[Catalanista]

I recently married my US husband and returned back to the UK on the day of our wedding due to work commitments.
We are applying now for a spouse visa for him to join me in the UK.
My question is, how to answer the Appendix 2 question, 1.19, " why you have never lived together. "
We met online and have spent various periods together but have not yet lived together. We are obvioulsy planning on living together as soon as the authorities grant us the spouse visa.
Please can anybody advise on how best to answer this question?
Many thanks

 

[AmyD]

Just say what you said here. However, it struck me that you left on the day of your marriage to return to the UK. If I were an ECO I'd be thinking that this was a sham marriage based on that alone. You might want to bulk up your relationship section with very strong evidence that this is not a marriage of convenience.

 

[Catalanista]

Thanks Amy.
It is absoloutely not a sham, we have known each other for 18 months and have seen each other often over that period and are in love and just want to be together
The catch 22 situation is that we cant be together in either the UK or the US unless we are married.
We have photos, gift receipts, emails, travel docs etc to prove the length of our relationship, but your comment has worried me.
Can anyone advise how we should proceed with the apllication to prove it is genuine and to avoid such erroneous suspicions please?

Thank you

 

[AmyD]

Catalanista,

Well, understand that the ECO *will* have those suspicions and to be fair, that's his/her job to weed out the fakers and whatnot. So I would suggest you just make your application unassailable. I have a few ideas:

* When I applied for my fiancé visa, my fiancé focused on the financial and practical aspects of his support of me and I focused more on the relationship. He did mention a few things about how he felt and whatnot, but I wanted most of the emotional content to come from me. You might consider doing something similar with your letters.

* Make sure everything you say is backed up by evidence. If you say you met in New York, for instance, throw in your receipt to a New York restaurant. Seriously, match every statement with an incontrovertible piece of evidence. It will give you credibility.

* Explain in detail why you left on your wedding day. Make sure it is as strong a reason as you can possibly make it. I would be thinking that there is not a force on the planet that could make me leave my husband on my wedding day so you need a good reason why you planned to leave that day. If you were called away to perform emergency heart surgery on someone, that might be explainable. But the fact that you had planned to leave on that day will raise eyebrows. Just explain it as best you can.

I didn't mean to scare you but it sounds like you might be a little naive about the process. Keep researching, and make sure you meet every requirement, and ask the forum if you have any questions. Good luck.

 

[Joppa]

Put yourself into the shoes of an ECO examining your evidence. Does it look convincing? Show your evidence to a friend and ask for their opinion.

 

[Catalanista]

We got married in order to be able to live together, its that simple really.
The wedding was a simple ceeremony, with just us and my teenage son.


We plan to have a proper celebration when we can all be together with my family in the UK.
Did we do it wrong? How best to explain it? Its so difficult having to justify such deep feelings to an unknown authority.
In order for him to be ale to join me in the UK he will have to leave a good job in the US and also be restricted to seeing his daughter there a lot less frequently. Who would set up a sham to do that? And why?

How much of the above should i include in my letter?

Thanks for any further advice

 

[Norsk]

You may have made this unnecessary tricky for you, to be honest. Oh well, not worth lingering over that now.

- If you did something - ANYTHING to mark the wedding day on the day, add receipts for what ever you did (meal, activities, photographer).

- Add pictures of the two of you from every time you have met, specifically including meeting other family members and so on.

- If you bought rings for each other, adding the receipts might help a little.

Generally, get creative about how to prove your over all relationship beyond doubt. When that's done, you answer to the specific questions should be honest, to the point and convincing.

Consider adding a note from your job confirming that you HAD to be present - no questions asked.

 

[Catalanista]

Thanks Norsk for the encoragement and sound advice.
In fact we do have ring receipts, photos, and a celebratory meal photo and I was going to include all of those things

Fingers crossed

 

[AmyD]

I had another thought. Perhaps you could enclose a letter from your employer stating the reasons you were so urgently required back in the UK on your wedding day. It might help.

 

[Catalanista]

In fact i wasnt required back urgently, i had just run out of vacation.we had planned to marry earlier during my stay but there was a delay in my husband obtaining proof of previos divorce, then we had to wait a few days according to local regs.