Spouse Visa for My Russian Wife - Please Help

[SimonS]

Hi all,

apologies if this is a bit of a long post but hopefully if I give the background it will be easier and quicker to get a definitive answer to the questions.

I am a British Citizen, I met my fiancee online at a Russian Dating site on 7th January 2016. She is a Russian citizen from St Petersburg and speaks, reads and writes fluently in English. We have met a dozen times in various European destinations (over 60 days together) during past 12 months and she has been to UK 4 times and I've been to Russia 3 times. We will marry in April this year in Russia.

I will be sponsoring her application for Spouse Visa and completing the application on her behalf. I meet the requirements.

My questions:

We have photographs, air ticket receipts and hotel receipts for all holidays/travel together as detailed above. Is this enough to prove a "subsisting relationship" to the ECO?

My fiancees air tickets receipts are in Russian, do they need translating? If yes, do they also need to be certified/notarised?

Do I have to send every email? We have over 200!!

Is a printed spreadsheet of Viber call and message records acceptable?

I live in rented accomodation on my own, 3 bedroom detached house. The tenancy agreement dated May 2015 expired in May 2016. Do I need to get a new tenancy agreement?

Property inspection report, can I use the original "Inventory and Schedule of Condition Report" prepared by the Lettings Agent and dated 30th May 2015?

My fiancee has two teenage children, they are declared on the application form, but I have never met them and similarly I have never met her parents, although she has met my family including my two children. Her children are both teenagers and will not be comming to the UK.

Is this going to be looked upon negatively by the ECO? Do I need to explain it in the cover letter?

She has lived estranged from her ex-husband for 2 years but the formal divorce process was only completed in November last year. Will this look odd to the ECO?

It is likely that neither her parents or children will appear in the wedding photographs. My family will also not be there due to the expense of travel, Visas etc Will this cause a problem with the ECO decision?

The application process:

I am planning to submit the application immediately after the ceremony through the online Visa4UK site. I wish to submit it as early as possible is so that we can attend VAC in St Petersburg together. Am I correct in believing I should then return to the UK and send the document pack to the ECO in Sheffield?

Will I get the address/instructions for this when I submit the application online?

Am I correct in believing that all my wife and I will need to take to the VAC in St Petersburg is her previous and current passport, two passport photo's, printed application signed and the VAF F4 with Appendix 2?

Perhaps a daft question, Who signs the application? Me or my wife since I'm applying on her behalf?

This may be beyond the scope of the board, Once married, she plans to take my surname. Is there a process documented for us to change everything over from her maiden name or are we stuck with it?

Is it only the "data" page of her current passport that is required to be translated, notarised and sent to Sheffield? Do I need the same for the previous passport or will the current one suffice?

Do I really need to provide a photocopy of her parents passport? Problem is, they don't have one. Never travelled outside Russia.

I'm just going off the list on http://www.visaforuk.com/settlement_vis ... _list.html

Is this list the specific order that the documents should be presented in the file?

Thank you for taking the time to consider my post and any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[cosak]

hi there,

nice to read someone is in relationship with Russian woman. My wife is Ukrainian and I have also applied for her spouse visa in mid January and we are still waiting for the result. Hopefully very soon we will have visas for my wife and stepdaughter..

Either of you can fill up the forms correctly to the best of your knowledge, print it our and signed by the applicant, by your wife.. You have submit 6 months payslips and bank statements proving that you earn £18600 per year.. also documents of your house,whether your own the house or rent it.. send her the documents of house, also house inspection report..

English language test, TB test, all the chat history, certified copy of your passport.. don't forget to include your work contract and a letter from your employer.. Financial documents shouldn't be older than 28 days from the date of application...

I am not sure whether you have to send the documents to Sheffield or she has to go to the visa application centre in ST. petersburg... For Ukrainian, we had to submit documents in Kiev, her biometrics were done there too.. Her application is being processed in Warsaw, Poland at the British embassy obviously...

As long as both of you are single or officially divorced from precious marriage, you are ok to marry each other and apply for the visas... I think you have good evidence about subsisting relationship because you have seen each other a few times and she has to been to the UK as well......... my wife has been to the UK once too and i have to Ukraine a few times too...pretty much same...

all the best..

[SimonS]

Hi cosak,

many thanks for the reply and sharing the information. I also noticed a lack of threads from people with Russian/Ukranian spouses trying to get UK Settlement Visas. I came across a note on a London based Lawyers website stating a change to the way Russian Visa applications are processed which is why I asked some of the questions.

Third Party weblink removed by moderator - kindly refrain from posting such links

I'm really hoping to avoid paying for a Lawyer if I can since getting the documents for the marriage process and the Visa application itself will have cost >£3k. Travel expenses on top of that and you can imagine!! Still, you can't put a price on love and happiness.

I meet the income and employment threshold requirement but it's useful to note that the company and landlord letter's should be within 28 days of the application date. Thanks for this.

The one I'm really stuck with is this.

Can I make the online applcation in April in Russia after the wedding, attend the VAC with my wife and then return to the UK a week later and post everything to Sheffield?

I'm really keen not to delay the process and I don't trust the Russian post service to get the documents to the UK promptly if we choose to submit everything at the VAC St Petersburg. Plus I'll have to send just certified copies of my passport when I was keen to send the original. Also, because I'll be using the Priority Service, I just want to minimise delays on my part.

I wish you the best of luck with your application and I would be interested to learn how you get on. Cheers

[CR001]

Can I make the online applcation in April in Russia after the wedding, attend the VAC with my wife and then return to the UK a week later and post everything to Sheffield?

Yes.

[Wanderer]

It used to be (and still might be) difficult to marry in Russia since most visit visas are 31 days and you need to be present in Russia to marry there for over 31 days as per ZAGS rules...

There are ways, docs letter you can get 'po blatu' saying you are unfit or just to get a business visa which is more onerous and expensive but much more flexible (and you don't have to actually be doing any business) - it's what I do when I go, costs about £600 plus the stupid trip for fingerprints to London.

Udachi vam!

[SimonS]

Many thanks cr001 for the answer. Apologies about the link. I just saw on some posts that moderators are interested in the source of information when rule changes are mentioned. Will refrain in future.

[CR001]

Many thanks cr001 for the answer. Apologies about the link. I just saw on some posts that moderators are interested in the source of information when rule changes are mentioned. Will refrain in future.

No worries. The only links allowed to be posted are the official ones, i.e. HO/HMRC/DWP etc.

[SimonS]

Hi wanderer,

thank you for the reply. I have a Business Visa since I already used my maximum 2 tourist Visas per year. I'm fortunate that my company have offices in Moscow and one of the managers there did my Letter of Invitation and the officialisation of it for me. An agent can do this as well but will charge you more. Russian Federation only allow 2 tourist Visas in any 12 month period. Any more will be refused because amazingly, the authorities consider you might be a "spy" lol. There is new biometric processing office in Manchester for Northerners. This is where I did my Business Visa.

I don't wish to teach you to suck eggs and feel free to comment because I'm interested in your feedback, but others may find the following useful.

I also read about the 31 day rule on many blogs. There is a loophole. I did my CNI in Russia through the British Consulate in St Petersburg. I got my Birth Certificate and Decree Absolute apostillised in the UK by the Legalisation office - Cost £60, £30 per document. I travelled to Russia on Business Visa, had to be present 3 days in country - entry stamp on passport and Immigration slip from hotel. Then go to the consulate, complete and pay for the application. They have an online booking tool for appointments - gov.uk - so it is easy to plan your travel in advance. They tell you what documents you need to take. The fee was £100. £50 Notice of Marriage and £50 CNI. They then post it on their notice board for 7 days. In the meantime, visit a Russian notary, they will translate your Birth Certificate, Passport and Decree Absolute (if applicable) and Notarise them. Takes 24 hours and costs about Rb3500. Then take all your translated, notarised documents and make your Marriage Application, costs Rb3000. On the 8th day return to Consulate, they give you your CNI conveniently translated into Russian. You then need to take this document to Moscow to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and get them to stamp it for you. Cost Rb3000 plus air tickets to Moscow ~£100 return total for you and your partner, internal flights are ridiculously cheap. You can do it in one day but must be an early bird. You must do this in person. Tip in Moscow, don't use taxi's, you will just sit in traffic all day. Use the express train from the airport - they are all far out of town - and the Metro. RMoFA is about 1 mile from nearest Metro and hidden down a back street. Make sure you have a map. It shuts at 5 pm sharp. The stamped CNI can then be collected 5 days later in Moscow by your partner, that is what we did. She can then take everything to the Registry Office and apply for the Wedding Invitation. No need to be present for 31 days. Once you have the Marriage Invitation there is no residence requirement. We checked with the Registry Office and British Consulate. The ceremony will be performed and it is a legal Marriage. Bear in mind, your Russian CNI only has a 3 month validity from the date of issue so you must marry within 3 months.

My fiancee was amazing and did so much of the research and leg work on her own while still working. Russia is very bureaucratic and can be highly frustrating while you're in the process but the beauty of it is, if you follow the rules and pass each gate, like most places, the decisions are final and binding.

[Wanderer]

Good info - I suspected my info might be old info - first went to Russia in Soviet times and then a lot early 2000's and not much since! 2015 was last time and things have improved enormously - much less dodginess...

We never take taxis, even with both of us in the taxi the driver detected I wasn't Russian (despite not even speaking) and the price quadrupled. My partner went mad! This was in the Urals, not even Moscow...

That was the only time I ever went in summer, was torn to shreds by mosquitos (komarov!) including one that bit me right in the bum-crack, comforting to note it probably didn't survive long down there given the legendary potency of my farts.

Despite everything still love it there!

[SimonS]

Hi All,

just thought I'd update everybody on progress and leave some information for anybody reading this post in the future since we did not use a lawyer or agent. We just figured it all out for ourselves with your help.

Well, after receiving the Wedding Invitation to marry in Russia in January 2017, I returned on the 9th April this year and married my wife on the 12th April with no objection from the authority in St Petersburg. We immediately took the wedding certificate to the state lawyers and received an apostille legalising the mariage in all international jurisdictions (5 days ~ £80). Seems the process described in my earlier post above is correct.

On the 19th April while still in Russia we completed the online application and paid for priority processing of the application. We were caught out by the huge increase in fee's for Visa and Priority. Together with the IHS Charge it cost me a staggering £2669.89!! I've said it before, you can't put a price on happiness!!

1) Visa = £1433.77 - Charged me in US$ at appauling exchange rate
2) IHS = £610.12 - Charged me in US$ at appauling exchange rate
3) Priority = £551
4) Premium appointment = £75

We visited the Visa centre together in St Petersburg on 21st April then I flew home. 4th May, I submitted the following to the Visa and Immigration Entry Clearance Officer in Sheffield.

1) Application Form VAF 4A signed by spouse with two passport pictures -1 glued to form, 1 loose.
2) Appendix 2 - Financial Requirement
3) Form SU07 - Sponsorship form signed by me
4) Two covering letters, one spouse, one sponsor - Happy to share if you PM me
5) Receipt for priority processing - NB, one at start, one on front of both original and copy document pile
6) Relationship Evidence comprising,
i) All flight and hotel reservations for meetings prior to marriage, boarding passes etc where available.
ii) Marriage certificate and divorce certificates, apostilled also translated and notarised for my wife.
iii) My passport, copy wifes passports and wife Internal passport (translated and notarised)
iv) Photographs of all meetings and wedding - About 34 in total 1-4 each meeting, only 8 of wedding.
v) Sample of email correspondence - there are over 300 so just a few covering first mails and meetings.
vi) Sample of Viber telephone records -Screen shots from my phone back to August 2016
7) Financial Support Documents comprising,
i) Employment contract
ii) Letter from Employer detailing, position, start date, full time, permanent, start salary, current salary
iii) Letter from employer confirming printed payslips (HR signed every one) and 2016 remuneration.
iv) 13 months payslips
v) 8 months bank statements - Just printed no letter from bank but they do have all the details on etc
Accommodation Documents comprising,
i) Current tenancy agreement
ii) Letter of no objection from landlord - Happy to share if you request by PM
iii) Letter from Letting Agency confirming offer of new tenancy to me and my wife - 12 months
iv) New Tenancy agreement with my wifes name on it commencing 30th May 2017
v) Inventory and Schedule of Condition report from Letting Agent
vi) Gas safety certificate 2017-2018
vii) Council Tax Bill 2017-2018
viii) Telephone bill April 2017

Postal weight = 2.5 kg!!! Everything submitted in duplicate except 1), 2), 3) and 4), two separate piles bound in string marked Original and Copy . Cost £37 Special Delivery. Will be there before 1pm today.

Thanks to everyone who contributed and all the useful information on this site. Fingers crossed, will let you know in about 15 working days...........

[SimonS]

sorry, too many documents, also submitted IELTS English language certificate, TB Certificate and criminal record check certificate.

Think that's all, my head's fried, going to bed lol

[askhans786]

Hi Simon,

Can you confirm if you have received the originals back yet
Marriage certificate / passport.

I have applied on 7 April my wife submitted documents from Moscow and I sent supporting doc from U.K. To Sheffield but still haven't had any supporting originals back I sent photocopies of each?

Kind regards,
AK

[SimonS]

Hi AK,

nothing back from Sheffield yet. No hold email and no documents. Not a whisper. I also sent copies. It is frustrating because I miss my wife and very worrying because I need my passport for my job. Supposed to be travelling to Romania on Tuesday next week.

We applied priority, so day 15 from when they received the docuents in Sheffield will be Thursday this week. As you may have seen on some of the other threads here, many people are being put on hold or are experiencing long delays, but they usually receive a mail to tell them that.

Did you apply with priority?

Kind regards
Simon

[askhans786]

Hi Simon,

I have applied normal service on June 7 it will be 2 months.

Kind regards,
Ak

[SimonS]

Hi AK,

Thanks for the reply. I understand how you must feel. I'm sure your decision will be close.

I've still not had any documents returned or any news etc. I sent a status update request this morning (online form). Hopefully they will respond in accordance with their one day time frame and give some specific information and not a generic reply. According to their customer service charter, that is what they are supposed to do. I'll share on here whatever I receive as soon as I get it.

As you may have guessed, I'm not in Romania where I am supposed to be today and tomorrow. To say I'm a tad frustrated would be an understatement.

Cheers
Simon

[SimonS]

So, after sending a status update request via the online form on Tuesday this week they finally responded late yesterday. So much for within 1 working day. Guess they had a flood of requests before the 1st June cut off when they started charging.

Quick recap of my timeline

Application: 19th April (Spouse Visa Priority)
Biometrics: 21st April
Documents Received Sheffield: 5th May (9 working days)
Documents received back: Not yet
Contacted by UKVI: Not Yet
Status update request: 30th May - See below reply

Dear *******
Thank you for contacting the United Kingdom Visas and Immigration
International Enquiry Service.

We understand that you would like to know about the current status of your
visa application. I have tracked the status GWF:****** and date of birth
_/_/_ and found that your application has not yet been assessed by an
Entry Clearance Officer (ECO). Each application is assessed individually
and processing times may vary, hence applicants are requested to be patient
whilst processing is completed. Your visa application centre or the entry
clearance officer (ECO) will contact you once a decision has been made or,
if necessary, during the consideration of your application.

Though we try our best to complete the visa application process in 15
working days, each application is subject to an individual assessment and
processing times may vary, hence applicants are requested to be patient and
wait for the processing to be completed. You can check how long you'll have
to wait for a decision on your visa application in your country (if you
applied from outside the UK) by entering your details at the following
link: https://www.gov.uk/visa-processing-times. Please note that the actual
processing times may vary depending on a range of factors.

We have service level standards for processing UK visa applications. We
will process 90% of non-settlement applications within 3 weeks, 98% within
6 weeks and 100% within 12 weeks of the application (biometric taken) date;
and 95% of settlement applications within 12 weeks of the biometric taken
date and 100% within 24 weeks of the application (biometric taken) date.
Please note that we define 1 week as 5 working days.
For any further details, or should you need to contact us again please
refer to our website at https://ukvi-international.faq-help.com/, select
appropriate country, click next and then select 'E-Mail form' and complete
as instructed. We will aim to come back to you within 1 day.

Kind regards,

My take home from this is that they haven't opened my documents yet and are not yet up to processing Priority applications from week 3 of April. I suspect from reading other timelines they are at about week 1 or 2 of April. That is if they are working in any kind of order whatsoever!

[pixelrage09]

@SimonS

Did you take the help of a solicitor at any point during your application process?

And is it necessary for you to send your original passport to Sheffield? I had only sent them my original birth certificate and a copy of my passport and my documents were returned to me without any problems.

And it also sucks that you spent extra for priority and you should have had a decision by now going by normal service standards.

[SimonS]

Hi Pixel,

no I did not enlist the help of a solicitor. I knew when I sent the documents it was not necessary for me to send the original passport and certified copies would have been fine. I mistakenly put my faith in the 15 working days timeline and believed they would return my documents quickly.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

As to the priority, it's disappointing that when you buy it, the guidance states 15 days. Then you wake up one day 6 weeks later with no documents and are told it has not even been looked at. I feel a little bit cheated. If I'd been given honest guidance at the outset I still would have paid but my expectation would have been realistic. At the moment I'm incredibly frustrated by it all but trying to remain positive. I know others such as yourself have been waiting a lot longer than me.

Wish you and everybody else the best of luck.

Cheers
Simon

[Ryanbcfc]

Hi Simon,

I have just been reading your story and can relate massively!

Im a UK citizen and my wife is from Belarus we got married on 15th April 2017.

We managed to have everything in order and submitted the application not to long after with a confirmation email from Sheffield confirming receipt of our application on 8th May 2017.

Of course i paid £550 just like you for priority (15 working days) and we are just sitting waiting still with no news or update, all my email enquires come back just like yours "Yet to be accessed by an ECO"

Also just like you all my documents that i sent to Sheffield are just sitting there waiting? God knows what they are doing to them.

In a way its nice to see that someone is in the same boat as me and im not the only one, only concern is you have been waiting longer then me which gives me no hope of a decision sometime soon like i am praying for.

[SimonS]

Hi Ryan,

Congratulations on your wedding and many thanks for getting in touch and sharing your experience. It's really good to know somebody else on practically the exact same timeline as I am and with a similar geographical application.

I'm planning to make another online update request on Thursday this week. Looking at the India and Pakistan timeline information, a couple of people who applied end of March on priority got decisions towards the end of May and I've been benchmarking against this. I think they are up to about week 1 or 2 of April for priority so I'm really hoping to at least get documents back this week or next if not a decision.

I'll update here as soon as I have any news. Would be really good if you could do the same.

Wish you the best of luck.

Cheers
Simon

[Ryanbcfc]

Thanks for your reply Simon.

Wow so it seems like it could be about 2 months for a decision to be made. That's disappointing as it says they make a decision on 100% of applicatios by 60 working days so 3 months. Bit of a kick on the teeth when priority has been paid for.

I will let you know any updates as soon as I can. I did phone the home office last week after many minutes on the phone all I ended up getting was that the application "is at the front of the que and a decision will be made very soon" but it seems that won't be the case now then.

Regards
Ryan

[johnyd123]

Hello Simon,

Have you heard anything from UKVI?

I am currently in the similar situation: we will be getting married in July and my wife will apply for a family visa in Moscow. We are also considering priority but taking into the account your and other people's experience...what do you think, is it worth paying for the priority application?

Also, can you please shed more light on how you sent the documents to Sheffield? I also want to speed up the process but not sure how UKVI will treat this step. Is it not going to be a duplicate application?

Thanks

[SimonS]

Hello Simon,

Have you heard anything from UKVI?

I am currently in the similar situation: we will be getting married in July and my wife will apply for a family visa in Moscow. We are also considering priority but taking into the account your and other people's experience...what do you think, is it worth paying for the priority application?

Also, can you please shed more light on how you sent the documents to Sheffield? I also want to speed up the process but not sure how UKVI will treat this step. Is it not going to be a duplicate application?

Thanks

Hi John,

glad you find my thread useful. Happy to update but unfortunately the news is not happy!

Just completed working day 48 since Biometrics on priority. No decision, not been contacted by anybody at UKV&I and still not received any documents back.

I called them this afternoon and asked where the application was up to and as they have told so many on here, they told me that it is "in the final stage - Awaiting decision". Waste of £20.

Interestingly, when I asked them about priority they said that means that it goes to the top of the pile and the pile could be 10,000 applications but it will be behind the earlier priority applications and depending on the circumstances of your application you could get a decision quickly, within 3-12 weeks, or it could still take up to 26 weeks!!!

If I knew at the beginning what I know now, I would still pay the priority fee.

For the documents, basically I brought everything back with me from Russia. All your wife needs to take to the Visa centre for Biometrics appointment is her passport. Everythig else needs to go to Sheffield in duplicate. I posted it to them from the UK. They will give you the correct address for this in Moscow. The list of documents I sent and the cost are included in this thread.

Good luck with the wedding and the Visa process. Please do let me know how you get on.

Cheers
Simon

[johnyd123]

Hi Simon,

Many thanks for the info, very helpful.

Very disappointing you have not heard anything yet.

Regarding the paperwork. Will my wife get all the paperwork back from the visa centre in Moscow? Will ukvi at Sheffield accept photocopies? I will have to leave Russia shortly after the marriage, so won't be able to take the paperwork with me.

Thanks

[SimonS]

Hi John,

The Visa centre in Moscow will not take any paperwork from your wife. They do not offer scan and send anymore, it is your responsibility to get everything to Sheffield. All they will take from her are her finger prints and passport. You can either send it all to Sheffield from the UK or your wife can send it all from Russia. It's much cheaper and easier to do it from the UK.

I appreciate it is difficult to stay longer after the wedding depending upon how you have planned things. I was able to stay on for 9 days after the wedding which was helpful because it enabled me to complete the online application with my wife, complete VAF 4A appendix 2 with her, attend the biometric appointment with her and wait while the marriage certificate was apostilled, translated and notarised. The rate determining step is the apostille on the marriage certiicate. This takes about 5 or 6 days and is necessary to internationally legalise the marriage. The translation and notarisation can be done in 24 hours.

The vast majority of the information you need to send to Sheffield will be yours anyway. Except for the marriage certificate and signed copy of the application form, your wife should already have everything. The list from her is

Passport Photo
Printed and signed application form - VAF 4A
Translated, notarised copy of her internal passport
Copy of her alien passport
IELTS English Test Certificate Level A1 Speaking and listening from UKV&I Standard Certified Centre
TB Test Certificate UKV&I Standard Certified Centre

Optional
Signed cover letter
Criminal record check certificate, translated and notarised

So you see, there is really not that much you will need to bring back and most of it should be ready now. If you can't hang around for the wedding certificate just get her to Fedex it to you. I actually forgot the last page of the application form with her signature and she got it to me in about 24 hours from Russia to UK.

A word of advice, don't underestimate the length of time it takes to collect, photocopy and organise all of the information ready to send, especially the relationship evidence. It literally took me days to go through over a year of phone records, emails, photographs, hotel receipts, air tickets, boarding passes etc. If you haven't already, I recommend you start now.

Hope this is useful.

Cheers
Simon