Homebound Brit

Hello,

This forum has been so helpful to me the past year as I have been preparing to move with my British husband and two daughters from Canada to England. We have all of the documents to support our application, however some of them are not originals. Do we need to get the copies notarized?

Because my husband is the sole director of a company and is paid in dividends we are required to provide the following documents.
​​​​​​1) share certificates ( certified)
2) incorporation Certificate (certified)
3) Tax returns (copies)
4) Company Financial Statements (original)
5) Bank Statements (originals)
6) Letter from Accountant (done electronically, so copy)
7) T5 - The Canadian equivalent to dividend vouchers (copy)

We also have one electric bill in our cohab documents that is a copy.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

BritInParis

Documents need to be original. Where are the originals for the documents you have copies for?

Homebound Brit

Thanks for the reply BritInParis. In Canada taxes are filed and generated electronically, therefore we don't receive a hard copy (original) only emailed a copy. As we are increasingly paperless, our bills are also electronic which is why we don't have an original copy of the electric bill. I even called the electric company and asked them to send me an original bill and they sent a letter saying "here is the invoice you requested" but it's clearly a copy. We also don't have originals of our tenancy agreements, nor can we get them because our landlord shredded the original.

Which, if any, documents should we get notarized and would a notarized copy would suffice? The tax returns alone are 20+ pages each and at $35 per page it's going to add up very quickly. Would we need to get every page notarized?

xxMeraxx

Homebound Brit

Our bank statements are all original so I'm good with that. It's the tax documents that I'm most concerned about. The letter from our accountant is electronically signed. He is now out of the country for 6 weeks and we are completing my application Friday so it will have to do. I'm just wondering if it would help to have it notarized. Along with the tax return etc. mentioned in my original post.

BritInParis

Notarisation by a third party is meaningless. What is useful is a copy being stamped and certified by the issuing organisation as true. If the print-offs of electronic copies are all that are available then you should use those. If you can't get the issuing organisation to certify them then I would ask them for a letter stating that it is not their policy to do so. If they won't do even that then you should write a covering letter to explain that what you have is all that is available and the efforts you made to obtain originals/certified copies.

Homebound Brit

Got it. Thank you.

Homebound Brit

Ok, I'm supper stressed out. I submitted my application. At my biometrics appointment, I paid to keep my passport (because we have a holiday booked in November) and they took a copy of every page but I didn't have a chance to get it certified. Also, they didn't take my original birth certificate, my children's birth certificates, or any family passports. Basically anything that didn't fit in the scanner.

Is this cause for concern?

BritInParis

If your daughters are British citizens then no. They should’ve taken at least a scan of your husband’s British passport though.

Homebound Brit

Thank you BritInParis. Our Daughters are British Citizens and I did put a copy of my husbands passport in there.

One other question. Because our financial evidence is a bit complicated due to the fact that my husband is paid in dividends I had included a cover letter relating solely to financial requirement. And in this letter I listed all requirements with an explanation and tabbed each exhibit so that it was easy to follow. Obviously, I didn't realize that the VFS office would rearrange the documents and remove the tabs. My concern is that the ECO won't be able to follow the Canadian evidence as its presented now.

Should I send a scanned copy that is annotated sequentially as laid out in our cover letter?

BritInParis

You can do but hopefully your ECO will be able to work it out.

Homebound Brit

I received this email... Does it mean I have been approved? If so, if I take my passport to VFS tomorrow how long until I have my visa / vignette? Hard not to be excited!!!

"Dear UK Visa Applicant,
We are pleased to inform you a decision has been made on your application. Please request you to submit your passport at the visa application center in Vancouver, Monday to Friday between 10:00 am to 2:00pm in order to complete the visa process.
Kindly note: The passport should be submitted to the Vancouver Visa Application Center within 28 days after the first email notification.

Best Regards,
VFS GLOBAL - UK Visa Application Team"

BritInParis

Only one way to find out

mjf

I am concerned ar sending original wedding / divorce certificates to Sheffield. is there anyby body here that has been successful with a spouse settlement application using photocopies that are certified by a Notary Public?

AnAsianWife

Hi, Mine I submitted all coloured photocopies just last September 2018, and my application is successful.