Fiancee Visa Advice For My Chinese Fiancee

[grantspants]

I know this forum is really for advice on Thai visas but after searching the internet for advice and getting nowhere I thought i would ask you knowledgeable folks

My situation is this : I'm currently engaged to my chinese fiancee, who is currently living in Hangzhou, China. We met online last October, and after a peroid of getting to know each other online I decided to make the first trip to meet her for real. I went last February and we got along great. I have since been back twice and we decided the time was right to make a commitment to each other. Now, bearing in mind that chinese (mainland) nationals are usually unable to obtain visitors visas unless in a travelling party on holiday the best option for us is to take the plunge and get engaged. So we decided to get engaged and try for a fiancee visa. But in reality we didn't know which was the easiest option for us, either a fiancee visa or get married in china and try for a spouse visa. We both prefer to get married in the u.k (i'm a british citizen). She lived in the u.k for 4 years, and returned to china around 2 years ago after completing her masters degree. She had no problems while she was here and her grasp of english is exceptional. I have read a little about this on the UK visas site but we really need some advice on what we are faced with and how difficult it will be. I have my own home (mortgaged) and have a good salary but don't have much in the way of savings (£3000) as I have been doing up my house. So will this be suffient? I am confident that this and my salary will be enough to support us until we decide to marry (within 6 months) and also she has some savings but i'm not sure how much. We have evidence to prove our relationship in the form of emails, text messages, skype phone records, mobile phone records, my old chinese visas in my passport. We don't really have photographs as such because we are usually alone when we are together and we both hate getting our picture taken! Is this a problem do u think?

Another thing we are concerned about is whether they look unfavourably upon the way we met (online dating). Is this a problem?

We are desperate to be together and really want to do this right the first time but we are both a little worried about it,especially as we don't know what to expect. I have seen adverts online and spoken to a couple of immigration specialist but the fees they charge are a little higher than we would like to pay as it's expensive flying backwards and forwards to china all the time. Can anybody give any advice on how to approach this and what she can expect at any interview with the uk embassy in china.

Sorry if this is a little of the subject, but thanks anyway.

[the scouser]

In relation to the amount of money you are required to have in order to support your fiancée, there is no fixed amount. However, neither is it a prerequisite to have savings: you solely have to demonstrate that you have sufficient money coming in with which to meet your financial obligations and have enough left over to provide for yourselves.

Secondly, that you originally got to know of each other online is largely irrelevant if you can otherwise show that your relationship is genuine, and you do seem to have plenty of evidence of contact etc.

If you still feel that you might like professional assistance with the preparation of your fiancée's visa application, then feel free to drop me a line either by PM or e-mail.

Scouse.

[wilko48]

Hi I brought my GF into UK in Sep 06 on a Fiance Visa , I used the web site Groupee.com ( similar to this one ) its also a Thai / UK Forum, they have some excellent advice and even supply a list of all the information you need for a settlement visa application. Give it a whirl I am sure you will find it very useful.

P.S you will need a proper email address to join i.e not yahoo or hotmail.

[grantspants]

Hi, thanks for the replies. I've checked out groupee.com and can't find a lot on there about this topic. Maybe its just me tho

I guess I know what most of the stuff is that i need to do but I'm bricking it a little, because this is so important to us.

It's not as easy for chinese citizens as thai, they can't get a plain visitors visa to my knowledge unless they travel in a group on an organised tour. Does anybody know if it will be possible to provisionally book a registry office without a visa in place? And also would it be wise to say that after we are married and have got a spouse visa instead (hopefully) she will be looking for a job in the u.k? Or do they frown on talking about working at all seeing as she cannot work while on a fiancee visa?

Again thanks and any advice would be appreciated.