Spouse visa granted!

[Artur111]

Good morning dear forum members and respected Gurus!

I would like to thank you moderators CR001, Casa and Wanderer for their useful advises and info they helped with in regards to my wife's application. We've received the passport this morning with the entry clearance starting on the date we requested.

This forum helped me personally a lot and I received more assistance and advise here than from immigration consultants. You guys are doing tremendous favor to all of us by running this amazing website.

If I can help anyone with their queries to certain depth and extent (I'm not that advanced like moderators, not even near ) please let me know.

Kind regards
Artur

[CR001]

Congratulations Artur, am very happy and pleased to hear your positive result

[seagul]

Yes indeed especially Casa & Cr001 who assisting people generously and I myself read their posts everyday.
Arthur can you list down the documents given you success.

[Artur111]

Yes, sure seagul

1. Completed form VAF4A (online one, printed it after)
2. Appendix 2 (completed online and printed it after)
3. Wife's passport
4. Certified copies of sponsor’s passport (by solicitor in London - all pages with stamps must be included)
5. Marriage certificate and translation
6. Sponsor’s divorce certificate and translation
7. Letter from Sponsor’s employer
8. Sponsor’s payslips for the last 6 months (I receive them by post, so used it kind a confirmation of my address too), FY 15/16 P60. I also requested HR to list my salary before April 2016 and after (as I had a pay-rise).
9. Sponsor’s bank statements for the last 6 months (where I receive my monthly salary)
10. Tenancy agreement
11. Property inspection report with the pictures and house plan.
12. Letter from landlord stating agreement for wife's joining in the property
13. Evidence of telephone contact and WhatsApp/Viber messages (only about 2 screenshots every month). Important to show love and affection in conversations. I added a little note explaining that we could send them hundreds of pages of our communication, but to save their time we made 2 screenshots per month for the last 2 years. We didn't translate them from Russian to English.
14. Evidence of funds remitted as well as proof that wife received them - Western Union mainly.
15. Photographs (Wedding, holidays, family photos)
16. Language test pass certificate
17. TB test pass certificate
18. Covering letter from sponsor in support of wife's application (1.5 pages, just giving brief notes to avoid any possible misunderstanding)
19. Council tax bill/Utility Bills/AMEX statements - all on my name here in London
20. Any other documents that may add any positive value to your application - we added our photos from London where we first met, pictures from London Eye (the one they sell after a ride), then me sending postcards to Russia from time to time (they all got Russian Post Office Service stamps to confirm that they were actually send from UK to Russia) etc.

Hope this helps anyone.

Guys feel free to ask, I'll help where I can.

Artur

[01484]

Congratulations!!!
I have a few questions for you. Did you use a solicitor to do the paperwork and send it off etc or did you do it yourself?
If you did it yourself on the VAF4A form applicants signature what you do you for that did you get is signed from your sponsor?
My sponsor is in Pakistan so shall i tell her to print the form off and then sign it and scan it onto the computer?
Not sure how to go about getting it signed from sponsor.
Or can i get it signed from an advisor at an advice bureau or will a solicitor just pay them be like a representative?
Thanks

[Artur111]

Hi 01484,

Thanks!

I started with immigration consultants. But after sometime I realised they were clueless about Spouse visa application, so I decided to do it myself with the help of this forum.

When I completed VAF4A then simply printed it and sent over to my wife in Russia, so she signed it and submitted on the appointment day. Applicants from Russia don't need to send the paperwork to Sheffield as some of the other countries' applicants are required to do. In Russia we simply submit everything on the day of appointment, the biometric is done on the same day. Therefore I just needed to send the printed VAF4A and my wife just signed it and submitted.
Hope this helps.

[Casa]

Pleased it all went well for you.

[Artur111]

Thank you Casa and CR001
You guys are truly heroes!

[Casa]

Thank you Casa and CR001
You guys are truly heroes!

Thanks...but we're both 'Gals'

[noajthan]

Good things come to those who wait.

[Artur111]

Thank you Casa and CR001
You guys are truly heroes!

Thanks...but we're both 'Gals'

Ooopps, apologies

[CR001]

Thank you Casa and CR001
You guys are truly heroes!

Thanks...but we're both 'Gals'

Ooopps, apologies

[seagul]

That's nice we have female gurus here too.

[GlobalThailand]

From someone that is just about to start this whole process - a big congratulations!

Just gathering information of what you need feels like going down the rabbit hole... very confusing! It's great to know there helpful forums with advice from people that have experienced the process (and indeed gurus )

A question about having photocopied passport certified by a lawyer... is that recommended? I've sponsored my wife on many visit visa's before and simply signed each page. Should I take that further as it's a spouse visa?

Many thanks

[Casa]

When submitting a spouse visa application the sponsor's passport must be legally certified.

[GlobalThailand]

When submitting a spouse visa application the sponsor's passport must be legally certified.

...and so the rabbit hole twists again! Thanks for the heads up! I've been looking through guidance material for the last week and I haven't come across this. This leads me to ask more questions - won't hijack the thread though! Congrats to Arthur!

[Artur111]

Thanks GlobalThailand,

As Casa replied it must be certified copy of your passport. Every page (copy of it) that does have any info/data/stamp is to be legally certified.

Before submitting the application I was thinking about Post Office service where a copy of your passport can be certified too, but at the end I decided to use Notary Public. It costed me £40 altogether (I was given discount), normally it's £5 per page.

Good luck with your application

[01484]

Is that the order you have listed above, the order you send your documents in?
So i should send my documents in that order too?
Thanks

[Artur111]

Nope, that wasn't the order we sent our papers.

It was just the check-list for ourselves.

[01484]

Ohhh so theres a specific order you send the paper work in?
If, so do you know or know where i can find out. Thanks

[CR001]

Ohhh so theres a specific order you send the paper work in?
If, so do you know or know where i can find out. Thanks

There is no specific order. Follow what the form asks for.

[Artur111]

I do not have information about official list/order. I doubt it does exist. I can only share what we did.

We simply took a folder with transparent files inside, and put all papers in order of importance for our application.

I made a table of content as an opening page,
1 - VAF4A and Appendix 2
2 - Cover letter
3 - Our passports (certified copy of mine and original for my wife)
4 - marriage certificate
5 - Decree Absolute
6 - Letter of Employment
7 - Payslips
8 - Bank statements (salaries)
9 - Rental Agreement
10 - Landlord's letter of consent
11 - Inspection Report
etc.

I guess you've got the idea.

Some may say "not to use the folder with the transparent files as it will complicate and some caseworkers don't like it", but I was doing it with all of my applications. We even attached little post-it notes in the corners (very tiny) with little input what the particular document was for.
I'm not saying you should do the same, not at all. I'm just sharing our experience.

Kind regards
A

[01484]

Sorry to bother you guys again. This is my final question.
When do i send the paperwork to sheffield? Do i send it as soon as i have submitted the online application (on the visa4uk website) or do i send them after my wife has attended her bio-metric appointment?
Thanks

[Artur111]

I'm not sure about that as I wasn't required to send paperwork to Sheffield.

Other members of the forum will be more of a help in this.

[CR001]

Sorry to bother you guys again. This is my final question.
When do i send the paperwork to sheffield? Do i send it as soon as i have submitted the online application (on the visa4uk website) or do i send them after my wife has attended her bio-metric appointment?
Thanks

Only applications from certain countries have to send supporting paperwork to Sheffield. It would be better if you started your own topic rather than tagging questions onto other members topics.