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Hello, I have a question on behalf of my mother in law.

She is applying for an EEA family permit so that she can travel to the UK with her husband to visit her daughter for a couple of weeks. She is an Albanian national with Greek residency and her husband is a Greek national, he will be her sponsor for the application.

She has made the application and now one of the supporting documents that they must present at the embassy is evidence that her husband will be travelling to the UK within 6 months of the application being made.

We would rather not buy flight tickets before we know the outcome of the application. Is there any other document that can act as evidence of this? Perhaps a written letter from her husband stating his intention to travel to the UK?

We will buy the tickets in advance if we have to but it seems a bit backwards. Especially as the application form advises the applicant not to buy a ticket for themselves before they know the outcome of the application. I'm not sure why they expect differently of the sponsor who will be travelling with them.

Any help greatly appreciated!

Did they ask to provide proof of travel. Did they guide on how to submit it?

Yes they have asked for the following:

Evidence that the sponsor is either:

• living in the UK as a qualified person as listed in the 2016 regulations
  (the evidence you supply will depend on which qualification they are
  living in the UK under); or

• will be travelling to the UK within 6 months of the application date
  (evidence can include, for example, flight bookings to the UK and hotel
  bookings in the UK)

The first bullet point is not relevant to us, it's the second one we are trying to understand. They make it sound as if there are other ways to show that the sponsor will be travelling to the UK. It would be useful to see a list of acceptable documents.

You can book hotels online of course, just book a flexible price which you can cancel free of charge (usually till the day of arrival).

For flight booking you can, either get a flight reservation from a travel agency but you will have to pay a small fee I think, or just put a note that you will book flights as soon as visa is issued.

You don't need to worry about flights not booked. Even the ECOs are smart enough to know that its pointless to spend 100s on flights when there is no guarantee for visa.

Good luck!