Does anyone have experience in extending their visa 28 days prior to the expiry date?

[CandyLee]

Hi Everyone,

I just had some questions on the following excerpt from the Further Leave to Remain (FLR) Guidance Notes:

"We encourage you to apply no more than 28 days before the expiry date, or no
more than 28 days before you have completed 30 months in the UK with leave as a
partner. Extant leave as a partner of up to 28 days will be added to the 30 months of
leave that you are granted.
You should note that you must complete a continuous period of 60 months in the UK with
leave as a partner on the 5-year route (excluding any period of leave as a fiancé(e) or
proposed civil partner) before you are eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR)
as a partner. "

I was granted an initial 33 months on my spouse visa. Based on the guidance notes, I can apply 28 days before my 30 months of being here in the UK or 28 days before my British Residency Permit (BRP) expires.

I'm currently looking to extend my visa 20 days before 30 months but when I called Citizen Advice for some confirmation, they referred me to a free lawyer who they said specialises in immigration law. This lawyer said that I would get rejected for applying 3 months in advance of my BRP expiry date (20th March 2019). He said I could only apply after 20th Feb.

I'm feeling a bit nervous because the lawyer seemed quite threatening but his advice contradicts the FLR guidance notes that I read before.

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience that could clear my understanding? Can Visa's really be rejected for applying too early because it sounds like in the notes that the 28 days before expiry or 30 months is just a recommendation to ensure you get to your total 60 months of continuous residency to obtain your ILR within 2 visa applications.

Thank you.

[CR001]

The lawyer is wrong. As the guidance clearly states, you can apply no sooner than within 28 days before reaching 30 months residence, calculated from the date you entered the UK on your spouse visa OR before your visa expires.

Many have applied and been successful applying within 28 days before 30 months residence.

[CandyLee]

Thank you very much, I just needed someone to confirm this for me, I really appreciate it.
You've made my day and I feel a lot more assured on this situation.
I have all my documents prepared and ready to be posted out after I submit my application.
I've even completed and saved my online application to the last part, where I'm just waiting until the proper day to pay.

[CR001]

Good luck. Feel free to ask any further questions as a 'sanity check' if you need to in this topic.

[seagul]

In my opinion despite one can apply 28 days before of completing 30 months but preferably should do so very near to BRP expiry date to avoid any shortfall for qualifying ILR after 5 years.

[CandyLee]

Yes, thank you for the kind reminder, I agree with you as well, that gives more buffer time. I would have chosen to do it closer to the BRP expiry date, but I wish to go home for Chinese New Year. By the time I post out my supporting documents, I would have been just 2 weeks away from the 30 months, so I think I should be okay for the shortfall, considering the decision time seems to be generally around 8 weeks. I hope I can get my new BRP by the end of Jan or early Feb.

[CandyLee]

Can I ask for a document check in case if I left anything out?
We co-own a limited company so we have a home base where the company is registered.
We have always had 2 places of residency. One being the home base where we go back every weekend. And we rent a flat based on the location of our clients during the weekdays. So for the past 2.5 yrs, we have moved and rented in 4 different cities (tenancy period between 6-8 months per flat).

Financial documents
1. Last full financial year CT600 + evidence filed to HMRC
2. Evidence of registration with Companies House
3. Unaudited accounts for the last full financial year + our accountant’s certificate of confirmation
4. Business bank statements covering the same period of CT600
5. A current Appointment Report from Companies House
6. A certificate of VAT registration + the VAT return for the last full financial year
7. Proof of ownership or lease of business premises
8. Payslips, P60 and dividends vouchers for the both of us covering the same period of CT600
9. Personal bank statements for the both of us covering the same period of CT600
10. For the evidence of ongoing employment, I prepared payslips and dividends vouchers + personal bank statements from after the CT600 period up to now

Accommodation documents (All of our bills are in joint names)
<OUR HOUSE> Land registry + proof of purchase + council tax bills (we only get one council bill per year so I have collected 3 of them from 2016-2018) + last month utility bills
<RENTED FLATS> 4 shorthold tenancy agreements for all previous rented flats (with each address including 1 council tax bill + 1 water bill + 1 gas bill) the bills are evenly spread out on an average of 3-4 months per bill

Other documents
1. Both of our passports
2. My current BRP card
3. Our marriage certificate
4. English requirement : Unique Electronic Reference Number
5. Joint account bank statements to show that we pay the bills and rent together

My questions are:

1. Do we have enough proof of cohabitation? I'm not sure if all the different councils count as one source or many? If this is not enough, I have HMRC and NHS letters addressed to me at the home base address. And my husband has bank interest certificates and police records certificates send there as well. Would adding these in be enough?

2. Do I have the correct documents for "evidence of ongoing employment" ?

3. I've seen almost everyone providing their passport photos to the Home Office, is this still a requirement
now? Cause I did not see this in the documents checklist in the online application.

Big thanks to everyone for helping us