Spouse visa - Thanks and advice (priority, contact centre)
 

Hi all -

I created an account just to say thank you to posters and mods (especially BritInParis) for the advice here - it was very useful, as a lurker, for my (now successful) spouse visa application (my spouse is British, and I am a New Zealander who applied from New Zealand). Thank you for the useful topics which provided a lot of support and advice at a very stressful time for us both. I wish I had read more of this forum before submitting my application!

Two items of noting/advice just from my experience - of course yours may differ:

Priority - To echo advice I have seen here, in hindsight I wish I had just paid the priority fee. I encourage people to do this if you can afford it and consider your application is complete, thorough, and 'straightforward'' (and you will be available to go after the 30 days etc.). It will (ideally) reduce a lengthy and stressful process which will make the difference in the long run while you are each on an opposite side of the world worrying and waiting. The sense I got when calling the contact centre for an update (at about day 35-40) was that I was presumptuous to have expected an update by then so early in the process.

Contact centre - The New Zealand courier company LOST my passport and letter for a week on its return journey to me after claiming it had been delivered (despite using a tracking number, etc.). This meant I *knew* a decision had been made but did not know *what* the decision was. This was understandably frustrating. The contact centre were polite but unable to help me in this situation either by phone or email, despite my explanation/entreaties, to ascertain *what* the decision was, only that one had been made and that I needed to follow-up with the courier.

Best wishes to everyone else going through the process.

Re: Spouse visa - Thanks and advice (priority, contact centre)
 

Do you mind me asking what supporting documents you ended up sending? Been compiling everything I can think of but want to have as full and organised of an application as possible! Congratulations on your successful application!

Re: Spouse visa - Thanks and advice (priority, contact centre)
 

• Wife’s previous (NZ) employment contract with 12 months of payslips.
• Most recent 12 months of bank statements (clearly named joint account to also evidence our relationship) with wife’s pay corresponding to payslips highlighted.
• Spouse’s current (UK) employment offer and signed contract.
• Note as my spouse had not yet been paid in her UK role I explained this in my application and said I could provide her payslips from the end of the next month (this was never requested).
• Letter from spouse’s current (UK) employer confirming her role, nature of employment, salary, and start date.
• Lots of evidence of shared expenses, including a copy/print out of our most recent bills which were in both our names (eg copy of mortgage statement, all of our insurances and utilities, etc).
• Marriage certificate.
• The other required docs eg my passport and scan of wife’s UK passport, plus copies of application etc.

I didn’t include a copy of our UK rental agreement but wrote clearly in the application that my wife had rented an apartment for a few months until I got there and we could buy a house. As I was a public servant in NZ I also explained what my roles had been in the “Have you worked for government?” section.

Good luck with your application!