SET(M): how much proof of living together do you need?

For a SET(M) application, you do not need to prove you have lived together for the full five years. The Home Office wants evidence that you have lived together in the UK since your last grant of leave — which on the 5-year partner route is usually around 2.5 years, because your most recent visa was issued for 2 years and 6 months. So the commenter whose caseworker asked for roughly 2.5 years of evidence was right. There is also no fixed number of documents you must supply, and correspondence in just one partner's name still counts as long as it covers the same address and time period.

Why 2.5 years, not 5

The living-together check measures the period covered by your current leave, not your entire time in the UK. On the 5-year partner route you typically arrive on a visa, then extend, with each grant lasting 2 years and 6 months. When you apply for settlement at the five-year point, the Home Office is confirming you have continued to live together since your last grant — so a caseworker may reasonably focus on the most recent ~2.5 years.

GOV.UK puts it plainly for partners applying for indefinite leave to remain: you must "prove you've lived in the UK with your partner since you got your last visa." That is the wording to keep in mind. The full five-year cohabitation story matters across your earlier applications, but for the settlement decision the spotlight is on the current period.

How much evidence is "enough"

There is no magic number. The Home Office "Relationship with a partner" caseworker guidance is explicit that there is no specified evidence for proving the relationship, that caseworkers "should not need to see numerous documents," and that you cannot be refused solely because one document is missing. Anyone quoting a fixed "six items" rule is repeating a myth — current guidance contains no such number.

What caseworkers actually look for is a reasonable spread of documents showing both partners at the same address across the relevant period. A handful of solid, well-spaced items usually does the job better than a thick bundle clustered in one month.

What counts as proof of living together

The guidance accepts a wide range of correspondence showing both partners at the same address over the same period. Useful items include:

• Council tax bills or statements
• Bank or building society statements
• A tenancy agreement or mortgage statement
• Letters from official sources — HMRC, DWP, the NHS or your GP, the DVLA
• Utility bills (gas, electricity, water, broadband)

Online and digital statements are accepted — you do not need posted paper. And because the evidence "does not need to be in both names if it covers the same time period and the same address," one-name correspondence is fine. If letters only ever arrive in one partner's name, the practical fix is to provide each partner's own correspondence addressed to the same home, plus a short covering letter explaining the arrangement.

If you have very little post in your name at all, read why you still need proof of address before you apply — there are workarounds, but you should plan for them early.

Don't forget the rest of the test

Proving cohabitation is only part of the SET(M) decision. The Home Office must also be satisfied your relationship is genuine and subsisting, and it will assess your wider immigration history. Address-matched documents support the genuine-relationship finding, but they sit alongside everything else in your application — your financial requirement, English language, and the Life in the UK test.

For a complete view of what to gather, see the full ILR document checklist. Build your living-together evidence around the period your current visa covers, space it evenly, and lead with documents from official sources — that combination is what reassures a caseworker most.