# Extension of stay in UK on Spouse visa FLR(M)



## Almost (Sep 27, 2015)

Hello,

I am in the process of applying for my Extension of Stay as a married partner to a British Citizen in the UK. FLR(M).

My husband (The British citizen) and I just need some further clarification regarding financial requirements, and bills/letters required to prove we live together since our last application just over 2 years ago.

Financial Requirement:
I was not working at the time when we submitted our initial application 2 years ago, so my husband had to use his self employment income for the initial application. I have since obtained full time salaried employment for the past 2 years and earn well over the £18,600 requirement. So will I be able to just use my income for the spouse extension application? Or will I still need to combine my husbands income with mine and declare his earnings also? Preferably, to keep things simple, I prefer to omit his income on the application form and just declare mine. Saves him from having to submit paperwork etc since he is self employed, and will need to do everything through his accountant.

Bills/Letters sent to same address to prove Cohabitation:
My husband and I only have 2 bills in our joint names, and I was wondering if we submit the 2 joint bills, along with 4 other bills/letters in our own names, will this be enough? Unfortunately we did a spring clean last year and accidentally through out a folder with our bills from 2013 - 2014.. Will the UK Border agency accept a printed copy if we ask these companies to send out another copy? Obviously these bills are back dated and are no longer originals.

Additionally, will we need to provide up to 2 years worth of bills/letters? And if so, is it up to 2 years for each and every bill/letter?

For example:
Phone Bill: need a bill for every single month up until 2 years?
SKY Bill: need a bill for every single month up until 2 years? 
Or can we have a different bill/letter spaced out every month up to 2 years?
Example:
Jan - Phone bill
Feb- Sky Bill
March: Insurance letter
April: Hospital letter. And so on. 

It would be much appreciated if I can please get some advice on these 2 points. Many thanks!


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

First, it's not extension but renewal you will be applying for. Extension just means extending the initial leave, whereas renewal means getting a new leave that gives you the second phase of your 5year route to settlement. 
Just your income needs to be submitted. Don't declare his income at all - it's not needed. 
You need 6 pieces of joint evidence or 12 pieces of single evidence covering 2.5 years, or a combination of the two. You only need one piece of evidence for each period within 2.5 years, so if you have joint quarterly bill, that alone will cover 3 months and so on.


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## Almost (Sep 27, 2015)

*Income/Accommodation/Introduction letter*

Thank you Joppa for the clarification. It was very helpful.

So to confirm, if I leave the section that asks about my sponsors income details, I can leave that section completely blank on the form with no issues? Or should I at least state that he is self employed and leave the rest of the questions blank? I just don't want them to think that my sponsor has no income at all, and wont be able to support me if god forbid I lose my job.

Secondly, will a tenancy agreement for a 3 Bedroom flat along with a council tax bill with both our names on it be sufficient to prove that adequate accommodation is being provided, and that we meet the requirements for accommodation without issues of overcrowding? Or will I need to provide any further documentation to prove this?

Lastly, will we both need to write an introduction letter addressing the UK Boarder Agent and explain our relationship and documents being submitted? Or will filling out the FLR(M) form be sufficient?

Thanks in advance for your advise on this matter.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Yes, leave out any mention of sponsor's income. You are only declaring income to meet a specific requirement, not to give a rundown of your finances. 
As you aren't sharing your accommodation with anyone else, nothing more is needed. 
You don't normally need covering letters.


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## Almost (Sep 27, 2015)

*Income/Accomodation*

Thank you again for your response Joppa.

We currently live with one other house mate. Will we need to show how much each person pay for rent? Or providing a lease with all our names and the total rent amount is sufficient? My husband pays for all our rent and bills from his personal account. And I pay for all our food and house supplies etc from my personal account. Will this matter that I don't personally pay rent out of my own account and there's no record of rent on my bank statement? 

Thanks


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Then inspection report is highly recommended.
It doesn't matter who pays what.


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## Almost (Sep 27, 2015)

*Accommodation/Inspection Report/ Mainenance*

Hello,

My husband and I work really long hours, and struggling to get time of work to get the inspection report done for our accommodation. Our visa appointment is next week.

In your opinion, how likely will this affect my application without the report? We have our tenancy agreement and council tax bill/letter to provide, I'm hoping that since we didn't need the report for my last application, we will be OK not to have it this time?

Additionally, will I need to fill out the Maintenance section on the form if I earn over £18,600 or can I leave that section blank?

Thanks in advance for your advice.


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## Almost (Sep 27, 2015)

*FLR (M) Joint account statements*

Hello,

I am using only my salaried income from employment for my FLR (M) application, and will be providing 6 months of my personal bank statements showing my wages along with my 6 current payslips. 

My husband and I also hold a joint bank account that we use to pay our rent. Will we need to provide 6 months statements for our joint account also? Or a letter from the bank verifying the account is in our joint names, address, and date the account was opened, and showing current cleared funds enough? We don't want to unnecessarily include 6 months of our joint bank statements if we do not need to. Because we will need to order it from the bank and pay for the print outs.

Is there a rule on how many months statements we will need to provide for joint accounts? 

We have more then enough other correspondence to prove co-habitation, so we don't need to use our joint account statements for that either.

Thanks in advance for you advice on this!


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Just provide a statement for joint account for the period not covered by other pieces of evidence.


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## Almost (Sep 27, 2015)

Thanks Joppa. I have enough correspondence from other companies for all periods, so will just provide the most current joint statement and the letter from bank verifying account. Thanks.


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## Whatshouldwedo (Sep 29, 2013)

Almost said:


> Thanks Joppa. I have enough correspondence from other companies for all periods, so will just provide the most current joint statement and the letter from bank verifying account. Thanks.


To clarify, are you using the joint bank account statement for cohabitation evidence or to meet the financial requirement? If you are using your salary alone to meet the financial requirements and you have enough cohabitation evidence already, why are you including a joint bank statement?


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