# UK Spouse Visa Granted



## Gordon1967 (Mar 10, 2013)

Applied online 02/12/2012
Documents delivered to Worldbridge 04/12/12
Biometrics 04/12/12
Visa Application refused 07/03/13 due to not meeting financial requirement
Re-applied online 01/04/13
Documents delivered to Worldbridge 09/04/13
SMS received to pick up documents 28/06/13
Picked up documents UK Spouse Visa Granted 01/07/13

FLIGHTS BOOKED for 12/12/13

This is our timeline.... soooooo happy that this is over :clap2: and thank you particularly to MacUK, Joppa & West Coast for pointing us in the right direction and keeping our spirits up during this difficult time.


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## suziechew (May 1, 2012)

can I ask a personal question ? why did u fail on financial requirements and what did u do to change the outcome ,only asking because of the judgement on Friday ,may mean I can apply for a fiancé visa again rather than move to Ireland and go down the eea family route.
also I suspect a lot of people will be doing the same so I can see those timelines extending a lot as they would have to cope with an influx of applications of families who could afford to apply if they did drop the bar on the financial threshold . 

BUT well done on your successful application ,wish u all the best for the future .:clap2:


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## abidabzhussain (Jan 24, 2013)

congrats


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## MacUK (Jul 3, 2012)

Yay!!! Finally, congrats to you both and have a happy life in the UK!


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## Gordon1967 (Mar 10, 2013)

suziechew said:


> can I ask a personal question ? why did u fail on financial requirements and what did u do to change the outcome ,only asking because of the judgement on Friday ,may mean I can apply for a fiancé visa again rather than move to Ireland and go down the eea family route.
> also I suspect a lot of people will be doing the same so I can see those timelines extending a lot as they would have to cope with an influx of applications of families who could afford to apply if they did drop the bar on the financial threshold .
> 
> BUT well done on your successful application ,wish u all the best for the future .:clap2:


Good afternoon.. On the day we applied I had not been working in the UK for 6 months. Even though my salary was well above the £18600 minimum I had only been working 4 months. So as soon as we got the refusal on financial requirement only we re-applied straight away as I had been now working over 7 months


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## Gordon1967 (Mar 10, 2013)

MacUK said:


> Yay!!! Finally, congrats to you both and have a happy life in the UK!


Thanks alot MacUK  We both are really looking forward to next weekend and the rest of our lives


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## benthomas010 (Jun 5, 2012)

aren't you leaving it too long before the move to the UK? I thought general guidelines were that this should be within 3 months of the visa being issues? Hence the extra 3 months you get on the visa? 

Congratulations btw.


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## Gordon1967 (Mar 10, 2013)

benthomas010 said:


> aren't you leaving it too long before the move to the UK? I thought general guidelines were that this should be within 3 months of the visa being issues? Hence the extra 3 months you get on the visa?
> 
> Congratulations btw.


Ahhh you spotted the mistake I didn't. Flights booked 12/07/13


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## benthomas010 (Jun 5, 2012)

**



Gordon1967 said:


> Ahhh you spotted the mistake I didn't. Flights booked 12/07/13


Thats more like it lol.


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## Silverlining (Jun 6, 2013)

Congratulations!!!!!!


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## kateelizabeth (Nov 1, 2013)

*Collation of documentation*

Dear all, 
I hope you're well. I've been reading this forum for a while but this is the first time I'm attempting to post. Please don't jump on me if the thread already exists elsewhere! - feeling a little fragile with the stress of the separation from my partner - but rest assured I will be extremely grateful for your advice here.
The one aspect of the Spouse Visa application process about which I have found little information is regarding the actual ("physical") collation, compilation and indexing of documents. Can anyone advise, or even show a photo of how they went about it? I have read that plastic wallets are to be avoided, and likewise the mounting of photos on cardboard, but I'm not sure how to best present (for example) the 6 months' payslips and corresponding bank statements. Clearly, nobody would hole-punch their marriage certificate or similar! I'm a secondary school teacher, so usually pretty adept at filing mountains of paperwork, but find myself rather at sea with this application process. Many thanks in advance of any assistance.


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## Water Dragon (Jun 28, 2011)

*Don't despair!*



kateelizabeth said:


> Dear all,
> I hope you're well. I've been reading this forum for a while but this is the first time I'm attempting to post. Please don't jump on me if the thread already exists elsewhere! - feeling a little fragile with the stress of the separation from my partner - but rest assured I will be extremely grateful for your advice here.
> The one aspect of the Spouse Visa application process about which I have found little information is regarding the actual ("physical") collation, compilation and indexing of documents. Can anyone advise, or even show a photo of how they went about it? I have read that plastic wallets are to be avoided, and likewise the mounting of photos on cardboard, but I'm not sure how to best present (for example) the 6 months' payslips and corresponding bank statements. Clearly, nobody would hole-punch their marriage certificate or similar! I'm a secondary school teacher, so usually pretty adept at filing mountains of paperwork, but find myself rather at sea with this application process. Many thanks in advance of any assistance.


You are correct in avoiding any page protectors, binders, etc. Just imagine if you are the ECO and have to process your application - try to make it as simple and effortless as possible. 

It is good to separate your documents into the 3 main required areas - financial, accommodation and relationship. Of course, your biometric receipt, application, appendix and letter of introduction would be first (if using priority processing, place that receipt on the very top).

I happened to have some very narrow ribbon and used that to tie each bundle together. String would work too. I only used a couple of paperclips to hold the bank statements in one group and the payslips in another. I also included an Excel spreadsheet showing the dates of deposits, dates paid, gross amount and net amount deposited and bank account numbers to be sure it all was very clear. (My husband had changed bank accounts and I wanted to make sure there wasn't any confusion.)

All of my photos were digital, so I just made 3 pages of collages, with dates and simple explanation of each one. Two pages were photos taken from visits over the 2 years before our wedding, the third was of our wedding.

When I got my visa back, the ribbons hadn't even been untied - the ECO just flipped through the pages and removed the ones they needed.

Feel free to ask any questions here - this process has a way of paralyzing brain cells.


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## wannabe-uk (May 6, 2013)

I thought I had read on here somewhere that you could put the original photos onto cardboard, set out 2 or 3 to a piece?


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## LRK (Oct 26, 2013)

Water Dragon said:


> You are correct in avoiding any page protectors, binders, etc. Just imagine if you are the ECO and have to process your application - try to make it as simple and effortless as possible.
> 
> It is good to separate your documents into the 3 main required areas - financial, accommodation and relationship. Of course, your biometric receipt, application, appendix and letter of introduction would be first (if using priority processing, place that receipt on the very top).
> 
> ...


WaterDragon, this might be obvious but to confirm, when you submitted your application, it was in three separate bundles tied together with ribbon with any receipts on top of the financial bundle? So the individual sheets of paper were loose (but secured in the bundle)? I have been wondering the best way to do it. Thankyou!


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

LRK said:


> WaterDragon, this might be obvious but to confirm, when you submitted your application, it was in three separate bundles tied together with ribbon with any receipts on top of the financial bundle? So the individual sheets of paper were loose (but secured in the bundle)? I have been wondering the best way to do it. Thankyou!


Put each category together-financial, accommodation and relationship. Tie all the originals together with the application on top. Put a set of copies together in the exact same order and likewise tie together.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

ECO wants documents in a certain order, so wants to see them loosely tied together to be separated and rearranged. For smaller items like payslips, it's ok to clip them together or put in a transparent wallet, same with some valuable documents like passports. Digital photos should be printed out on photo paper, and the copy can be on ordinary office paper. If you only have prints, put originals on a stiff paper and just photocopy or scan it for the copy.


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## kateelizabeth (Nov 1, 2013)

So heartened by the quick responses - thank you, everyone. I hope you don't mind a follow-up question. I had originally intended to put each document in a plastic wallet within a ring-binder, including dividers, in order to facilitate the process of indexing. If, instead, I am advised to submit documents in loose bundles, does that mean that it isn't necessary to create an index? i.e. the onus is on the ECO to sift through and judge which documents s/he will consider?


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Indexes, cover sheets etc aren't required. What you can do instead is to put a paper sideways around each section and write what it relates to, such as financials, accommodation and relationship before putting strings around each in a cross-fashion, but definitely avoid binders, punched papers and tabs.


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## juhi (Jul 7, 2013)

Joppa said:


> Indexes, cover sheets etc aren't required. What you can do instead is to put a paper sideways around each section and write what it relates to, such as financials, accommodation and relationship before putting strings around each in a cross-fashion, but definitely avoid binders, punched papers and tabs.


Hi Joppa, no matter how well organized we submit, the people at Vfs Hyderabad removed all my documents from plastic wallets and arranged loosely according to the checklist they had. I really wish Eco get satisfied from what we have as evidences and approve us visa this time.btw wanted to mention here that my husband arrived from uk to assist us with this process and I mentioned this in my letter that I intend to fly with my hubby to uk on nov 15( his return flight)Will this help in anyway in getting my visa any sooner. just out of curiosity mentioned else I know it's gonna take not less than 3 months and we had a refusal lately for which explained separately the reasons for our refusal.


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## Water Dragon (Jun 28, 2011)

kateelizabeth said:


> So heartened by the quick responses - thank you, everyone. I hope you don't mind a follow-up question. I had originally intended to put each document in a plastic wallet within a ring-binder, including dividers, in order to facilitate the process of indexing. If, instead, I am advised to submit documents in loose bundles, does that mean that it isn't necessary to create an index? i.e. the onus is on the ECO to sift through and judge which documents s/he will consider?


You definitely want to avoid any binders, sleeves, dividers, etc! I placed my photocopies behind the originals, in the same order, but not in a separate pile. Thus, original payslips/copied payslips, original bank statements/copies, original photo collages/copies....etc. I did it this way because there were some things that I didn't photocopy and I didn't want it all mixed up in one bunch. I didn't use any kind of index because I thought the bundles were self-explanatory.

I think the main point is to make it as logical, organized and simple as possible so the ECO can just thumb through and pick out what they need. Obviously, if they receive a huge binder with everything in page protectors with dividers, etc, it is much more aggravating then to pick up a bundle of sheets of paper that they can thumb through and easily remove individual pages from.

I think you can figure out a system that works best for your documents.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

juhi said:


> Hi Joppa, no matter how well organized we submit, the people at Vfs Hyderabad removed all my documents from plastic wallets and arranged loosely according to the checklist they had. I really wish Eco get satisfied from what we have as evidences and approve us visa this time.btw wanted to mention here that my husband arrived from uk to assist us with this process and I mentioned this in my letter that I intend to fly with my hubby to uk on nov 15( his return flight)Will this help in anyway in getting my visa any sooner. just out of curiosity mentioned else I know it's gonna take not less than 3 months and we had a refusal lately for which explained separately the reasons for our refusal.


When you are submitting documents in person, as in India, take them loose and let them rearrange there and then. My suggestion about using strings and protectors refers to when you have to post them, to avoid damage from the postal process.

I'm afraid they will ignore your request for priority processing, which is only for most pressing humanitarian reasons like serious illness and bereavement.


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## kateelizabeth (Nov 1, 2013)

Hi again, Joppa, and thanks again. Perhaps I should have mentioned that the Application Centre my husband will attend is Havana, Cuba. He will be taking the documents in person to his appointment and Cuba is one of the five or so cases which also requires a handwritten application form. We will follow your advice then, and take the documents loose. Has anyone else reading this applied in the Cuba VAC?


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Yes do that.


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