How Can I Take My Wife Back To Scotland?

[Koda]

Can anyone please give me help...

I met my girlfriend (thai) in Scotland while both of us were studying in Glasgow. She was finishing her masters degree and i was finishing my Bacholers degree. Later we finished our education... We were togther for 7 months, then we left to go to Thailand for a long holiday.

We have been working in Thailand for 1 year already. We now want to go back to Scotland so both of us can settle down and get jobs.

I have not yet married her but we plan to get married at christmas. (2 months)

1) after we get married what do i do?

2) Because we both have UK degrees and originally met in Scotland, will it still be very difficult to get her a visa to live and work in Scotland?

any help will be greatly appriciated...

Thank you

Barry...

[the scouser]

Hi Barry,

Once you've married your then wife should lodge an application at the British embassy in Bangkok for a settlement visa. Everyone who applies for such a visa is interviewed and the current waiting time is c. 12 weeks from the date the application is made. Should your wife get the visa then she will be allowed to work in the UK. The cost is £260.00 which is non-refundable if the visa is refused.

There follow the criteria which your wife will have to satisfy, so judge for yourself if you think she'll qualify:-

"Requirements for leave to enter the United Kingdom with a view to settlement as the spouse of a person present and settled in the United Kingdom or being admitted on the same occasion for settlement

281. The requirements to be met by a person seeking leave to enter the United Kingdom with a view to settlement as the spouse of a person present and settled in the United Kingdom or who is on the same occasion being admitted for settlement are that:

(i) (a) the applicant is married to a person present and settled in the United Kingdom or who is on the same occasion being admitted for settlement; or

( the applicant is married to a person who has a right of abode in the United Kingdom or indefinite leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom and is on the same occasion seeking admission to the United Kingdom for the purposes of settlement and the parties were married at least 4 years ago, since which time they have been living together outside the United Kingdom; and

(ii) the parties to the marriage have met; and

(iii) each of the parties intends to live permanently with the other as his or her spouse and the marriage is subsisting; and

(iv) there will be adequate accommodation for the parties and any dependants without recourse to public funds in accommodation which they own or occupy exclusively; and

(v) the parties will be able to maintain themselves and any dependants adequately without recourse to public funds."

Cheers,

Scouse

[Richard W]

The answers so far, including this, presume that Barry is British.

It looks to me as though the issues are going to be accommodation and support until you get jobs. Have you been working legally in Thailand? Did your girlfriend have a legal part-time job in Scotland? Has she kept her P45 or P60? The ECO should take your employability (and the availability of jobs) into account, but it looks as though he must make yet another subjective judgement here.

Are your parents going to allow you two 'exclusive use' of your bedroom until you can find your own place? That would probably solve the accommodation issue.

Have you kept evidence that you were an item back in Scotland? 21 months together is better evidence than most couples applying for visas can muster of intent to live together! I hope you can demonstrate that you've been a couple for that time. You won't have much correspondence to show!

You can apply in advance for a settlement visa on the basis that you will be married at the time of interview. You might not have to wait for 3 months; interviews for second applications used to be processed much faster than first applications, and your girlfriend has already applied for (and got) a student visa.

Scouser, will Barry be 'being admitted for settlement' if they go to Scotland together, or do they have to travel separately because he is British and not French?

[the scouser]

Hi Richard,

Yes, if Barry were to travel with his wife he would be being admitted to the UK for settlement. Being British (if he is. I take your point that he simply stated that he'd studied in Scotland) he does not need any clearance either to enter the UK or to settle there. He can claim to be settled in the UK at any point because he can.

Whereas a repeat application for a visa in the same category as the original is usually dealt with more expeditiously, Barry's wife's on this occasion will be seeking entry in a different one. All settlement applicants are interviewed and they are dealt with in the order in which the applications are lodged so she will have to endure the wait.

As you hinted in your post foreign spouses of EU citizens entering the UK are treated more leniently than those of Britons. If Barry is a dual national holding a passport of another EU state other than the UK he should let us know.

Scouse.