Forum Immigration UK

[laurasheff]

I am applying for a fiancee visa at the UK consulate in New York City. I will then be moving over to England to join my fiancee, and be married within two months. I have two questions:

a. My fiancee is a musician, thus self-employed and does not draw pay stubs or any regular wage. I am a freelance writer and my situation is similar. We are both young and recently(ish) out of school. Thus his father is writing a letter as our "financial sponsor," offering to support us if we are to fall on hard times, and including his bank statements to show his considerable financial strength. Where do I ask him to send these financials and his statement? Do I have them send them to me, then include them with the application, or is there a place where he can fax them so they can be included with my application? (This goes for my fiancee's statement, financial documents, and landlord's letter as well). Also, does this virtually guarantee we are free of worries that we will be denied due to financial considerations?

b. Once we are married in England, I realize I must then apply for my spousal visa, so that I am allowed to take employment. I plan to go to Croydon to make this application. What are the approximate waiting times once I make this application, is this pretty much guaranteed to be approved (since a fiancee visa was already granted), and do I need to pay a SECOND £250 visa fee?

Kind regards for your time and consideration.

[EasyExpat]

What are you nationalities ? US american ? Your lawer should be able to give you advice. They are usually papers that you must joint with your application at the consulate.

[polskasweetie]

Whatever documents you will be attaching with your application for the fiancee visa, they must be all included when you submit your application. All documents should be originals (no photocopies, no faxed copies), as all these documents will be returned to you anyway. Therefore the option of your father in law faxing or mailing documents for your application is out of the question. The UK Embassy in New York has to receive all documents in one envelope.

Oh, and when you mail it, make sure you use FedEx or UPS, get the second day delivery and get signature confirmation if possible, so you have peace of mind that it's there and it's being processed. All in all should your docs check out, it shouldn't take them more than 10-15 business days to process your application. Cost would be around $12-$15.

They're pretty quick in processing things there. I should know, I applied for an EEA Family Permit (it's like a visa as well), and it took them only 5 business days to process everything. This is of course, granting that you mailed out everything that they specify in the list of things to submit.

Lots of luck!

[laurasheff]

I'm American, he's British. I don't have a lawyer - we have consulted one and might use one in the end, but money's just far too tight I think.

It's INVALUABLE to learn all copies must be original. Many thanks, you've saved me lots of time. Funny I never saw that in any of the requirements anywhere.

I would really appreciate if anyone could be of any further clarification regarding how successfully having a financial "sponsor" aids the granting of a visa, and the process of switching from fiancee to marriage status.

[polskasweetie]

The only reason why they want original documents is to make sure that they have not been tampered/altered with. So many things can be done with photocopied documents, I know since I've jointly handled security audit protocols at the bank I used to work at, prior to moving to the UK. I know how to do it (alterations that are not obvious on the photocopies), and show other people how it's done to create awareness.

[leemiller17]

Hi Laura, I would love to hear how this went. My fiance and I are in currently a very similar situation.