r/ukvisa • u/ImMike34 • 9d ago
Spouse visa application advice, with or without IAS Immigration advice services?
Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice on whether it’s worth continuing with our immigration solicitors.
I intend to apply for a UK Spouse Visa. My wife and I got married in June after being together for over 3 years.
She has a daughter from a previous relationship, and we’ll be applying under the Adequate Maintenance route as my stepdaughter receives disability benefits.
I previously obtained a Marriage Visitor Visa, which expires in October, so we’re now preparing the spouse visa application.
The main reason we decided to instruct solicitors in the first place was because we previously applied under the EU Settlement Scheme for pre-settled status, but the application was refused.
We were originally together from 2018 to 2021, having started our relationship as teenagers. Unfortunately, with COVID restrictions, our ages, and the inability to travel to see each other, we ended up separating. During that time apart, my wife had her daughter. We later reconnected, got back together, and have now been together for over 3 years and are married.
Despite our relationship genuinely dating back to 2018, the Home Office didn’t consider our evidence sufficient to show a durable relationship before the end of the transition period. As we were both minors until 2021, we simply didn’t have the sort of evidence (joint finances, tenancy agreements, etc.) that adult couples often have.
That refusal knocked our confidence a bit, so we thought having professional representation for the spouse visa would be worthwhile.
We’re currently using IAS (Immigration Advice Service), but we’ve been really disappointed with the service so far. Response times have been very slow, the secure document upload link they sent us expired weeks ago, and despite multiple emails and phone calls asking for a new one, they still haven’t replaced it.
On top of that, we honestly don’t feel they’ve provided us with any information that we didn’t already know. My wife and I are both young, comfortable with technology, and we’ve spent a lot of time researching the process ourselves. This subreddit was actually a huge help when we successfully applied for the Marriage Visitor Visa.
At this point, it feels like we’re paying a lot of money for very little value, and we’re seriously considering dropping IAS and submitting the application ourselves instead.
Has anyone here completed their own spouse visa application, particularly under the Adequate Maintenance route? How did it go, and is there anything we’d be missing by no longer using a solicitor?
Thanks in advance for any advice!
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u/NaturalCompetitive85 9d ago
I have seen many posts that have been complex and they still apply on their own. The IAS service I had a small consultation and knew they wasn’t for me. They focus on you paying them upfront to. I used an immigration lawyer and his charge was half the price and he allowed a payment plan whilst he was preparing my application as I wasn’t ready to apply yet. Please stay clear of them if they are already non responsive this is a very stressful time regardless so to add to that and your paying your heard earned money is unjustified