# English requirement - NARIC statement



## CMKA (Feb 3, 2017)

Hello everyone!

I'm planning to apply for my spouse visa in the end of February. Right now I am trying to sort all my documents out. And I am a bit confused about this English language requirement. The GOV website says that apart from taking an approved English language test, you can also prove your knowledge of English if both:

- you have a degree or academic qualification that was taught or researched in English
- your qualification is recognised by UK NARIC as being equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree  or higher

I have a Bachelor's degree from Australia. In terms of the NARIC certificate to provide, do I need to apply for the Statement of Comparability OR the English Language Assessment?

I have had a look through this forum and it seems that some people used the Statement of Comparability, while others used the English Language Assessment. Surely one of the certificates is more desirable for the ECO.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks.


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## Glaston15 (Jun 27, 2015)

It's better for you to take the A1 English test for the initial spouse visa application.


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## sukubutsu (Mar 27, 2014)

I was also in the same predicament when applying for my Flrm last year. I have a bachelor's degree from the US. I did email NARIC and they sent me this in response:
_ 
"Your qualification has been awarded in a country that is exempt from the English language requirements set out by the Home Office, therefore it would not be necessary to comment on the English levels of this award. _

I went ahead and applied for the Statement of Comparability only and my Flrm was approved no problem.


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## johannalouise (Mar 3, 2016)

I had a similar situation to sukubutsu.
My husband is Indonesian with an Australian degree & we applied for the "Statement of Comparability' AND 'English Language Assessment'. 
The Statement of Comparability came through fine and at the same time we got an email saying the English Language Assessment wasn't possible as the degree was from an English speaking country. (No refund though for the fact they didn't actually have to do anything for the ELA!)

I don't know for sure now though because the whole 'red route'/'blue route' on the NARIC website now wasn't there when I applied..so it might be a slightly different process.
I paid 2 amounts for the 2 things (SoC & ELA) whereas now it seems the red route just has a 'standard price' of £125? Might be clearer once you create an account & log in


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## CMKA (Feb 3, 2017)

Thank you guys!

I have also emailed UK NARIC a few days ago and they told me that the 'English Language Assessment' was not necessary for my Australian degree. They also recommended using their new Visas and Nationality service, so I just went for that. Seems logical considering that the service is provided by UK NARIC on behalf of the Home Office.


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## INLD (May 8, 2018)

CMKA said:


> Thank you guys!
> 
> I have also emailed UK NARIC a few days ago and they told me that the 'English Language Assessment' was not necessary for my Australian degree. They also recommended using their new Visas and Nationality service, so I just went for that. Seems logical considering that the service is provided by UK NARIC on behalf of the Home Office.




Congratulations I see you been successful! What were your relationship and finance proofs? 


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## CMKA (Feb 3, 2017)

INLD said:


> Congratulations I see you been successful! What were your relationship and finance proofs?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



Hello!

My financial documents included:
- payslips covering 6 months
- breakdown of those payslips (as my husband's wage varied from month to month depending on overtime etc, I just briefly explained how I calculated the annual earnings)
- bank statements covering 6 months (make sure all the wages coming in are within that period as well)
- letter from employer

Relationship documents included:
- marriage certificate (translate it in case it is not in English)
- photos (I submitted around 20, glued them all on A4 papers)
- plane tickets / boarding passes (from all my visits, my husband's visits, our holidays together)
- copies of my UK visas, my husband's Russian visas
- Facebook messages screenshots (I only did a few pages)
- relationship timeline (when we first met, got engaged, married etc)

Hope this helps! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask


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## INLD (May 8, 2018)

CMKA said:


> Hello!
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Thanks for a prompt response!
My worry is my husband’s get paid 4 weekly so we did send 6 payslips instead of 7 along with bank statements. Was your payslips monthly or 4weekly?
And we could only include one photo of marriage , it was a rather simple ceremony more about paper work and we mostly hung out together so we didn’t have any photos with friends or family so we included our photos. You reckon that to be a problem? And Yeah we included printouts of flight booking, hotels , gift receipts and chat history from FB, WhatsApp and LINE as well



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## CMKA (Feb 3, 2017)

INLD said:


> Thanks for a prompt response!
> My worry is my husband’s get paid 4 weekly so we did send 6 payslips instead of 7 along with bank statements. Was your payslips monthly or 4weekly?
> And we could only include one photo of marriage , it was a rather simple ceremony more about paper work and we mostly hung out together so we didn’t have any photos with friends or family so we included our photos. You reckon that to be a problem? And Yeah we included printouts of flight booking, hotels , gift receipts and chat history from FB, WhatsApp and LINE as well
> 
> ...


Our payslips were also 4 weekly ones actually, but we did send 7! 

I read somewhere on this forum a few times that people in our situation were advised to send 7, not 6 (as 6 payslips in our case only amount to 24 weeks, which is short of 6 months). 

However, I'm no ECO, so I hope it won't be a problem for you guys. I'm not sure if it is allowed, but perhaps your husband could send more docs to the UKVI to support your application. I just feel like it wouldn't hurt sending the 7th payslip with a payslips breakdown document, explaining how you got the annual income of at least 18,600 pounds. 

Also, I'm not sure whether you sent just 1 photo altogether or just 1 photo from the wedding plus other photos from when you two have seen each other. People on this forum recommend to attach at least 10 photos.

This is just my opinion, I guess it all depends who ends up handling your case.


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## INLD (May 8, 2018)

CMKA said:


> Our payslips were also 4 weekly ones actually, but we did send 7!
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I meant only one from the marriage but we have sent other photos.. we did send 7th payslip with statement later on after realizing that our solicitor didn’t care to make sure we send 7 payslips but still no clue if they have been linked with original application. 


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## INLD (May 8, 2018)

INLD said:


> I meant only one from the marriage but we have sent other photos.. we did send 7th payslip with statement later on after realizing that our solicitor didn’t care to make sure we send 7 payslips but still no clue if they have been linked with original application.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk




Bdw Were you over threshold with 6 payslips? 


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## CMKA (Feb 3, 2017)

INLD said:


> Bdw Were you over threshold with 6 payslips?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Yup, we were still over the 18.6k requirement even with 6 payslips. I applied on my own (without a solicitor's help) as I'm currently not working, so I had a lot of time to do the research. Just shows you people on forums are more helpful than solicitors sometimes.

I hope all your documents get linked together in the end!


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## INLD (May 8, 2018)

CMKA said:


> Yup, we were still over the 18.6k requirement even with 6 payslips. I applied on my own (without a solicitor's help) as I'm currently not working, so I had a lot of time to do the research. Just shows you people on forums are more helpful than solicitors sometimes.
> 
> 
> 
> I hope all your documents get linked together in the end!




I hope so 🤞🏼 thank you


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