If you're covering approximately 21 months (Feb 2020 to Nov 2021), you want maybe 2 messages or emails per month (42 in total) and you should be able to get about 20-25 messages on one page.
- 2-3 pages total of email inbox screenshots covering Feb 2020 to today... just filter the inbox to only show emails from each other and take a couple of screenshots

Okay, thank you so much for explaining that. I was doing the communication log in completely the wrong way, so I'll get to work redoing it now that I have a better idea of what's needed. As always I really appreciate your help!

Unfortunately there's no way I can cover every month of our year in Korea with items like travel receipts, because we were actually living together in the same apartment in the same city. The best I can do is provide photos of us together from that year, some evidence of trips we took together outside of that city (I mostly just have accommodation receipts), and the work contracts and visas that I mentioned before (although I know it won't prove we lived together as discussed previously). I'll try to have at least one item per month for that year (either a photo or a travel document of some kind). Could I also include screenshots of communication from that period (it doesn't prove we met in person but it would show we were in contact)?

And I assume I should also submit some travel documents (tickets & accommodation receipts) for my two trips to visit Anna in the UK this year, correct?

Unfortunately there's no way I can cover every month of our year in Korea with items like travel receipts, because we were actually living together in the same apartment in the same city. The best I can do is provide photos of us together from that year, some evidence of trips we took together outside of that city (I mostly just have accommodation receipts), and the work contracts and visas that I mentioned before (although I know it won't prove we lived together as discussed previously). I'll try to have at least one item per month for that year (either a photo or a travel document of some kind). Could I also include screenshots of communication from that period (it doesn't prove we met in person but it would show we were in contact)?

One item per month wasn't hard and fast - it was just a number I threw out there as an estimate, as it sounded like you had tons of stuff and you don't want to send more than that.

One item every 1.5 or 2 months would be fine too.

I would go with:
- evidence of your separate housing
- 3 or 4 photos of you together (maybe one every 3-4 months)
- a few accommodation receipts (maybe one every 2-3 months)
- job contracts
- visas

And I assume I should also submit some travel documents (tickets & accommodation receipts) for my two trips to visit Anna in the UK this year, correct?

Oh, yes - sorry, I forgot you had visited the UK as well in the last year (it's 3:30 am here and I'm in the middle of working my second night shift in a row so my brain isn't fully functioning)

Yeah I originally thought I needed to show evidence of us traveling together over the span of our relationship for some reason, that's why I had tons of stuff... I guess my brain's not functioning properly either, and I don't even have the night shift excuse     (But thank you for helping even when you must be exhausted!)

Okay I can definitely manage to get those things for Korea together. Thank you!!

Question regarding how best to describe my savings in the online application form:

On my bank statements, one account number is given which is a partial number for my savings and checking accounts. For example, it's something like 2848383. The full acct numbers for my savings and checking accounts associated with it have additional numbers at the beginning and end, something like 280028483831, but these full numbers are not listed on my official bank statements.

On the online application form, I listed the full number for each account, but I'm worried I will run into trouble because these numbers cannot be seen on the official statements. Do you think it would be better on the online application form to combine my checking and savings into one account using the first number (the partial number from each which is listed on the statements)? Or is it best to list them as two separate accounts using the full account number for each?

Edited to add: It also looks as though I'll run into trouble in the section for uploading supporting documents if I list them as two separate accounts, unless I simply upload the same bank statements twice in that section (since they are printed on one statement together with just the partial account number as mentioned.)

Question regarding how best to describe my savings in the online application form:

On my bank statements, one account number is given which is a partial number for my savings and checking accounts. For example, it's something like 2848383. The full acct numbers for my savings and checking accounts associated with it have additional numbers at the beginning and end, something like 280028483831, but these full numbers are not listed on my official bank statements.

On the online application form, I listed the full number for each account, but I'm worried I will run into trouble because these numbers cannot be seen on the official statements. Do you think it would be better on the online application form to combine my checking and savings into one account using the first number (the partial number from each which is listed on the statements)? Or is it best to list them as two separate accounts using the full account number for each?

Edited to add: It also looks as though I'll run into trouble in the section for uploading supporting documents if I list them as two separate accounts, unless I simply upload the same bank statements twice in that section (since they are printed on one statement together with just the partial account number as mentioned.)

You're overthinking this.

- List them as 2 separate accounts on the application (since they are 2 different accounts and saying otherwise would be lying)

- Use the full account number for each

- You only need to upload the statements once, since both accounts are shown on each statement

Then you can include a short note in your applicant contents letter explaining it... since that's what the letter is there for.

For example:

Regarding my US bank account numbers and corresponding statements, my checking and savings accounts are both listed on the same statement each, so I have only uploaded the one statement per month to cover both accounts. Also, my full account numbers have 4 additional numbers at the beginning, but these 4 numbers are not shown on the actual statements.

Okay, that makes sense. Thank you!