flannelshirt

My wife and I are preparing the documentation to apply for a spouse visa. I'm British living in UK and she is American just finishing a mid-career masters at in Boston. We have been together 3 years and married for 1.

We are going to use the priority service and hope that we can get a decision within a month and a half from now (is this optimistic?).

I'd appreciate some help with a few questions and things I'm unclear on:

1. Original documents - what does this actually mean when almost all of my original documents are digital (E.g. pay slips, contract of employment, bank statements etc)?

2. Evidence of accommodation - what is required for this? I have shared rented accommodation in London, but when she gets here we'll be finding somewhere for ourselves. So will a copy of my tenancy, council tax and utilities for my current residence suffice? I also have the option on my parents expressing their permission to live at their house, but this is some 200 miles from London.

3. Sending the documentation - if originals are required, then do I need to post them first to my wife in the US (as I have things like original marriage certificate), so she can post them all back (including her passport) to the visa processing centre in Sheffield?

4. I've seen the Applicant and Sponsor application forms mentioned on this forum like they are two document. I've filled in the form at https://www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk which seems to cover both the Applicant and Sponsor sides. Is this correct?

5. Relationship Evidence - does the below seem enough?
- We have extensive travel history together (flight + hotel receipts)
- Written and notarised statement from my parents of my wife staying with me at their house between us leaving the US and going to NZ.
- NZ working holiday visa for my wife and I
- Joint bank account in NZ - 6 months of statements
- Booking form for wedding photographer
- A car insurance policy in NZ for the van we travelled around the country in
- A current car insurance policy in UK where my wife is a named driver
- Cards from wedding reception
- Photos from last 3 years including wedding, wedding reception and travel
- Emails - Do we really need to provide these? If so do we need to provide full content of them?
- Phone records - Same as above. Facetime doesn't seem to have kept an extensive log of these calls.
- iMessage - Again how should these logs be presented? Should it be the full content or just date/times?

6. Financial requirement
- This should be straightforward as I have over 6 months of employment being paid above the required amount in my current job in UK.

Thanks in advance for your time.