Evidence of a relationship

Why Relationship Evidence Matters

When you apply for a Spouse visa or partner visa (officially known as a UK family visa), paragraph E-ECP.2.6 of Appendix FM requires the relationship to be genuine and subsisting. Paragraph E-ECP.2.5 separately requires that the couple have met in person.

The standard of proof is the balance of probabilities: the caseworker has to be satisfied that it is more likely than not that the requirement is met. The burden sits with the applicant.

What the rules do not do is specify any document. The Home Office guidance is explicit on this point: there is no specified evidence for proof of relationship, so a caseworker cannot refuse an application for the lack of a particular document. The guidance also says a caseworker should not need to see numerous documents covering an extended period. Much of the popular advice on this subject — bundle sizes, photo counts, minimum numbers of letters — has no source in the published rules or guidance.

For an unmarried partner, paragraph GEN.1.2 of Appendix FM adds a separate requirement: the couple must have been in a relationship similar to marriage or civil partnership for at least 2 years before the date of application. That is a rule, not a factor, and evidence of it is necessary.

The Published Factor List

The Home Office guidance Partners, divorce and dissolution is what caseworkers apply to Appendix FM partner applications. It lists factors that may be consistent with a genuine and subsisting relationship, and says in terms that the list is not exhaustive and must not be considered as a checklist. The factors named are:

• the couple are in a current, long-term relationship
• the couple have been, or are, living together
• the couple have children together — biological, adopted or stepchildren — and share responsibility for them
• the couple share financial responsibilities, for example a joint mortgage or tenancy agreement, a joint bank account, savings, or utility bills in both names
• one or both partners have visited the other's home country and family
• the couple, or their families acting for them, have made definite plans about living together in the UK
• in an arranged marriage, both partners consent to the marriage and agree to the plans made by their families

The guidance adds two things that cut against common assumptions. Evidence of living together before marriage can be a factor, but it is expressly not a prerequisite. And the fact that an applicant has never visited the UK must not be treated as a negative factor.

Caseworkers are also directed to be alert to religious and cultural practice: a couple in an arranged marriage may have spent little time together before the marriage, and in some traditions household accounts and bills are in the name of the male head of the household. Normal practice in the couple's own tradition has to be taken into account.

Strong, Acceptable And Weak Evidence

At the settlement stage the family route falls under Appendix Settlement Family Life, and a second piece of guidance applies — Relationship with a partner. It contains something the Appendix FM guidance does not: a table sorting relationship evidence into three named categories. It is the closest thing the Home Office publishes to a ranking, and it is worth reading before assembling anything.

• Strong. Documents issued by an organisation that checked the person's identity, address or status. Tenancy agreements, mortgage agreements, letters from a landlord, title deeds, bank statements (joint or individual), money transfers and bank transactions, a marriage or civil partnership certificate, and the birth certificates of any children. Where these alone satisfy the caseworker, the guidance says no other evidence is needed.
• Acceptable. Documents from a third party that may not have involved a check on the person. Council tax, electricity, gas and water bills; phone, TV licence and cable bills; driving licences, doctors' letters, payslips, and letters from HM Revenue and Customs or the Department for Work and Pensions; insurance, car finance, joint purchase receipts; work contracts and study course documents. Reasonable weight, but a caseworker may want more than one item.
• Weak. Evidence from individuals with no official capacity, or that has not been verified. Electoral register confirmation; letters of support from friends, relatives, doctors or religious and community leaders; a written statement from the applicant; flight, train and bus tickets; holiday bookings; communication records in the form of certified transcripts; and photographs of times spent together.

Two safeguards sit alongside the table. The guidance says an application must not be refused simply because only weak evidence was provided, and that where an applicant has no documentary evidence at all, the caseworker must consider their explanation for that. Where documents do not show both names, the guidance asks that the separate items at least cover the same period.

The practical point is one of proportion. Much of what applicants spend the longest on — printing message threads, selecting photographs, collecting letters — sits in the category the Home Office weighs least.

Communication Evidence

Communication records are in the weak category in the published table, which puts a limit on how much they can carry. They are nonetheless the main evidence available to couples who have been living in different countries and have no shared address or shared bills to show.

What to Include

• WhatsApp or messaging screenshots. Select conversations from different periods of your relationship. Show that you communicate regularly about everyday things — not just immigration matters.
• Call logs. Screenshots from your phone showing regular calls. If you use WhatsApp or video calls, take screenshots showing the frequency and duration of calls.
• Video call history. Screenshots from Zoom, FaceTime, Skype, or WhatsApp showing regular video calls.
• Email correspondence. If you communicated by email, especially in the early stages of your relationship.
• Social media interactions. Screenshots of comments, tags, and shared posts on Facebook, Instagram, or other platforms.

Points From The Guidance

• The table describes this category as "communication records (certified transcripts)", so dates and the identity of both parties need to be visible.
• There is no published expectation of completeness. The guidance says a caseworker should not need numerous documents covering an extended period.
• Where messages are not in English, paragraph 39B of part 1 of the Immigration Rules applies: the original and a full, dated translation are both needed, with the translator's name, signature and contact details, and — for an application made inside the UK — their credentials.

Photographs

Photographs of times spent together appear in the weak category of the published table. Nothing in the Immigration Rules requires them, and no published guidance states a number. They are still commonly submitted, and the guidance directs caseworkers to give weak evidence some weight.

What The Guidance Implies About A Photo Selection

• Chronological spread. Include photos from early in your relationship through to the present. This shows the relationship has developed over time.
• Different settings. Photos at home, on holiday, at family events, with friends, at restaurants, and in everyday situations.
• With other people. Photos of you together with family and friends are particularly strong because they show others recognise your relationship.
• Special occasions. Weddings, engagement celebrations, birthdays, holidays, and cultural events.
• Everyday life. Not every photo needs to be from a special occasion. Photos of cooking together, walking the dog, or sitting at home show a genuine, lived relationship.

What The Published Position Does Not Support

• Any particular number. Rowan has seen figures such as "10 to 20" quoted widely; none of them appears in the Immigration Rules or in Home Office guidance, and we do not repeat them.
• The idea that photographs can substitute for the strong categories. The guidance describes weak evidence as best seen alongside one or two pieces of strong or acceptable evidence.
• The idea that a missing photograph is fatal. A caseworker cannot refuse an application for the lack of a particular document.

Labelling each photograph with the date, place and who appears in it makes it legible to a caseworker who has never met either of you.

Financial Evidence

Shared finances indicate that your lives are genuinely intertwined. This is separate from the financial requirement (proof of income details on GOV.UK) — the income requirement is £29,000 for new applications and is about whether the couple can be maintained, not about whether the relationship is real.

Where Each Item Sits In The Published Table

• Strong: bank statements. Joint or individual — the table names both.
• Strong: a mortgage agreement. Also tenancy agreements, a letter from a landlord, and title deeds.
• Strong: money transfers and bank transactions. Listed under evidence of a genuine relationship when the couple are apart.
• Acceptable: utility bills. Council tax, electricity, gas and water. Phone, TV licence and cable bills are in the same category.
• Acceptable: insurance and car finance. Joint purchase receipts too.
• Weak: travel and holiday bookings. Flight, train and bus tickets sit in the weak category, not the strong one.

Joint subscriptions to streaming or gym services do not appear anywhere in the published table. That does not make them inadmissible — nothing is specified, so nothing is excluded — but they carry no stated weight.

A joint bank account is one example of shared financial responsibility in the factor list, not a requirement. The guidance names a joint mortgage or tenancy, savings, and utility bills in both names alongside it, and separately warns caseworkers that in some traditions bills are held in one name for cultural reasons.

Evidence of Living Together

Living together appears in the factor list, and most of the documents that prove it fall in the strong or acceptable categories of the published table. For an unmarried partner it is more than a factor: paragraph GEN.1.2 of Appendix FM requires a relationship similar to marriage or civil partnership lasting at least 2 years before the date of application, and that has to be evidenced. The published table asks that documents show both names, or link both people to the same address over time.

• Joint tenancy agreement. A rental contract showing both names at the same address.
• Utility bills. Bills at the same address in both names or in each person's name at different times.
• Council tax bill. Showing both people registered at the same address. A landlord will separately have checked right to rent before letting a property in England, which is part of why the published table treats tenancy documents as strong.
• Doctor's letters. Named in the acceptable category, alongside driving licences, payslips and letters from HM Revenue and Customs or the Department for Work and Pensions.
• Bank statements. Showing the same address for both partners. In the strong category.
• Electoral register confirmation. Listed, but in the weak category.

Letters from Friends and Family

The published table places letters of support from friends, relatives, doctors and religious or community leaders in the weak category, on the stated reason that they come from individuals with no official capacity and have not been verified by anyone. The guidance says such evidence should still be given some weight, and that an application must not be refused simply because only weak evidence was provided.

What a Support Letter Usually Contains

• The writer's full name, address, and contact details
• Their relationship to you (e.g., "I am the mother of the applicant")
• How long they have known you as a couple
• Specific examples of seeing you together (e.g., "They stayed with me for Christmas 2024")
• Their honest impression of your relationship
• A signed and dated declaration that the contents are true

No published source states a number of letters, and Rowan does not supply one. The table does not distinguish between a letter from a family member and one from a religious or community leader: both appear in the same weak category.

Travel Evidence

Visiting the other partner's home country and family appears in the factor list, so travel evidence speaks to something the guidance names. The documents themselves — tickets and holiday bookings — sit in the weak category of the table. Note also that the couple having met in person is a rule in its own right, at paragraph E-ECP.2.5 of Appendix FM, and that the guidance says an applicant never having visited the UK must not be treated as a negative factor.

• Flight boarding passes or booking confirmations showing both names
• Hotel reservations for two people
• Passport stamps showing visits to each other's countries
• Travel insurance documents
• Receipts from activities during your trips together

How to Organise Your Evidence

The rules specify nothing about presentation. These points follow from what the guidance tells caseworkers to look for.

1. Create a cover sheet. List all the evidence you are including, categorised by type.
2. Order chronologically within each category. Earliest evidence first.
3. Label everything. Each document should be clearly labelled with what it is and the date.
4. Add brief explanations. A short note explaining the context of each piece of evidence helps the caseworker understand its significance.
5. Cover the same period. Where documents do not carry both names, the guidance asks that the separate items at least cover the same span of time.
6. Explain any gap. Where an applicant has little or no documentary evidence, the guidance requires the caseworker to consider the explanation given for it. An explanation written into the application is the thing that gets considered.

Next Steps

One further point from the guidance is worth knowing before a second or later application with the same partner. Where genuineness has already been accepted in a successful application, the caseworker normally only has to be satisfied that the relationship is subsisting — current and continuing. They do not re-examine the other relationship requirements, and do not reconsider evidence already accepted. The spouse visa documents checklist covers the documents the rules do specify, which are mostly about identity, income and English.

Related guides:

• Spouse Visa UK: Complete Guide
• Spouse Visa Documents Checklist
• Spouse Visa Financial Requirement
• Home Office Interview: What They Ask
• Accommodation Requirement Guide
• DIY vs Solicitor
• UK Visa Fees: Complete Guide

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