New rules - Sheffield Processing Centre

Hi everyone, I need a little help please.
My fiance is preparing his documents for a spouse visa application. He has an appointment in Manila on December 8th. I have all the documents I need to supply for the application here.
Do I send my documents to Sheffield separately? How do my fiance's docs get to Sheffield? - does he send them to me for amalgamation, or does VFS Manila send them direct to Sheffield?
When and how do we pay for the documents and visa decision to be returned?
The government website is less than helpful on these issues.
Any practical advice would be very much appreciated.

You to Sheffield him to Have them scanned in Manila and they joined up in the process

Thanks mattecube. Sorry to labour the point, but do you mean that VFS will send all his documents to Sheffield? And how and when do we pay for all the documents to be returned?

Incorrect!..... All Documents to Sheffield OR All Documents to Manila... not both....

But Manila must get their passport & printout of the online form signed..

Today I've learnt something! Ta Does that include birth certificates from the Philippines to Sheffield

Sorry got it inaccurate see other posts

Everything apart from passport & online form...

We have just been through the process, my wife was to get her documents scanned at VFS manila, but was told if it wasn't all the documents then they had to be sent to Sheffield.

@bigmac had the same issue

yes. vfs manila only accepted passport and vaf4 printout signed. everything else--tb cert, birth cert, letter from boys father--all refused and told to send to sheffield ourselves.

just a point--your fiance does NOT apply for a spouse visa--that is for those already married. so you want settlement:marriage ( or "fiance" visa as we used to call it )

a spouse visa is settlement:spouse.

Little wonder things get lost and there are delays

you enclose a large SAE in with the documents. i bought a pack of very large plastic envelopes from my local post office. and i sent it all tracked for next day delivery ( from UK--not manila !!! )

in our case (wifes sons application )--we filled the online app here--on his behalf ( there is a heading to select--apply for someone else ) i then filled out appendix 2 and mailed all the sponsorship stuff straight to sheffield.

meanwhile--wife flew over to filis for 3 weeks--and took her son to vfs manila--complete with his philippines documents. thats when we found out they wouldnt accept them. so she brought them back with her.

i then sent them to sheffield--and got them back within 4 days.

strikes me that vfs are playing silly buggers.

OMG...!

Is it any wonder people get confused/get things wrong!

My fiancee and I began 'filling in the paperwork' (VAF4A (to be submitted online) & VAF4A, Appendix 2 (to be printed out)) about 6 weeks ago - in the meantime, I had a 3-week visit to see her in Manila... bliss! - & I have lost count of the number of times 'the system'/advice on this Forum has changed...
I despair of my fiancee ever getting a Visa granted, because the system seems to change almost daily and yet most of the gov.uk website hasn't been updated for several years!
What a shambles!!!

you'll be fine--just need to meet the financial requirement and have somewhere suitable to live. thats the easy bit. then you get married.................

Then real hard **** starts.....

Thanks for the encouraging words @bigmac...

I'm 'lucky' on the financial aspect, as I receive benefits that exempt me from the income threshold - and I own my 2-bed flat so no mortgage/rent.

I think what is worrying me the most is proving that the relationship is 'genuine'...!
To give some background - and maybe get some opinions from others -

We first started emailing in 2011. My Fiancée tends to work abroad - in the Middle East - as a Domestic Help/housekeeper, as that pays better than most work in the Philippines! Being Arab/Muslim countries, they frown upon male/female relationships outside marriage, so often my Fiancée was not allowed a phone, or had to use one supplied by her employer or that she kept 'hidden' from them.
Since 2012 we have communicated - when possible - using Facebook Messenger but I don't know of a way to 'capture' any of our communication from that far back - scrolling would take days, especially as we have communicated daily since she returned home over a year ago...

Any tips on proving the relationship is genuine would be appreciated...

photos of the 2 of you together--with well known locations would help.
receipt for engagement ring ?
screen shots of facebook messenger. doesnt need to be all of them. we were apart for 21 months before my fiancee applied. i did one a4 of screen shots for each month.
has she visited you in the UK ?

Thanks Bigmac - good tips.

To answer your last question, no she hasn't been to the UK. We applied for a Tourist/Visitor Visa after I visited her in Jan. 2017, but that was declined because it was considered that she didn't have enough 'ties' in the Philippines to guarantee she would leave at the end of her visit - Property, employment, etc!!!

We have a receipt for the engagement ring, but it doesn't actually state what the receipt is for (just an Item No.), so we wrote 'Engagement Ring' on it ourselves! The amount, and name of the store, should give UKVI a good idea that the purchase is genuine, I hope!

also--any letters from friends / relations congratulating you on getting engaged & wishing you future happiness together. if none--get some!

if you have already got any wedding plans--provide details. we were able to make a provisional booking for a register office wedding. got an official receipt for it.

We are in the same position of applying for a Fiance Visa. In addition to the already mentioned docs, we have included a few birthday and Valentine cards, My fiance was refused on first application because we "failed to show enough evidence that the relationship was genuine". Sheffield will be getting a medium-sized parcel this time, with umpteen photos and Skype screenshots!