# Our experience with the dreaded spouse/fiance visa rejection!



## Rohnai89 (Aug 27, 2016)

I am a Brit citizen previously lived in Tanzania and moved back to UK in December last year leaving my fiance behind to create a starting for a new life for us in Europe. 

I found work in UK quickly and by January was in employment. After reading about the visa process. We decided that the fiance visa looked like the best choice for us as we are unmarried and in January I asked my company to bump my salary up to £18600 on the dot, thinking this would be enough which they agreed to (in hindsight, asking for 19000 may have been better, but nothing that can be changed now)

From Jan to July I worked away while our relationship became one a video and WhatsApp life and myself and my fiance prepared over 100 documents including the application, supporting docs, relationship proof etc.etc. and we finally submitted our application mid august (this month) on priority service.

Now two weeks later we received our dreaded rejection letter and feel so bad after so much effort and energy went into this process. 

Our rejection was on two grounds:
1. Pay slips failed to show £9300 for previous six months 
2. Bank statements submitted were copies and not original

Regarding the bank statement it doesnt matter at this point, however I had gone into my local branch, they had printed off the last 6 months and signed and stamped each page. I had read somewhere that this is acceptable however must have been mistaken. 

Regarding the salary itself, after I had passed my probation with my employer, I was auto enrolled onto a private pension scheme and didnt opt out (not understanding the impact of this!). As the pension came out as a salary sacrifice, it caused my gross salary to dip under 18600 and we are sitting here today, separate for so many months already, with a rejection letter missing the requirements by a mere £300 over 6 months (the visa guys not even considering we have spent a hundred times more than this on the application process itself)

Anyways we gave them a reason and they took it. I do not think we have grounds for appeal, so just have to look for the next application now. I will probably consult a solicitor but am worried that as my salary is fixed, there is no way to solve this. I have a small light from this where my company will pay a bonus into my salary in the next few months which will be taxed. This should cause the gross total column on my payslip to calculate to over 9300£ for the last 6 months. I am going to also stop any payments to the pension for now if I can! 

Does anyone know if this bonus would be accepted when calculating the 9300 for 6 months or do I need to look for a new job!!!? I had also submitted a cover letter and contract from my employer with 18600 but from what I can see from reading around a Gross Salary is what you pay tax on so the bonus should do the job as long as £9300 is reached in a calculator from the same calculations they used to reject us when reaching £9000. 

Appreciate any advice


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## qwertopo (Apr 29, 2016)

Rohnai89 said:


> ...
> 
> Our rejection was on two grounds:
> 1. Pay slips failed to show £9300 for previous six months
> ...


Sorry to hear you were refused. 
I cant help with your questions but i will be submitting my application in 2 days and i too went to my local branch and got the printed statements stamped. I was under the impression this would suffice.
Can you please include the exact wording of the refusal letter?


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## Rohnai89 (Aug 27, 2016)

qwertopo said:


> Sorry to hear you were refused.
> I cant help with your questions but i will be submitting my application in 2 days and i too went to my local branch and got the printed statements stamped. I was under the impression this would suffice.
> Can you please include the exact wording of the refusal letter?


Same here, I went to a small branch and each page was stamped and signed! Not sure where I did read this would be enough however the manager of the branch also confirmed that they have done this in the past for people. I should have gone to a larger branch who may have been able to give their definition of 'original' statements or called the bank to post them out to me. 

The wording on the letter was (minus the very personal bits): 

Your sponsor is not exempt from the financial requirements as defined paragraph E-ECP 3.3 I am not able to take into account any potential employment you have available to you in the UK or any offers of financial support from third parties. In order to meet the financial requirements of the Rules your sponsor needs a gross income of at least £18600 per annum. 

You have stated that your sponsor has worked as a *********** for ********* since 06 Jan 2016 earning £18600 per annum. As evidence you have submitted an employment letter and 6 months pay slips. These pay slips show a gross salary of £9088.32 over the last 6 months. I am not satisfied that this equates to £18600 per annum. Furthermore you have only provided photocopies of bank statements and not the required originals. 

I therefore refuse your application under paragraph EC-P 1.1(d) of Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules (E-ECP 3.1)​


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## Rohnai89 (Aug 27, 2016)

Rohnai89 said:


> Same here, I went to a small branch and each page was stamped and signed! Not sure where I did read this would be enough however the manager of the branch also confirmed that they have done this in the past for people. I should have gone to a larger branch who may have been able to give their definition of 'original' statements or called the bank to post them out to me.
> 
> The wording on the letter was (minus the very personal bits):
> 
> ...


(2) electronic bank statements which are either accompanied by a letter from the bank on its headed stationery confirming that the documents are authentic or which bear the official stamp of the issuing bank on every page.

On reading the requirements again I believe I should have had a letter from the bank to confirm they were authentic . Anyways I do not think this was the main reason for the failure, just the added salt on the wound. 

I hope your's works out and you have the letter (if they are not on official bank stationary, mine were not on official stationary as the branch just printed on plain A4).

Good Luck  and hope I haven't scared you!


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## Whatshouldwedo (Sep 29, 2013)

According to the rules, if the statements are stamped on every page you should not need a letter but it seems that some applicants are being refused because the letter is not included. The best way is to ask the bank to post original statements. If I have to do that, I will probably include the envelope as well! It seems to me from looking at some recent posts on this forum that they are looking for every reason to issue refusals.


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

This is what FM-SE says regarding bank statements:

(v) be:
(1) on official bank stationery; or
(2) electronic bank statements which are either accompanied by a letter from the bank on its headed stationery confirming that the documents are authentic or which bear the official stamp of the issuing bank on every page.

It was clearly an oversight as your statements should have been accepted. However, there is no way around not meeting the financial requirement.

Yes, a bonus can be used to help meet the financial requirement. It will be calculated by taking the bonus, dividing by 6 and multiplying by 12 and adding to your wages. If you are salaried your income is calculated by taking the lowest gross pay slip and multiplying by 12.


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## Rohnai89 (Aug 27, 2016)

Whatshouldwedo said:


> According to the rules, if the statements are stamped on every page you should not need a letter but it seems that some applicants are being refused because the letter is not included. The best way is to ask the bank to post original statements. If I have to do that, I will probably include the envelope as well! It seems to me from looking at some recent posts on this forum that they are looking for every reason to issue refusals.


Haha, definitely agree with including the envelope as well! I seriously do agree with asking for original statements in the post from your banks just to avoid giving any room for doubt! 



nyclon said:


> This is what FM-SE says regarding bank statements:
> 
> (v) be:
> (1) on official bank stationery; or
> ...


Thanks for your response. We think the same that it doesn't matter now anyways as the financial requirement was missed. 

Regarding the bonus am I correct in assuming that if my payslips submitted were as follows (showing the below amounts on the Total Pay row underneath the *Gross Pay* column, as I can see this figure was used to reach their figure on the refusal) it still would not be enough as the lowest gross x 12 doesn't reach £18600?

June: £1512.50
July: £1512.50 
August: £1512.50
September: £1512.50 
October: £1512.50
November: £1977.50 

The above would be for an application submitted in December!


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## Crawford (Jan 23, 2011)

Rohnai89 said:


> Haha, definitely agree with including the envelope as well! I seriously do agree with asking for original statements in the post from your banks just to avoid giving any room for doubt!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


If you have salaried income the lowest monthly gross payment must be *1550.00*

The GROSS figure is always used to calculate the annual income figure.

I don't understand your earlier post where you say that pension paymens reduced your income. Pension payments are (usually) always shown after the GROSS income figure. Paying into a pension should not affect your gross income.

Needless to say you do not appear to meet the financial requirements.


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## Rohnai89 (Aug 27, 2016)

Crawford said:


> If you have salaried income the lowest monthly gross payment must be *1550.00*
> 
> The GROSS figure is always used to calculate the annual income figure.
> 
> ...


Thanks. I believe I do not.

The pension is as a 'Salary Sacrifice' so on the left hand column of my pay slip, titled Gross Pay there is: 

Salary £1550
Pension Salaray Sacrifice -£37.50

Total Pay £1512.50

The figure they mentioned in our rejection letter matched Total pay x 6 months (1512.50 x 6) and not Salary x 6 months (£1550 x 6) according to my pay slips. 

From what I have read on the net, the 18600 should be earn't and taxed and because salary sacrifice occurs before tax, the figure is not gross meaning my gross pay is actually 18150 (£1512.50 x 6).


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## ctyler (Feb 21, 2016)

Rohnai89 said:


> Thanks. I believe I do not.
> 
> The pension is as a 'Salary Sacrifice' so on the left hand column of my pay slip, titled Gross Pay there is:
> 
> ...


A while ago I posted a question about this, as this is my husband's situation. People were really sure, saying we should consider only the basic pay, not the pension. Good to read this from you now, I am applying in 10 days and want to do it as correct as possible.

Sorry about the refusal.


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## agentstar (Jul 6, 2016)

*Financial*

Have you or your wife got more than £ 16 000 in savings perhaps you can combine income and savings to get there ?
Then you may not have to worry about the tight margin you find yourself in

Please also beware some foreign banks are not accepted by UK VI

sorry about the result

Good L next time. 
Prepare everything, run it by us and we will help you then submit.


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## Rohnai89 (Aug 27, 2016)

ctyler said:


> A while ago I posted a question about this, as this is my husband's situation. People were really sure, saying we should consider only the basic pay, not the pension. Good to read this from you now, I am applying in 10 days and want to do it as correct as possible.
> 
> Sorry about the refusal.


Wish you all the best with your application! :fingerscrossed:

After consulting an immigration lawyer and reading through 100's of pages on the Gov's website regarding salary sacrifice and what the definition of a 'Gross Salary' is, it is apparant that they have refused us incorrectly as the salary sacrifice is legal and correct tax is paid on the full salary they required. Actually my payslips said 'Gross Salary £1550' which they failed to look at, only considering the lower Total pay figure as it suited them. I guess we gave them the edge as we had not explained ourselves with cover letters to justify this . 

I would still advise anyone in the same situation (£18,600 salary with salary sacrifice deductions each month) *NOT *to apply until the total pay (after sacrifice deductions or any other deductions) is at least £1550 per month to avoid giving these brainless immigration guys any reason to fail. 

If you still wish to apply, you can write cover letters to explain the deductions (which we did not) and also clearly state on your employers letter that deductions have been made towards a pension (or any other salsac) which is why pay slips show a minus figure under the 'Gross' column (which we did not as well!). 

Hope for the best for you! Let us know how it turns out 

We did not appeal as I have heard it could take over a year to process. Instead will submit a new application in a few months as I have already cancelled my pension payments and will have a bonus paid soon which will push the salary above the required. 

It is a real shame that such a petty thing marked us down (considering we paid £200 - £300 extra because of the USD to GBP exchange rate at application time increasing after brexit news and the deductions they marked us down for totaled around £200).

At least we know where this government stands and I cannot wait to start recovering every penny stolen from me!


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## ctyler (Feb 21, 2016)

In our case, my husband has two jobs. One of them he earns 16117/year but pays 5% pension the same way you do. We have been to see a lawyer, but to be honest I didn't feel like trusting his words that much. After reading your post, I went back to calculate his income and, due to his bonus, a few overtime, and his second job, we managed to reach 19381, even after removing the pension. But we will include in his cover letter about the pension, maybe even attach any document regarding it.

I hope you two all the best on your next application. Please, think, rethink, and do not apply until you're 100% sure. I know how it feels to be apart, I decided to come to the UK as a visitor just to stay with my husband while waiting until we can apply. Going back to Brazil in 10 days to apply for the visa. I can't wait for this to be over.


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## Rohnai89 (Aug 27, 2016)

agentstar said:


> Have you or your wife got more than £ 16 000 in savings perhaps you can combine income and savings to get there ?
> Then you may not have to worry about the tight margin you find yourself in
> 
> Please also beware some foreign banks are not accepted by UK VI
> ...


Thanks for the reply and the much needed luck! Will definitely post here before our next application is submitted and going to use a immigration lawyer for a second set of eyes and reasurrance.

Unfortunately we would not have that level of savings that we could show.


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## Rohnai89 (Aug 27, 2016)

ctyler said:


> In our case, my husband has two jobs. One of them he earns 16117/year but pays 5% pension the same way you do. We have been to see a lawyer, but to be honest I didn't feel like trusting his words that much. After reading your post, I went back to calculate his income and, due to his bonus, a few overtime, and his second job, we managed to reach 19381, even after removing the pension. But we will include in his cover letter about the pension, maybe even attach any document regarding it.
> 
> I hope you two all the best on your next application. Please, think, rethink, and do not apply until you're 100% sure. I know how it feels to be apart, I decided to come to the UK as a visitor just to stay with my husband while waiting until we can apply. Going back to Brazil in 10 days to apply for the visa. I can't wait for this to be over.


Best of luck to you both as well! Hope I can see a post from you in a few weeks to say you got it!


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