freyter
6th November 2015, 23:29
Hello there-
For what it's worth, as everyone here has been so helpful in the past with sharing their experience(s) with me, I thought I would share my wife's FLR(M) application process - nothing complicated, as her biometric residence permit came through yesterday, and her supporting documents with passport arrived today, so all within the 8 week timescale the Home Office stipulates for postal applications.
I thought they would also put a visa in her passport for her 30-month extension, but it seems they just issue the BRP and that's it.
I was concerned about the format of the bank statements I was providing - as I normally bank online, NatWest would just provide me with A4 format transaction reports, which others here had had problems with (as a previous recent thread showed).
I don't know if this helped my wife's application, but I ensured that with every type of document submitted, there was a letter of explanation to accompany it, if I had the slightest fear that it would cause problems. So, for example, with the NatWest statements I explained why they were in that format, what information they contained (account number, address, my branch's address), as well as enclosed the envelope they were sent to me in (so they didn't think I had printed them out at home).
It might seem to be overkill, but I wanted to head off any problems. Similarly, FLR(M) stipulations state a requirement to have 2 years' correspondence as proof of a relationship, whereas my wife and I had been together under our initial visa for 32 months. I included correspondence from the whole time, again explaining why (difficult to pin down the amount of correspondence required for an exact time period of 2 years).
When we received her documentation back, it was interesting to see which documents they had obviously taken notice of, as these were separate from the folder I had neatly put everything in (I am assuming they had been taken out to be scanned). These were our marriage certificate, our bank statements, and our joint correspondence. They had actually kept two original documents - both my wife's and my employers' letters - those weren't returned.
I had included extra proof of accommodation, but this appeared to have remained untouched, and it wasn't actually a specific requirement anyway.
Anyway- one couple's experience that turned out fine.
For what it's worth, as everyone here has been so helpful in the past with sharing their experience(s) with me, I thought I would share my wife's FLR(M) application process - nothing complicated, as her biometric residence permit came through yesterday, and her supporting documents with passport arrived today, so all within the 8 week timescale the Home Office stipulates for postal applications.
I thought they would also put a visa in her passport for her 30-month extension, but it seems they just issue the BRP and that's it.
I was concerned about the format of the bank statements I was providing - as I normally bank online, NatWest would just provide me with A4 format transaction reports, which others here had had problems with (as a previous recent thread showed).
I don't know if this helped my wife's application, but I ensured that with every type of document submitted, there was a letter of explanation to accompany it, if I had the slightest fear that it would cause problems. So, for example, with the NatWest statements I explained why they were in that format, what information they contained (account number, address, my branch's address), as well as enclosed the envelope they were sent to me in (so they didn't think I had printed them out at home).
It might seem to be overkill, but I wanted to head off any problems. Similarly, FLR(M) stipulations state a requirement to have 2 years' correspondence as proof of a relationship, whereas my wife and I had been together under our initial visa for 32 months. I included correspondence from the whole time, again explaining why (difficult to pin down the amount of correspondence required for an exact time period of 2 years).
When we received her documentation back, it was interesting to see which documents they had obviously taken notice of, as these were separate from the folder I had neatly put everything in (I am assuming they had been taken out to be scanned). These were our marriage certificate, our bank statements, and our joint correspondence. They had actually kept two original documents - both my wife's and my employers' letters - those weren't returned.
I had included extra proof of accommodation, but this appeared to have remained untouched, and it wasn't actually a specific requirement anyway.
Anyway- one couple's experience that turned out fine.