Success for an Unmarried Partner Visa

[Nowty]

After 2 years of student visas, collecting evidence, obtaining advice from various sources, putting the application together, worrying about whether to post the application or go in person, my girlfriend has been issued her unmarried partner visa at a PEO appointment.

We had two potential problems, a 3 month gap whilst we lived apart when my girlfriend applied for her student visa back in her home country and she had overworked in term time a little last year.

Our evidence.
31 letters, 9 in joint names, 11 for her, 11 for him evenly spread and from 20 sources.
Last 3 months bank statements included in the above.
Last 3 months payslips from both of us.
Proof of accommodation.
Joint travel tickets.
Photos together.
Covering letter with a full history of our relationship including explanations and evidence of communication whilst apart.
College course certificate, attendance record and progress report

We decided to bite the bullet and go for a PEO appointment and we got a cancellation for the very next day.

At the PEO, the caseworker asked for our passports, then a letter from our first month together, then she asked for our letters to be split into 3 piles, one for each year, 2006, 2007, and 2008. Strangely she asked for 2007 first, followed by 2006, then finally 2008 which included the last 3 months bank statements. She said that our letters were excellent and she would go and see her supervisor with them.

After a short while she came back and said that because my girlfriend was currently on a student visa she needed to see evidence that she had attended her course. We first only handed over the course certificate because we knew there were some administrative errors on the progress report and the attendance records. She came back again and requested some proof of her making progress on her course. We gave her the course progress record which had a wrong start date on it but that didn’t seen to matter and she soon came back a second time and said that the application was approved.

She did not ask to see our payslips, our accommodation details, our covering letter, travel tickets, photos together, etc. In fact as we had the full 2 years worth of letters, they did not even seem to notice that we had a 3 month gap at all which may have been more apparent if we had posted the application.

About an hour later my girlfriend picked up her passport and we were on our way home totally happy about our decision to go for the personal appointment.