# Fiancee Visa documents



## Sam2012 (Jun 12, 2012)

Hi,

I've been reading the posts over the last few weeks, and have been grateful for the advice shared in the form. I have a few questions that I hope you can help me with.

Given the changes being implemented by the home office, My Fiancee and I are planning to start her fiancee Visa application before the 9th of July. Fortunately for us proving maintenance should not be a problem however there are a few other points I'm not too sure of. I would really appreciate some advice and clarifications to ensure the application is accepted.

*1:* Please confirm I understand the UKBA statement of intent correctly. If my fiancee submits her Fiancee visa application before 9/7/12, will we be judged on current rules through to ILR. I.e she will only have to wait 2 years for the ILR.

With regards to supporting documents for fiancee visa

*1:* evidence that you intend to marry or register your civil partnership within a reasonable time.

What is suitable evidence for this? I have contacted my priest to organize a date for our wedding. Will a signed letter from the priest confirming our booking of a wedding be sufficient?

also I read an article about giving notice to marry at a 'designated office'. Does this mean my church or do I have to seperately go to a registry office?

*2: *evidence that you intend to live together permanently after you have married or registered your civil partnership and evidence of your accommodation

I'm living with my brother at the moment, its a 4 bedroom house and its just the two of us staying at the moment. We plan to live here and then potentially will rent a place ourselves once settled.

Will a signed letter from my brother confirming he is happy for us to live at his house for an indefinte period suffice for this? Should we also provide proof of his ownership of the house, via a solicitor completion statement?

*3:* evidence of your age and your partner's age

I can send my fiancee my passport to prove my ID and age. I guess it will also prove I'm a UK national. 

Should I also provide my certificate of naturalization to prove I'm a UK citizen or will the passport suffice?

I've seen people mention birth certificates, I don't can't find mine is that a problem?

*4:* I'll be sending my original passport, bank statements, etc. As they are very important documents, please can someone clarify if they will be returned once application has been assessed.

Thanks for reading through my thoughts and questions. Any help or advice you can give will be really appreciated.


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## 2farapart (Aug 18, 2011)

Sam2012 said:


> *1:* Please confirm I understand the UKBA statement of intent correctly. If my fiancee submits her Fiancee visa application before 9/7/12, will we be judged on current rules through to ILR. I.e she will only have to wait 2 years for the ILR.


Yes, but just to be safe, submit it in well in advance (I anticipate the UKBA being swamped with last-minute applications that are trying to beat the changes).





> *1:* evidence that you intend to marry or register your civil partnership within a reasonable time.
> 
> What is suitable evidence for this? I have contacted my priest to organize a date for our wedding. Will a signed letter from the priest confirming our booking of a wedding be sufficient?


Yes. Anything that shows definite plans you're making. We enclosed an email confirmation for a hotel booking and the Register Office details. We typed out the dates and times of each appointment or event we'd booked. Take care though not to pay up front for anything where you're unlikely to get your money back. We paid up front for our hotel venue but they had an excellent cancellation policy so we knew we'd be safe.



> also I read an article about giving notice to marry at a 'designated office'. Does this mean my church or do I have to seperately go to a registry office?


 This only applies if you plan for a civil marriage in a Register Office as opposed to a religious ceremony in a church. 



> *2: *evidence that you intend to live together permanently after you have married or registered your civil partnership and evidence of your accommodation
> 
> I'm living with my brother at the moment, its a 4 bedroom house and its just the two of us staying at the moment. We plan to live here and then potentially will rent a place ourselves once settled.
> 
> Will a signed letter from my brother confirming he is happy for us to live at his house for an indefinte period suffice for this? Should we also provide proof of his ownership of the house, via a solicitor completion statement?


Yes - your brother needs to provide you with evidence that it's his house and confirmation that he's willing to allow you to live there. You can actually purchase a genuine copy of the Title Deeds online from HM Land Registry for £8, or he can provide mortgage statements. It will also be helpful possibly to supply photos of the individual bedrooms to demonstrate there will be no overcrowding.



> *3:* evidence of your age and your partner's age
> 
> I can send my fiancee my passport to prove my ID and age. I guess it will also prove I'm a UK national.
> 
> ...


You as the UK national do not have to provide your birth certificate, nor even your passport. Instead, provide a photocopy of the 'bio' pages (that's the two pages with your photo and passport number). The UKBA already have your passport on file and you would have already had to prove your age and identity for that. If however your passport is out of date, you would need to obtain an official copy of your birth certificate.



> *4:* I'll be sending my original passport, bank statements, etc. As they are very important documents, please can someone clarify if they will be returned once application has been assessed.


Usually yes. Just take great care to keep separate your originals and your copies. The UKBA in New York accidentally kept my original Title Deeds and instead returned the photocopy.


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## Sam2012 (Jun 12, 2012)

Great, Thanks 2farapart.

Hopefully the UKBA will be satisfied with all the documents we provide. I've read that they don't request further documents and we need to provide everything at the start, otherwise the case gets declined. So it sounds like its best we provide every document we can think of from the start as we only have one shot at this before the July deadline, not to mention the cost. 

Anyway, hopefully it will be alright. Thanks very much for your help.


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## liam85 (May 24, 2012)

2farapart.

I want to get a copy of my title deeds, when I look LandReg.co.uk which is the official site, they only email them to me. If I print this out is this going to be sufficient evidence?

How exactly did you go about getting the deeds which the UKBA will consider official?


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## liam85 (May 24, 2012)

Cancel my last, have found the official site and read the part where it says they are considered offical, fee £8.


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## ahirji (Jun 13, 2012)

Hi all,

I'm in pretty much the same situation as you... 

I have a few questions, which I think you can help me with; 

1. You mentioned changes on the 9th July 2012 - what are these changes? 
2. How much is a fiancee visa? I'm in the UK (British Nationality) and my fiancee (US citizen) will be submitting the online application in the next few days... I believe she has to pay when she submits the online application? 
3. With regards to proving that we will marry within 6 months... I tried calling the Registrars Office yesterday and they have told me that they can only book an appointment once she has a visa, is this correct? 


Sam2012, 

Have you started the application process now, how is it going? Any advise you can provide me and my fiancee that may help us? 


Thanks!


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## 2farapart (Aug 18, 2011)

ahirji said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I'm in pretty much the same situation as you...
> 
> ...


I've replied to you in your separate thread on most of these questions. There is also a huge thread discussing the new changes here: http://www.expatforum.com/expats/br...a-requirements-being-announced-next-week.html 



> 3. With regards to proving that we will marry within 6 months... I tried calling the Registrars Office yesterday and they have told me that they can only book an appointment once she has a visa, is this correct?


In my experience, no that is not correct. Just state the date when you are expecting her to be in the country, and allow at least 7 days from that date to booking your first visit to the RO for document checking. Ensure you use a designated Registry Office in England/Wales (all of them are 'designated' in Scotland) as designated offices are the only ones qualified to approve marriages with foreign nationals. More on that here: http://www.expatforum.com/expats/br...artions-bookings-fianc-e-visa-applicants.html


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## liam85 (May 24, 2012)

I've just booked my intention to marry at Manchester registrar office, they allowed me to book it but said they could not send me email confirmation or any confirmation as it can be used fraudulantly, they have sent me a letter though addressing the ECO the reasons why they can't do this, with references to the ECOs guidebook.

All a little strange but If I enclose the letter from the registrars with a little note saying I have booked it for a certain time but they wouldn't give me proof, do u think this should be enough?


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## 2farapart (Aug 18, 2011)

liam85 said:


> I've just booked my intention to marry at Manchester registrar office, they allowed me to book it but said they could not send me email confirmation or any confirmation as it can be used fraudulantly, they have sent me a letter though addressing the ECO the reasons why they can't do this, with references to the ECOs guidebook.
> 
> All a little strange but If I enclose the letter from the registrars with a little note saying I have booked it for a certain time but they wouldn't give me proof, do u think this should be enough?


Yes indeed. Same here. Just write a note with dates and venues for all your appointments. One of the RO appointments did give me a confirmation email (but I can't remember whether it was the designated appointment for checking documents, or the ceremony booking).


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## liam85 (May 24, 2012)

2farapart said:


> Yes indeed. Same here. Just write a note with dates and venues for all your appointments. One of the RO appointments did give me a confirmation email (but I can't remember whether it was the designated appointment for checking documents, or the ceremony booking).



The thing is I don't want to book any appointments yet because we're not sure exactly where we want to get married, and the size of the ceremony etc, so will this letter from the ECO, with a statement from me explaining we don't want to make any definitive plans until the visa is issued be enough for the ECO?


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## plep (Jun 13, 2012)

_All a little strange but If I enclose the letter from the registrars with a little note saying I have booked it for a certain time but they wouldn't give me proof, do u think this should be enough? _

I think this is ok. We booked our marriage subsequent to my fiancee arriving in the country (so this wasn't part of our successful application).


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