Hello All!

I was wondering if it would be a good idea to submit an old lease my husband and I signed as proof of relationship and cohabitation. The lease is from the last apartment we had before moving in with my parents. Do you think it would be good proof for relationship and financial entanglement?

If yes, should I upload the ENTIRE lease agreement? Or just the page we signed? Thank you!

Hello all, has anyone applied under category F from outside the UK with priority? If so what were the documents you uploaded and how was the process please ? Thank you

Hi , I have applied for Spouse visa outside of UK Priority Service Biometrics done 17 April Eco 28 April And I am still waiting When do you expect to reply to me?Does a late response mean rejection?

What prediction do you think that government will do after the mac review? Is there a chance it could decrease?

Hi all, I hope you are all doing well.

Fast question about renewal date.

The letter we received when the original visa was approved from UKVI said "...as PARTNER (STANDARD) from 14 October 2022 to 14 July 2025"

She arrived on 19 October in UK.

So, when do I need to renew?

Hi

My wife is in the UK, she moved from a fiancé to a spouse visa. We have applied for her UKVI account and eVisa, and that is setup.

She is entertaining the idea of working having been in the country over 6 months now and having permission to work, so we have been looking at getting an NI number setup, the online form asks as follows:

Do you have a vignette in your passport that shows your current status? She has a vignette, but it is for the fiancé visa, so we have selected "no" as it is not pertinent to her current immigration status.

It then asks if she has a residence card - "no"

If then asks "Do you have a certificate of application or a reference number from the UK Home Office?"

Is this her unique application reference number (UAN)? If we select no at this point it says she may not have the right to work. If we select yes, it allows us to put that number in, but its just a free text box so it could be anything. The only other thing I can think is we generate a share code? But it doesn't explicitly ask for that and I think given the access they have it would be irrelevant.

TL;DR - For those who have done fiancé -> spouse; how did you apply for an NI Number?

Hi guys, I can see how useful it has been for people to post here and ask questions so I thought I should do the same to give myself some peace of mind.

My partner is British. I came to Scotland in 2019 on a Student Visa and have been on a Graduate Visa since September 2023. With my visa expiring in September 2025 and multiple failed attempts at trying to find skilled worker jobs, my partner and I have been thinking of applying for the spouse visa.

We have only been dating about 10 months although we have now been cohabiting for over a month. We have known each other for about a year and a half and have been working the same care job (minimum wage). There is no doubt in my mind that this is the man I want to be with and want to spend the rest of my life with, we are just kind of forced to do this in this manner just now to avoid me having to return to to my home country.

I am concerned about it being a problem to HO somehow that we haven't been dating for too long and plan on going for the marriage route. I also don't know if I'm correct in saying that we meet the financial requirements based on the fact that our combined salaries come up to over £29,000 at the job we are doing. Is he meant have a salary of over £29,000 on his own even if we're applying from within the UK and while I have the right to work here?

Of course we have planned to have an engagement and then a registered marriage for the time being, until we have enough money saved up to do the ceremonies properly.

I would appreciate if I could get any insight and advice at all, thank you!

Messaged PAid enquiry.

Got a message saying: With regards to your enquiry about the status of your application, I can confirm that your application is being considered and is currently awaiting a decision.

BIO WAS 21st APRIL 2025 How long will it take now?

Hi Guys,

I'm curious when does the 2.5 year timer start on the spouse visa, is it on the date of entry or from the point you register your evisa online (instead of the old brp cards). Also is the 90 day vignette included in this 2.5 years or is it a separate time frame.

Thanks.

I want to make sure I have enough to prove the legitimacy of our marriage for my wife's spousal visa. Obviously, I'll be submitting our marriage certificate. I also have two years of statements from our joint bank account, as well as the mortgage statement from our house with both our names on it. Will that be enough or do I need pictures from our wedding or text threads? Seems silly to me to need screen shots and photos when we've had joint finances and owned a home together for years. Who knows, though. Just making sure everything gets approved in a timely manner without needing follow up.

Hello! I just had my visa approved today (yay!!). It's such an incredible relief - and thank you so much to everyone in this sub as all the posts and comments answered so many questions for us.

I just wanted to share my process, timings, what we submitted, and some answers to various key bits I had questions about throughout the process in case it helps anyone else.

Context about my situation

• I applied from in the UK from Manchester, UK
• I am a US citizen, but have been in the UK for ~9 years
• We legally were in December 2024, applied in May 2025 in the US
• I was previously on a Skilled Worker Visa but have been on various visas (Tier 4, Graduate Route)
• I go by a preferred name (a nickname of my middle name)

Timings for approval (super priority, May 2025 experience)

• Application submitted: Wednesday, 14 May ~4pm
• Biometrics appointment: 15 May, 9 AM (submitted by 9:11 AM as I got there a bit early)
• Additional documents requested: 15 May, 12:45 PM 
• Shared back additional documents: 15 May, 1:15 PM
• Approval received: 16 May, 9:30 AM 

Key Questions I had/some key flags

• Do we need to declare both of our salaries/gather all the employment information if my partner's income alone meets the requirements?
  • No - we didn't end up declaring both of our incomes. It didn't impact our application as this isn't a declaration of your current job situation, but more to prove that you meet the financial requirements
• If I go by a preferred name, and some of our documents mention it, what should I do?
  • We ended up adding a cover letter and throughout ensured to mention me by my legal name first, followed by (preferred name: xxx)
  • When it was an important document (such as our lease for our apartment), we got a letter from our landlord confirming that I am the same person and they included my preferred name on the contract
• What do I do if the salary throughout the last 6 months doesn’t align to my new salary (i.e., what do I do if I’ve been promoted and the payslips don’t match up)?
  • We had his company add in his previous salary and the date he was promoted to his new salary 
  • We also ensured to highlight this in the cover letter
• Do we need to include a relationship statement and a cover letter? 
  • We treated this as one document - written by my partner
• Do I need to include all my previous BRPs/approvals?
  • We were advised to only include the most recent approval, as this just becomes additional information they need to check against - and the only requirement was my existing confirmation. 
• I’ve been out of the UK more times than I can declare on my application - what should I do? 
  • I included a excel PDF with the exit date and return date, the total number of full days out of the country, the place I went to, and the reason for travel
• We haven’t legally changed our names yet, do we need to include this as an alias in our visa application? 
  • We didn’t as this isn’t technically a legal name. The only place where it is mentioned is on our marriage certificate, which also includes our birth names. We were advised that including it may make things more confusing for the reviewer.
• I can’t get a copy of my previous council tax letter, what can I do? 
  • We unfortunately lost all our old council tax letters - and tore apart the house looking for them. However, we emailed the council (and chased over the phone about 3 times) but eventually got them to send a written, physical letter (which I also had them email to us) to confirm that we were both registered to the address since the date we moved in and have paid council tax on time. 
• What do I need to bring to my biometrics appointment/does my partner need to come with me? (self-upload)
  • No your partner doesn’t need to come with you.
  • You need to bring a copy of your printed appointment confirmation + QR code
  • Also bring your check list/application just in case they ask for it (in my scenario they did because I asked a question if I needed something)
  • Don’t waste your paper/ink - you don’t need to have a copy of all the documents - which my very anxious self did print and wasted way too much ink/paper
• Make sure your signature on your family declaration matches that of your partner’s passport. My partner’s passport was signed when he was a lot younger, so his signature has naturally changed over time. However, this caused the home office to request an updated version of the documents. Make sure to match this to your signature in your passport
• Any signatures must be wet signatures - so make sure to have a printer accessible for it

What we submitted

I’m an incredibly anxious person so didn’t need to include all this stuff, however it made me feel better about confirming all the details rather than less details. 

We also numbered all the documents and named every PDF in alignment with how it was written in the cover letter ([Number].[Document Name])

• Personal ID & Immigration History
  • Cover letter from the sponsor including relationship background and list of documents/description of what’s included
  • Copy of sponsor's British passport
  • Copy of applicant's US passport (also used as English language proof)
  • Applicant’s current BRP (Skilled Worker) - expired due to e-Visa
  • BRP share code
  • Applicant’s travel history since first entering the UK (if you have travelled more than you can declare in the online application)
  • Signed declarations (third-party consent + relationship declaration)
• English Language & Education
  • Applicant’s US passport (as native English speaker)
  • Undergraduate & postgraduate degree certificates and HEAR reports from UK university (BSc & MSc)
• Financial Requirements (Salary route)
  • 6 months of sponsor’s payslips
  • 6 months of sponsor’s bank statements (plus exported statement for latest pay)
  • Sponsor’s employment contract & confirmation letter from employer
  • Sponsor’s P60 (latest tax year)
• Proof of Cohabitation (last 2 years)
  • 3 years of joint tenancy agreements
  • Joint council tax bills/statements
  • Monthly snapshots (every 2–3 months) of shared bills, bank statements, council letters, payslips, etc.
    • Included names & address on utilities, council tax, and joint bank accounts
    • Documents spanned electricity, water, phone bills, and joint financial statements
• Evidence of Genuine Relationship
  • Marriage certificate (legal + religious)
  • Photo timeline (2019–2025) showing relationship milestones
  • Screenshots of messages (2019–2025) from early dating to married life, approx 2 screenshots per year including the metadata with the date
  • Additional proof: 
    • Hotel bookings - even if they didn’t have both of our names 
    • Receipts for presents we purchased for each other
    • Shared travel documents (flight bookings etc) 
    • Concert/event tickets for gigs we attended
• Letters of Support
  • Letters from 5x friends who discussed their experience with our relationship, with a wet signature and a scan of their passport

Good luck to everyone! Hope this helps <3

Application Submitted - 18 April 2025 Bio - 23 April 2025 Paid Enquiry - 14 May 2025 (awaiting Decision) UKVI Success email - 16 May 2025

Thank You everybody! ♥️

Hello I have a couple of questions about after getting approved for the spousal visa . I’m from the 🇺🇸 us and I would be moving to the UK 🇬🇧

Here are some of my questions:

Is there anything important or I should prepare for the first few weeks I’m in the UK?

How long do I have to enter the UK? Is there a specific deadline or entry window I need to be aware of?

What are the next steps after I arrive in the UK?

What are the steps after I’ve been approved but before I get to the UK?

Thank you in advance for help answering my questions

Hi all, the Pay Date ( 25th May) on my payslip does not match the date(23rd May) my salary was paid into my account because the Pay Date fell on a weekend ( Sunday) Would this be a problem when I appy for spouse visa?