Evidence of cohabiting/relationship akin to marriage

[klm00]

Hi all

I am trying to work out what evidence we can put together to show that we've lived together "in a relationship akin to marriage" in order to apply for a partner visa and i'd be really grateful for views on whether the following would suffice.

We were travelling together for the first 8 months after we met - so i was going to discount those of the purposes of the co-habiting test.

Since Jan 2014 we have lived together in my partner's home country Chile. So over 2 years now.

Jan - we lived with his parents - they would provide a statement confirming this.
Feb - June - temporary apartment through Airbnb - we could provide records and emails confirming this.
July - Oct - we lived with his parents again - again they would confirm
Nov 2014 - present - lived in a flat with a tenancy agreement in both names. We could also get a letter from the Concierge in our building confirming that we have lived here together.

I am named on his health insurance policy - but we've only had that since June 2015.

I don't have any bank accounts here so my partner pays the rent, health insurance and I take out cash to give him. Bank statements would evidence taking out the cash.
I pay all supermarket/food shopping - credit card statements could evidence this.
I can hopefully find receipts/credit card bills for household items - eg sofas that i paid for.

I have three letters from my UK accountants addressed to me at our address in Chile.

My UK tax statement states my Chile address.

Would the above be sufficient when taken with evidence that we can provide of the relationship being genuine and subsisting??

Many thanks in advance for any advice.

[noajthan]

Suggest you need more evidence of residence and life together, more mail to you both (either singly or preferably jointly) to shared address/es.

What about letters from local tax & national tax offices, voter registration(?), medical offices/doctors/dentist registration &/or correspondence, library, gym memberships & etc?
(Yes its so 19th/20th century but 'rules is rules').

Children could help.
Also any evidence of joint future plans, a business venture perhaps, or marriage (maybe).

Throw in some tasteful photos too.

[Casa]

In addition to Noajthan's sage advice, Case Workers generally want to see evidence of joint commitments, shared finances, bank accounts etc. More than would be expected in a girlfriend/boyfriend or house mates situation.

[klm00]

the life together isn't a problem, we've tones of photos together and with both families. we've greetings cards and the like, and wedding invitations to both of us. together with emails, skype records, whatsapp, facebook etc.

We are really limited on the evidence of actually both living at our address though even though we have lived together for two years. from what you suggested the only thing would be gym membership, but that's only in the last three months.

the drs letters don't have the address on and you don't register with a dr/dentist here the way you do in the UK.

We have no mail to us jointly in chile and i've only 3 letters to this address. they aren't big on mail here.

Any other suggestions more than welcome - im trying to think of anything else we might have that we could use to prove the living together aspect.

We are planning to get married but we weren't planning to do it in the same timescale as the visa.

[klm00]

the life together isn't a problem, we've tones of photos together and with both families. we've greetings cards and the like, and wedding invitations to both of us. together with emails, skype records, whatsapp, facebook etc.

We are really limited on the evidence of actually both living at our address though even though we have lived together for two years. from what you suggested the only thing would be gym membership, but that's only in the last three months.

the drs letters don't have the address on and you don't register with a dr/dentist here the way you do in the UK.

We have no mail to us jointly in chile and i've only 3 letters to this address. they aren't big on mail here.

Any other suggestions more than welcome - im trying to think of anything else we might have that we could use to prove the living together aspect.

We are planning to get married but we weren't planning to do it in the same timescale as the visa.

[klm00]

In addition to Noajthan's sage advice, Case Workers generally want to see evidence of joint commitments, shared finances, bank accounts etc. More than would be expected in a girlfriend/boyfriend or house mates situation.

so explaining in a letter how we work our finances wouldn't work - i.e. he pays from his account and then i give him the money as I don't have an account here. Our finances are very shared in the sense that we both fully contribute the shared living costs and our life together, but not in the conventional way as we can't have a joint account here...

[CR001]

Any particular reason why you have started a new topic/thread when you already have one where you are receiving advice?

http://www.immigrationboards.com/immigr ... 06712.html

Please see Multiple Posts (click)

[klm00]

apologies - i felt that the topics were slightly different - albeit related - the other was more general and also re student visa and this was specific to the evidence needed to satisfy the residential test - I assumed it would be more use to others to make the post specific to the question, again apologies.

[noajthan]

In addition to Noajthan's sage advice, Case Workers generally want to see evidence of joint commitments, shared finances, bank accounts etc. More than would be expected in a girlfriend/boyfriend or house mates situation.

so explaining in a letter how we work our finances wouldn't work - i.e. he pays from his account and then i give him the money as I don't have an account here. Our finances are very shared in the sense that we both fully contribute the shared living costs and our life together, but not in the conventional way as we can't have a joint account here...

Naturally I understand you could write a letter (similar to this post) explaining how you live your life.

Look at it from a hard-bitten caseworker's point of view, labouring away somewhere deep in the bowels of the HO.
They will likely give more weight to independent sources of information than that from the applicant and family.
To put it bluntly, any family member could write what they wanted. That's how cw is likely to weigh things up.

Unfortunately a HO cw are unlikely to be sympathetic to life in Chile and what is or isn't normal there.

[CR001]

It is the same application - partner/spouse visa and could have continued in your other thread.

Which thread do you want to keep active? I will lock the other then to avoid duplicate posts/responses.

[klm00]

In addition to Noajthan's sage advice, Case Workers generally want to see evidence of joint commitments, shared finances, bank accounts etc. More than would be expected in a girlfriend/boyfriend or house mates situation.

so explaining in a letter how we work our finances wouldn't work - i.e. he pays from his account and then i give him the money as I don't have an account here. Our finances are very shared in the sense that we both fully contribute the shared living costs and our life together, but not in the conventional way as we can't have a joint account here...

Naturally I understand you could write a letter (similar to this post) explaining how you live your life.

Look at it from a hard-bitten caseworker's point of view, labouring away somewhere deep in the bowels of the HO.
They will likely give more weight to independent sources of information than that from the applicant and family.
To put it bluntly, any family member could write what they wanted. That's how cw is likely to weigh things up.

Unfortunately a HO cw are unlikely to be sympathetic to life in Chile and what is or isn't normal there.

Thanks - i feared that would be the case but really helpful to test this anyway and get your view. We are a bit stuffed then on a partner application it seems

[CR001]

If you get married, you don't need cohabitation documents.

[klm00]

If you get married, you don't need cohabitation documents.

It is the same application - partner/spouse visa and could have continued in your other thread.

Which thread do you want to keep active? I will lock the other then to avoid duplicate posts/responses.

From my point of view i have the answers i was looking for, which is great and much appreciated, so it doesn't really make a difference to me - I appreciate they are the same application but from the perspective of people searching for similar answers to their questions i figured it was more helpful for them to be separate threads as they are different points and would come up in different searches. I'm happy for you to lock whichever you think is the least useful to other people.

[klm00]

If you get married, you don't need cohabitation documents.

yes, we may have to revisit time scales for that

[noajthan]

Thanks - i feared that would be the case but really helpful to test this anyway and get your view. We are a bit stuffed then on a partner application it seems

Well you can still go for it. But be realistic.

And have a Plan B, whether that is marriage &/or considering Surinder Singh; (actually marriage would actually help that kind of plan along too).
Can you hear the universe talking to you?!

It doesn't help you right now but it is usually quite helpful to look ahead to the next visa (and the next) before you get to applying.
That way you can manage and manouvere your life to ensure you will meet all necessary requirements and have a better chance of success each time.

Eg while living in Chile you could have set something up whereby some official agency did have to write to you once in a while, (even if only to renew a llama licence or whatever).

But also bear in mind HO can & does frequently move the goalposts ofcourse.

[klm00]

Thanks - i feared that would be the case but really helpful to test this anyway and get your view. We are a bit stuffed then on a partner application it seems

Well you can still go for it. But be realistic.

And have a Plan B, whether that is marriage &/or considering Surinder Singh; (actually marriage would actually help that kind of plan along too).
Can you hear the universe talking to you?!

It doesn't help you right now but it is usually quite helpful to look ahead to the next visa (and the next) before you get to applying.
That way you can manage and manouvere your life to ensure you will meet all necessary requirements and have a better chance of success each time.

Eg while living in Chile you could have set something up whereby some official agency did have to write to you once in a while, (even if only to renew a llama licence or whatever).

But also bear in mind HO can & does frequently move the goalposts ofcourse.

Surinder Singh - is that the live elsewhere in EU first loophole? If so, sadly not really an option. My partner is going to start a masters in london in sept. due to visa processing timing issues our plan was to go student visa route first and then apply for the partner visa in sept to start the 5 years running.

If the view from people more in the know than us is that we don't have enough evidence of living together for the partner visa it seems a waste of the visa application cost - money that could be spent on a wedding

Yes - we really should have thought of the visa stuff sooner and made sure we had what we needed - ironically we don't have the evidence we need because of my visa situation here!

[noajthan]

Surinder Singh - is that the live elsewhere in EU first loophole? If so, sadly not really an option. My partner is going to start a masters in london in sept. due to visa processing timing issues our plan was to go student visa route first and then apply for the partner visa in sept to start the 5 years running.

If the view from people more in the know than us is that we don't have enough evidence of living together for the partner visa it seems a waste of the visa application cost - money that could be spent on a wedding

Yes - we really should have thought of the visa stuff sooner and made sure we had what we needed - ironically we don't have the evidence we need because of my visa situation here!

Surinder Singh is not a 'loophole' - its based on EU treaty.

Why not do the Masters in Netherlands?!
(I was checking out the unis there a couple of months ago with my daughter): world class.
Fees of the order of 2000 Euros p.a. Funding available.
Canals, bikes, more bikes, oh and triple-decker trains; what's not to like!

Then no financial requirements as a 'proxy EEA national' returnee to the UK after doing Surinder Singh; spouse/partner able to reside, work, study to heart's content as a dependent family member (- If you come back).

[klm00]

what is the time requirement for that route - how long do you have to spend in the other country?

He's already accepted to UCL and really excited about the course. We actually looked at unis in the Netherlands before he applied to UCL and non of the courses were quite right for what he wanted. sigh...

[noajthan]

what is the time requirement for that route - how long do you have to spend in the other country?

He's already accepted to UCL and really excited about the course. We actually looked at unis in the Netherlands before he applied to UCL and non of the courses were quite right for what he wanted. sigh...

EU law says around 3 months.
HO surrounds the clean, pure SS with its somewhat controversial 'centre of life' wrapper. So 6 months or a year or so would be good.
The Brit sponsor needs to work (or be self-employed) ofcourse, whilst other half whiles their time away with their head in books.

[klm00]

Hi - my partner and I are currently living in South America. Im British and he has a place to study a masters in London from September. The idea is that he will apply first for a student visa and arrive in the UK with that and that we will then apply as soon as possible for a spouse visa (we meet the financial requirements).

Our idea is to get married before we arrive in the UK - this would be after he has applied for the student visa with single status - reason for the timing purely being to do with family arrangements for the wedding.

My question is whether changing marital status after he has applied for the student visa as a single person could in any way jeopardise the spouse visa application or somehow be said to be doing something wrong?? From what I have read we could get married in the UK while he is on a student visa so I don't see how it can be but want to check as we don't want to inadvertently mess up the process or his chances of getting the spouse visa.

thanks

[klm00]

just giving this another go as I would be really grateful for any advice as to whether it is ok if my partner applies for a student visa (from outside the UK) and at the time of application his status is given as single, and then we get married before we arrive in the UK with him on the student visa...at which point once in the UK we would then apply to convert the student visa to a spouse visa. Anyone see any problems with this??