Gay Civil Partnership - Uk Visa Rights

[taned]

Hello everyone,

this is my first post, needing some advice on visas if you've got it please...

I met my boyfriend in Thailand earlier this year. We've now been together six months. I had to return to the UK due to study commitments but we have remained together. Long distance is fine for now, but we want this to change as soon as possible.

We are both missing one another terribly and see that we want to be together permanently. We have spoken about marriage for months now. It can't be done in Thailand but we can go to the British Embassy in Vietnam to enter into a Civil Partnership together. We are seriously considering this at the moment.

My boyfriend wants to get out of Thailand for a while and I want us to be together in the UK while I finish study. Will being part of a Thai-British Civil Partnership increase our chances of a UK Visa?

We seem to meet the majority of the requirements listed on the UK Visas Gov site: my comments in red

Guidance - Husbands, wives and partners (INF 4) (26/10/07)

Can I join my husband, wife, civil partner, fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner in the UK?

You can apply to join your husband, wife, civil partner, fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner in the UK as long as:

• they currently live and are settled in the UK, or - I am a UK resident
  
• they are coming to live permanently in the UK, and
  
• they are not under 18 - I'm above 18 yrs old
  

Back to questions

How do I qualify to join my husband, wife or civil partner in the UK?

You must show that:

• you are legally married to each other or are in a civil partnership recognised in the UK - civil partnership by British Embassy is legal
  
• your husband, wife or civil partner is present and settled in the UK (see the next section) - I am resisdent here.
  
• you both intend to live together permanently as husband and wife or as civil partners - of course
  
• you have met each other before - of course
  
• you can support yourselves and any dependants without any help from public funds - I have a student loan which is not considered public funds and a part-time job but under the visa terms my boyfriend is allowed to work. If I can gurantee him a job before application, would this give us a better chance? I do have a small amount of savings too.
  
• you have suitable accommodation, which is owned or lived in only by you and your household, and where you and your dependants can live without any help from public funds - I live in a rented house, is that a problem? Also it is shared by students but they wouldn't know would they? I pay for it myself, I have my own room. Surely good enough?
  
• your husband, wife or civil partner is not under 18, and
  
• you are not under 18. - of course
  

We really want to be together purely through love but we need a visa to allow us to do it. I just hope the fact that I am a student does not stand in our way. I support myself (with the help of a student loan) and my boyfriend will be more than able to work to support himself while in the UK, of that I am sure. I know I can get him guaranteed employment and should we get the visa he will be able to work freely for two years.

Will the time we have been together enfringe on the chances of a visa? I'm not sure what the requirements are. I know a Thai- British couple who have recently come over following marriage. The Thai woman, although lovely, can't speak very much English, she can't really read or write and is clearly fairly under-educated even by Thai standard yet they got a visa. My boyfriend has a degree, excellent English skills and wants to find opportunities in work. Surely it is this kind of person that it is within our interest to give visas to? I'm not sure if it works like that though...

Any advice would be so much appreciated!

Thanks a lot,

Taned

[the scouser]

You may alternatively wish your partner to apply for a "fiancé" visa which would allow him to enter the UK for six months during which time you could register your civil partnership in the UK. Once registered, he could apply to the BIA for permission to stay for two years. However, until given the two-year endorsement, he would be unable to legitimately work.

Renting a house, per se, is not a problem, and neither is having sole use of only one room. The visa officer will expect to see evidence of your relationship since its inception in order to demonstrate that you intend to live together in the UK. Also, when assessing available maintenance, the visa officer should consider the ease with which your partner may find work in the UK and, indeed, to have a genuine offer of employment for him would be an advantage (but not if he applies as a "fiancé").

Scouse.

[kevinm]

Taned,

My partner entered the Uk on a finace visa allowing us to enter a civil partnership here in the Uk. He then got his ILR about 5 months later and is now working part time and studying. His english was not great and also his education level poor. I am not sure whether your boyfriends education helps him out in the visa process but there. After reading this forum I think we had a fair bit going for us since I had known him for 2 years and lived with him in Thailand for over a year and we had plenty of documentation to demonstrate this, also I own my own home and have a reasonable job and savings. However the only thing I pick up from countless post is be methodical get all the documentation together to prove everything you put in your application and your chances of success increase dramatically.

I wish you all the best with whatever you decide to do, best of luck.

[taned]

Thanks for your advice guys. My main concern is the fact that I am a student, and therefore not in full-time employment, might play against us. I really think for us it would be better to start the civil partnership before my boyfriend comes to the UK because he will be able to work as soon as he gets here and I can find him work to start off with until we find something better. The chances of us getting a fiance visa might be slimmer and him being unable to work would not be good for us in terms of money and he would just go out of his mind having nothing to do! We wouldn't want to wait for that extra permission to work.

We haven't been together for years though, not even one yet. Will this be a problem for us if we do join a civil partnership already? I don't want the visa people to doubt our intentions. Obviously we have photographs from the 6 months we have been together but not much more evidence to prove our relationship. I can actually provide a photo of the moment we met, one of my friends sneaked a photo when we were not looking! I am just unsure about how much evidence they need to deem that you really do love each other and it is genuine so you therefore deserve a visa...

Is getting a visa really as hard as people make out, or am I getting a bit too worried about all the possible complications?

[the scouser]

One of the criteria which has to be met is that the two parties have a subsisting relationship and intend to live together permanently once in the UK. Consequently, the shorter the relationship, the more difficult it is going to be to meet this requirement. However, there is no definitive time for the parties to have been together and the circumstances of no two applications will be identical. If you can show that you have a sound and thorough knowledge of each other, and that you have been in regular contact whilst apart, then this should go most of the way to demonstrating that the relationship is subsisting and that you intend to continue to stay together once in the UK.

Scouse.