potcake

Has anyone haad any issues with using online bank statements in a uk spousal application? My DH found out yesterday ( thanks for leaving it until the last minute!!) that Scotiabank in Canada only issue online statements and not the old fashioned paper ones. Now I have been on the UKBA website which is already out of date which does say we can use online statements only if every page is stamped by the bank and we have a covering letter. Does anyone have any thoughts expereince on this one. We are hoping to send the package off today.

Bluegrass Lass

Consider the UKBA site to be up to date on this particular documentation. If you cannot get the paper statements sent to you by the bank, then you will need to take your print outs (or have the bank branch print them out) and have the teller stamp every page. This proves that they are authentic. It is quite easy to forge bank statements, and UKBA needs proof they are legitimate.

I researched most of my info from www.talk.uk-yankee.com forum, and this is a common problem as more and more banks are moving away from the paper statements. The advice give on UKY has been to get them stamped, otherwise you risk a failed application.

potcake

Thank you for the confirmation! I have just come back from the bank, they have kindly/ reluctantly (it is Friday!!) printed off proper bank statements upto Oct 1st. they then printed off an online one stamped every page, signed it and enclosed a business card of the lady that did it for us. We are sending off the package tomorrow. YAY!!!

roaringmouse

In some cases it's impossible to get statements. We have an online savings account in the UK, which contained a substantial amount of the money we were quoting in my wife's UK visa application. Problem is they don't provide statements at all, and you can't get statements from online stamped at a branch because it doesn't even figure into their world being a different division of the bank.

So we didn't have much choice and sent a mix of statements and (unverified) online statements showing the trail for that money from transfer to the UK until now. Hopefully someone will see that it's genuine, although fortunately we had some (but a lot less) still here in Australia.

manny1980

In some cases it is very difficult to obtain original hard copy of the bank statements especially when the sponsor and applicant are both living abroad. I have bank in the UK but they do not mail me the bank statements and I will be submitting one I downloaded online. Importantly, I also am making sure to include a note stating the reason why I am unable to get hard copies...if you are being honest and have plenty of evidence to support your application, it would be really dumb for immigration officer not to differentiate between genuine cases and the fraudulent ones.

johnh009

We had an account which did not issue paper statements but the bank will issue an official "statement of account" (for a fee) which will specify the balance and is satisfactory for immigration issues. The statement of account can also cover multiple accounts. Otherwise, they like statements on bank letterhead.