Dear Graham

I have gone through the list u submitting. One most important thing is missing and that is ur previous residence documents as u moved in new residence recently but the requirement is that wherever have u lived together in last 2 or 3 years u have to submit the proof of all residences.

Thanks

Jamshed

Thanks Jamshed - we do have the tenancy agreement from the old place, but I thought that as we moved into the previous place in May 2008 we wouldn't need it. Should we take that/submit that too?

Thanks for the advice mate.

P.S. Is it ok that the Scottish Power letters are like this:

Mine:

Mr G D---------
Address
Address
Address

Dear Mr D-------


Hers:

Mr G D---------
Address
Address
Address

Dear Miss G------

Does this count as a letter in both our names even though the address has my name at the top of hers but uses her name to introduce the letter?

Hey, Nervous Bloke :)

I know how you feel. My husband is a US citizen, and I'm here in the U.K. We are in the process of applying for his Spouse Visa to come join me here in the U.K. The nerves can become overwhelming sometimes.

I'm not sure what the requirements are if you are unmarried, but I'm sure they are looking for some similar things such as proving you can both take care of yourselves without the help of Government funding, proving you are a legitimate couple and so on. By what you've shown in your list you more than show that. You have a long standing relationship, and so long as your bills show that you pay on time and can afford to look after yourselves and each other you will be okay. One thing I'm not sure of is whether your girlfriend would have to go back to the States to apply. I know for sure that you cannot swap from one visa to another while in the country you want to reside in. Well that is what our lawyer told my husband and I anyway. Maybe look into that a little further before parting with any money? The UK Border Agency can let you know. Google them to get the number if you don't already know it. Just make sure you have NO gaps in the application, and put in EVERYTHING they ask for. Even go above and beyond what they ask if necessary. Add photos of you both together and so on........Good luck and keep us informed of how it is going for you both. xx

Hi Kellie,

Thanks for the kind words!

We've actually been together 5 and a half years so this is kind of the final step in making sure we get to stay together.

She's actually on a post-study work visa at the moment and has to be in the UK to switch to the Unmarried Partners visa. One of the main rules of the unmarried partners visa extension is that you must have lived with your partner for 2 years. The visa is basically an extension to any resident visa you're currently on in the UK, there is a separate form and application for those outside the UK as you can come into the country with an Unmarried Partner visa (nothing is easy is it?!).

I will let you know how we get on.

As I mentioned, the one thing I had a tiny bit of doubt over was the letter from the electricity company mentioned in my previous post, just because of how it was formatted. Although they both have my name and address at the top, they clearly say 'Dear Mr (my name)' and 'Dear Miss (her name)' If anyone has an opinion on this it's very welcome 🙂

Dear Graham

I think they ask about your previous addresses at least 3 or 5 years and in that case you should take ur previous tenancy agreement whether it is in single name and u have to provr correspondence on same address to both of u from different addresses.

Hope u got me.

Thanks

Hi Jamshed,

Thanks for replying again! I'm a bit confused about this - the form says you must show correspondence to both of you over two years and nothing about any addresses previous to that.

She moved over here on a student visa in September 2007, but only my name is on the tenancy agreement for that place as I moved in months earlier. Not sure how much correspondence to the both of us we have at that address.

We moved to another flat in May 2008, I have that agreement and both our names are on it.

We moved to the most recent flat in March 2010 and both our names are the on the agreement for that.

As far as I was aware the visa states you only need to show 2 years of letters etc to both of you.

Cheers!

Hi everyone,

I haven't used an immigration forum like this before, but everyone seems friendly so I thought I might be able to calm my nerves about my girlfriends application for an unmarried partner visa FLR(M). She's a US citizen currently here on a post-study work visa, I'm a British citizen and we've lived together almost 3 years now. We're applying for it next month in June. I have put together the documents we used and wanted to post a list here just so people could let me know what they think (as I mentioned, I'm nervous as this is a big step for us!). I understand people can't give proper legal advice unless they're registered with an immigration service, but I'm just after a 'that looks fine'!


The documents we'll be submitting are:

United Utilities water statement (joint names) - June 2008

HSBC joint bank account statement (joint names) - October 2008

Scottish Power electricity statement (the same statement sent to us seperately. The address on both of them is my name but my girlfriend's letter starts with 'Miss -----', is this ok?) - November 2008

HSBC joint bank account statement (joint names) - January 2009

United Utilities water statement (joint names) - March 2009

Scottish Power electricity statement (sent separate but to both of us as above) - July 2009

HSBC joint bank account statement (joint names) - November 2009

Tenancy agreement for the flat we've just moved into (joint names) - March 2010

British Gas gas statement (joint names) - April 2010

For the last bill I was going to use an Eon electricity/gas statement in both our names from June 2010.



Does this seem OK?

I have included an extra few letters as I'm sure it's best to have a few more than 6 letters. The letters come from 6 different sources.

We haven't decided if we'll apply in person or post. I've heard some stories of people waiting 16 weeks for the postal application to come back, which sounds awful. Then again in person it's a lot more money but I don't know how far in advance I can get a date booked for the Liverpool office.

Thanks in advance,

A nervous bloke.