UK Entry clearance application : What documents do you need?

Our new video explaining the basic documents and procedure that are needed when applying for an Entry Clearance in the UK

Rahil discusses this topic with one of our clients:

Rahil: “I understand that you, or your wife has an entry clearance application and has been refused. Do you want to tell me the reasons why or the reasons that have been set out in the notice of refusal please.”

Client: “Sure, so I’m a British citizen, my wife’s an American national, she made an application for entry clearance under the spousal route to come and join me here in the UK and settle on a permanent basis, but unfortunately she was refused for financial reasons. The refusal notice says that my earnings didn’t meet the thresh hold required under appendix fm of the rules i wanted to know how to go about challenging that. Cause I think that I did supply the correct documents.”

Rahil: “Ok, your absolutely right, the financial requirements that are to be met, are set out at part 8 appendix fm 1.7 of the rules. The baseline is, I understand from your point of view, that you are employed with a company, what you as the sponsor. Your wife is the applicant and you are the sponsor, has to prove is that your are earning a gross salary of £18,600 per annum. Number 2, that you have been in your job for at least 6 months or more.

The documents that you need to show as the sponsor in order to prove that your earnings are £18,600 per annum and there for satisfy the requirement would be for example your; P60 for the last financial year which would prove and corroborate that you truly have been earning £18,600 gross, now do remember that this £18,600 is for a couple that don’t have any children, if you do have children then the requirement is higher but I wont rehearse that here today because that is not relevant to your scenario.

You will also need to submit 6 months pay slips, this needs to be the original,infact all of the document that you are submitting need to be original. You will need to submit 6 months bank statements, if these are online bank statements you need to print them off and have them verified and stamped by the bank, otherwise they will not be accepted. It has to be the bank account where your salary is being paid in, so that you can cross-refer, infact its actually probably good practice to highlight where your salary is coming in, so the name of employer and your salary each month.

You will also need to submit your employment contract, if you’ve got it. If you haven’t got it, then a letter, an original letter from the employer setting out the start date and the fact that you’re still employed would be very desirable and thats quite important. The other thing thats actually good practice to include, is an expenses in expenditure spreadsheet, setting out what your income is and what your monthly expenses are, so your expenses would be whatever credit or debits that you have going out and that also shows, a disposable income that is left for you.

The main criteria for the financial requirements is that the government and home office can be satisfied that you and your partner, your wife who will eventually be settled in the UK, providing all the rules are met, is not going to be a burden on the public purse.”