[sethcamden]

I'm new here and would appreciate some advice on my wife and me's living situation. She moved to the UK to join me last year and we share a flat in London (with both our names on the lease). However, I'm only there on weekends. I'm a doctor and during the weekdays I work in Leicester. Since I can't do the daily back and forth 2-hour commute between London and Leicester, I stay during weekdays in Leicester (in doctor's quarters provided by the hospital I work in), and then travel back home to London on weekends. The doctor quarters in Leicester is one I share with other itinerant doctors and I do receive some mail at this place, further, my payslips, employment letter, etc. all have this address on them (as opposed to the address of my London flat I share with my spouse).

This presents a bit of a dilemma for us, because, essentially, my wife and I are cohabitating, but only partly so (2 days out of every week). Is this something that will require an explanation in the application?

We were initially thinking of not even mentioning my hospital quarters in Leicester, but my payslips, P60, employment letter, etc. (which we plan to use to demonstrate we meet the minimum income threshold) all have the address of these quarters on them, so we don't have much of a choice. Further, if we don't mention it, I'm sure the official reviewing the application will wonder why our flat is in london but my workplace is all the way in Leicester!! Any similar experiences with the partial cohabitation problem? How do we deal with this?

 

[sethcamden]

I'm new here and would appreciate some advice on my wife and me's living situation. She moved to the UK to join me last year and we share a flat in London (with both our names on the lease). However, I'm only there on weekends. I'm a doctor and during the weekdays I work in Leicester. Since I can't do the daily back and forth 2-hour commute between London and Leicester, I stay during weekdays in Leicester (in doctor's quarters provided by the hospital I work in), and then travel back home to London on weekends. The doctor quarters in Leicester is one I share with other itinerant doctors and I do receive some mail at this place, further, my payslips, employment letter, etc. all have this address on them (as opposed to the address of my London flat I share with my spouse).

This presents a bit of a dilemma for us, because, essentially, my wife and I are cohabitating, but only partly so (2 days out of every week). Is this something that will require an explanation in the application?

We were initially thinking of not even mentioning my hospital quarters in Leicester, but my payslips, P60, employment letter, etc. (which we plan to use to demonstrate we meet the minimum income threshold) all have the address of these quarters on them, so we don't have much of a choice. Further, if we don't mention it, I'm sure the official reviewing the application will wonder why our flat is in london but my workplace is all the way in Leicester!! Any similar experiences with the partial cohabitation problem? How do we deal with this?

Please any input or insights on this would be much welcome
Thanks!

 

[shaz2803]

I believe you should write a letter explaining exactly what you have stated here and add the letter on top of you financial items when you are ready for submission.

Being away 5 days a week is because your (working) as a Doctor its your Job.

The Home Office will understand this.

 

[nyclon]

On the other hand, they may question why you don’t move to Leicester. I don’t know.

 

[shaz2803]

yes i did think that also, its up to the OP to explain his reasons best

 

[clever-octopus]

Do you have enough correspondence to your shared London address to satisfy the requirements? If so I would just supply that and not mention anything about another address, since in truth, you are still maintaining a shared home.

 

[nyclon]

Do you have enough correspondence to your shared London address to satisfy the requirements? If so I would just supply that and not mention anything about another address, since in truth, you are still maintaining a shared home.

However, his payslips and employment letter will all show a Leicester address and I would guess that his employment letter would indicate that he works in Leicester.

 

[gailmargolis]

Agreed

 

[sethcamden]

Thank you all for all your responses! We've decided that my wife (who's been working for over a year on a work visa) will use her income to meet the requirement, thereby sidestepping the issue. I am now wondering whether we should still write a cover letter explaining the fact that I worked in Leicester on weekdays and only lived with her in our shared flat on weekends? Since we are applying using her employment, there is no part of the form asking about my own current employment, so no reason for the officer to know that it is in Leicester, rather than London where we both live. Still, though, I feel it may be problematic to not mention this. For example, perhaps they can pull up my National Insurance information and find details about my job, and that it's all the way in Leicester even though we claim to be living together in London. I'm not sure what to do! Any advice would be much appreciated!