Hi all,

i have been a watcher for years but never really needed to post as i had no questions and didnt really know any answers. However now i have a couple of questions.

I returned from just under 2 years in thailand in october last year. The intention was to work 6 months then return to Thailand. I have been with my girlfriend about a year and a half and she came across to England on a tourist visa and is still here now.

We have discussed marriage many times and agreed that we would do it once I had a permanent job somewhere, be it in England or Thailand. So now i have a permanent job, I also have been advised to go forward for management training even thought I have only been in the company for 3 1/2 months.

So with the job sorted we would like to get married but obviously we cant as my girlfriend is here on a tourist visa. We are going back to Thailand next week and plan to get married once I have my affirmation of marriage thing from the embassy. Once we are married we would like to start the application process straight away as we have lived together since the early days of our relationship and we dont want to have to wait months to start the process only to be refused.

Generally my question is that if i have applied for a tourist visa before and my girlfriend has been with me here in England until we go back to get married will the embassy look upon the marriage as a marriage of convenience and refuse the application or would they take a look at the previous history of our relationship and the fact that we couldnt marry here in England.

What do you think? worth applying straight away or leave it for a while for the dust to settle?

forgot to say that this time i will be applying for settlement visa and not tourist visa

Generally my question is that if i have applied for a tourist visa before and my girlfriend has been with me here in England until we go back to get married will the embassy look upon the marriage as a marriage of convenience and refuse the application or would they take a look at the previous history of our relationship and the fact that we couldnt marry here in England.

What do you think? worth applying straight away or leave it for a while for the dust to settle?

They know you cannot marry in England, and assuming that you have been honest about your relationship in the previous visit applications, they know about the relationship and have accepted that it is genuine.

This leaves just the maintenance and accommodation requirements.

There is no reason why you should not go straight from the airport to the ampur and then from the ampur to the VAC to submit the application. Provided you have your affirmation of freedom to marry and she has got her TB certificate of course!

From what you have said, I reckon that she will not even need an interview. However, prepare the application carefully and provide all the evidence of your relationship as before, see Spouse Visa checklist. Better, IMHO, to tell them things they already know than to risk leaving out something important.