# Checklist for Wife's visa application from Korea



## sheppast (Feb 23, 2014)

Hello all,

I've been somewhat of a hawk watching over these forums on and off for 18 months now, as I juggled the ever changing demands of the UKBA and formulated my game plan for securing a visa for my wife.

My wife and I married in August 2013 in her home country of Korea. We had previously met while I lived and worked there for two years between August 2010 and September 2012. We've been together since January 2011. Upon my return to the UK, my father had attempted to sponsor her for a working visa and employ her within his company, but excessive delegation of the application (as well as the fact that I was repeatedly told I didn't need to help and everything was under control!) led to my wife being rejected in October 2012.

Following this news (and considerable loss of financial resources for both of us!) she came to stay on a tourist visa and spent 3 months living at my flat in London, between November 2012 and February 2013. She then moved back to Korea and has been working to save funds for our next application ever since. In August I was finally able to fly back and visit her. We were officially married whilst I was there (although we didn't have a ceremony and are hoping to renew our vows in the presence of friends and family over here in the UK once she arrives). Our marriage has since been acknowledged and entered onto the UK Marriage Register.

I began my current job in May 2013, and so it was not until close to the end of the year that I completed 6 months in the position and became eligible to act as her sponsor. Following my relocation to a new flat in December (and the associated disruption of Christmas), we have been gradually getting the ball rolling again with regards to the application since January. I am now confident I have around 90% of the require documents together. All being well, we are hoping she will be able to submit the application in Korea within the next couple of weeks.

Therefore, I would kindly ask that anyone who has a spare 5 minutes please look over the checklist I've copied below. I know you must all read this type of thing a hundred times a day, but I'm terrified that we will forget to cross a T or dot an I and she will end up disappointed again! I've only spent 2 1/2 weeks with her over the last 12 months and I am dying for us to be reunited. She's been so strong throughout the whole ordeal, and I just want to take care of as much of this as possible and make sure the whole thing as easy as possible for her.

Below is what I have gathered so far. I will post original copies of all the documents pertaining to me across to her later this week (touch wood):

Forms

- Online application form (printed)
- VAF4A Appendix 2
- SU07 Form
- Online Payment Receipt

Basic application info:

- letter of introduction
- 2 new passport photos
- wife's original passport (along with scans of pages showing previous travel to the UK)
- Marriage certificate and family register from Korea (translated and notarised)
- Marriage certificate notarised by the UK registry office (in the form of a letter as well as officially stamped copies of the original document)

Info on me:

- Scans of my passport
- Copies of my previous Korean working visa and evidence of my travels to the country
- Letter of sponsorship

Financial Info:

- Letter of employment from my boss (stating salary, duration etc)
- Payslips since May 2013
- Bank statements since Jun 2013
- Current P60
- Wife's bank statements for the previous 6 months (proving her employment and financial security).

(The financial documents would be dated up to the end of February. We would hope to apply in the first week or two of March, so we'd be well within the 28 day cut off.)

Wife's English Speaking Info:

- IELTS test certificate (from October 2013).
- Degree certificate (as English was her minor).
- Letter from her boss detailing current employment as English Teacher.

My accommodation info:

- Most recent council tax bill (covering period of December 2013 - March 2014)
- Copy of tenancy agreement. 
- Letter from landlord giving explicit permission for my wife to reside with me upon her arrival.
- Land registry documents proving the above is the genuine landlord.

Relationship info:

- Photographs of both of us with my family during her stay in the UK.
- Photographs of me with her family during last summer and my two years in Korea.
- Numerous photographs of the two of us together in both UK and Korea.
- Copies of my flight tickets to and from Korea.
- Copies of her flight tickets to and from the UK.
- Messenger transcript (showing over 5,000 messages between us in the last year).
- Details of emails between my wife and my parents, and brother.
- Details of emails between us.
- Skype logs.
- Receipts for wedding rings (although these are in Korean).

Please let me know your thoughts on the above. Any advice would be hugely appreciated. We've been building up to this for so long, it feels strange to finally be so close!


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

SU07 form not required.
P60 from 2012-13 not required as it doesn't cover any period you are relying on (which is all in 2013-14 tax year).
Your wife's bank statement not necessary.
Only IELTS result needed. Make sure Home Office can verify the result electronically using her passport number, i.e. it's the same passport as the one she is submitting. If it wasn't, attach a note pointing this out and give the correct passport number.
I hope your communications record isn't too much.

The rest seems fine.


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## sheppast (Feb 23, 2014)

Hi Joppa,

Thanks so much for the reply. You are an absolute hero to so many on this site!

Is it totally unnecessary to include details of my wife's financial status and occupation then? I thought it might help as it will prove that a.) she has savings, and b.) she works in an English speaking role. But I guess all they really want to know is that the sponsor (me) is financially qualified?

The messenger thing is a tricky one. Koreans have an app called Kakao talk (which is similar to WhatsApp, only it's been around much longer and offers free calls as well as texts). We use this to call and message each other 90% of the time. As such, our only evidence is a transcript of correspondence from the last 15 months that looks like something from a turn of the century chatroom! It's a bit cumbersome, but it's better to include it than leave a potentially suspicious gap in communications, right?

Lastly, do you think it will make any difference that she was rejected for a working visa in 2012? My father (meaning well but without any real knowledge of the situation) attempted to hire her at a fairly lofty management level (through an immigration agency) and was told in no uncertain terms by the UKBA that it couldn't be approved as there was no way she was qualified to take such a role.

Neither myself nor my wife had any direct dealing with the agency or the UKBA at this time. Provided we disclose that she's been rejected in the past, will this have any bearing on our application now? I know it's for a totally different visa this time, but you never know how these bad tastes linger.

Thanks again for the reply. I can't tell you how useful it is to have someone to set my mind at ease!


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## sheppast (Feb 23, 2014)

Oh... and do I need to notarise the scans of my passport or any other documents?

The letters from my boss and landlord will all be signed of course, plus my marriage certificate is stamped by the registry office, but are there any other documents that I should look to get notarised or apostilled?


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Your wife's financial details aren't needed at all.
Be sensible about message records.
You will need to own up to visa refusal. While it was for a different category, she was still the applicant so she needs to accept responsibility for it and acknowledge the error. This can be done with a short note stapled to the application (when printed out).
No, original documents don't need certifying. They do have to be professional translated if it's not in English. Remember all processing will be done in Manila.


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## sheppast (Feb 23, 2014)

Thanks again for the reply, Joppa.

I was thinking a note would be the best way to address the previous visa refusal. I might ask my father to draft a letter explaining events and attach this as supporting evidence.

All of the documents pertaining to her information and our Korean wedding have been professionally translated already, so we should be good to go. Can I just confirm I can send scans of my passport, rather than the original? I know she will be submitting her original passports covering the period of the last decade, but I hope I don't have to send mine to the other side of the world and can just scan the relevant pages!

In terms of message records, I will try to see if there is a means of getting stats, rather than the body of messages themselves. I'm sure we can find a reasonable solution.

I think I'm going to wait until after I get my payslip for the month of February (should be March 1st) then immediately begin the application process. That way we'll be well within the 28 day period.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Just plain photocopy of bio pages of your British passport will do.


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## gazz21uk (Feb 24, 2014)

Hi OP, hopefully you know about this new rule ^

She'll now need to have a TB medical check, done in Seoul at one of the hospitals listed on this link. 

Once she has the check done, the certificate is valid for 6 months....

Good luck! I'm in the process of moving back to the UK with my Korean wife - another hoop to jump through! :fencing:

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Ok check that - i'm not allowed to post a link - so google TB check for UK spousal VISA - Korea......


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/countries/south-korea/tb-test/?langname=UK English
New rule from 31st December 2013.


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## sheppast (Feb 23, 2014)

Hi Joppa,

Thanks very much for the information. I am going on a scanning mission later this week. Will it help for me to include the pages of my passport with stamps to and from Korea (as well as the page on which my former working VISA is fastened)? I just want to make everything as explicit as possible for the relevant authorities, so they can see my previous employment in Korea.

Thanks Gazz! I had vaguely read about the TB rule, but I thought it was optional. You've potentially saved me a lot of stress! Now I just need to convince my wife to travel up to Seoul on her day off to take the test. She lives near Busan, so it's quite a trek up north!


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## sheppast (Feb 23, 2014)

Just one final question regarding the English language requirement. My wife's IELTS scores (from October 2013) are as follows:

Listening: 6.7
Speaking: 7.0
Reading: 4.3
Writing: 4.8

The form on the UKBA website states a number of different bands and levels required for each. I had previously read that speaking and listening are more highly valued by the UKBA, but this has not been verified. 

I am confused as to whether to required score is the average of the above (which would be somewhere around the 6.0 mark, or the individual values of each. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


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