Spouse Or Settlement?

[shamus]

I've known my gf for one year and we have spoken together a lot about marriage in the past. Now we are sure we love each other and this is what we want to do. She visited the UK on a tourist visa last year. I'm looking at the options for her to be able to come and live and work in the UK, for us to build something together, this is the plan. When we met she knew I couldn't buy her the mansion her mother had in mind (even she's come round to me!).

Anyway her family now know I'm the real deal and after a few shakey moments I know 100% she genuinely loves and is committed to me so I don't know whether to go to Thailand in May, get married and apply for a settlement visa. I understand the process (visiting doctors in Bangkok for TB checks etc). The other alternative being to go for a spouse (fiancee) visa and marry in England.

I know the cost of the settlement visa is relatively high, does this mean that they cant give an outright refusal as they could for say a tourist or spouse visa?

I don't know too much about the process of applying for the spouse visa....

Any constructive comments appreciated....

[nigelandjan]

name='shamus' post='2587978' date='2009-03-11 03:22:53']I've known my gf for one year and we have spoken together a lot about marriage in the past. Now we are sure we love each other and this is what we want to do. She visited the UK on a tourist visa last year. I'm looking at the options for her to be able to come and live and work in the UK, for us to build something together, this is the plan. When we met she knew I couldn't buy her the mansion her mother had in mind (even she's come round to me!).

Anyway her family now know I'm the real deal and after a few shakey moments I know 100% she genuinely loves and is committed to me so I don't know whether to go to Thailand in May, get married and apply for a settlement visa. I understand the process (visiting doctors in Bangkok for TB checks etc). The other alternative being to go for a spouse (fiancee) visa and marry in England.

I know the cost of the settlement visa is relatively high, does this mean that they cant give an outright refusal as they could for say a tourist or spouse visa?

I don't know too much about the process of applying for the spouse visa....

Any constructive comments appreciated....

you seem to be a little muddled with spouse and fiancee ,, although they as you know are both settlement visas and have the same amount of hoops to jump through.

Marry in Thai its a settlement

Marry in UK its fiancee

There are plus and minus on both ways to go,,,, but reading between the lines in your post I think you would be better going for the fiancee visa and after 4 months here together and you are really sure then marry ,if not its bye bye again at terminal 3 again.

I only say this because I kinda get the impression there is still a little shakeyness as you put it,,,no one on here but you knows if your 100% sure.

We went the fiancee way ,, allthough due to technical difficulties when we did try to marry in BKK ( due to the fact she wasnt divorced legally ) then we married in the UK on the fiancee jobby after 3 months ,, and allthough no doubt I have been lucky, I can honestly say I am the happiest I have been in my life now.

Good luck to you both mate as you set off together down the long visa road together,, the good thing is she has been here before so she knows about the cold weather etc ,all the best

[7by7]

A settlement visa allows the holder to come to the UK with a view to settling indefinitely. There are various types, the relevant ones here being a fiance visa and a spouse visa.

1) Fiance visa. This lasts for 6 months, during which she travels to the UK and you marry. Once you have married she applies for Further Leave to Remain which lasts for 2 years at the end of which she applies for Indefinite Leave to Remain.

I personally would not take this route as you will have an extra application to pay for (the FLR after you have married) and she cannot work until after the marriage and she has FLR.

2) Spouse visa. You marry in Thailand and she then applies as your wife. The visa lasts for 2 years at the end of which she applies for ILR. With a spouse visa she can work immediately she enters the UK.

Whichever one she applies for, if she/you fail to show that, on the balance of probabilities, she qualifies for the visa then she will be refused.

The ECO may wish to interview her if s/he is unsure whether to refuse or grant, but she can be refused without an interview.

However, if she is refused then she has the right to appeal to the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal. Details of this will be given to her at the time of the refusal.

So, prepare thoroughly and make sure that you have covered all the requirements.

If you need any further advice, feel free to ask.

Finally, I would not recommend using a fiance visa as a 'get to know if we want to marry each other' visa. If you or she are unsure about marriage and want to see how she likes the UK then it is a visit visa that you want. Remember, though, that if she does come to the UK with a visit visa she would have to return to Thailand in order to apply for settlement.

[shamus]

Yeah she's been a little naughty in the past but I know for sure (100%) she is committed to a future together now. We are both young, I'm 28 and she's 24.

The question I'm asking is, can they refuse you a settlement visa once you've shelled out £500 up? Don't know how this works.

Is the fiancee visa a tricky one to get? They refused the first tourist one we'd applied for even though somebody I knew in EXACTLY the same situation, I'm talking everything, got one approved for a girl he'd been seeing for the same amount of time as me. We worked in the same company at the time, earning the same salary. He was 5ft5, bald and 4 years older but apart from that I mean everything was the same yet they turned my application down.

Guess the person dealing wth mine wasn't having a good day...

Thanks for your good wishes. All the best to you too. You know when you've got a genuine partner. If you enter Thailand with a sceptical but open approach, think with your upstairs and you've got half a brain you'll know when you've got a girl who really loves you. Telling her you're skint from the outset helps. So does being devillishly handsome

Oh and yeah she knows how cold England is, in more than one sense.

Edited March 10, 2009 by shamus

[7by7]

The question I'm asking is, can they refuse you a settlement visa once you've shelled out £500 up?

Yes, see my post above; and the fee is non-refundable!

Is the fiancee visa a tricky one to get?

No more so than a spouse visa. The requirements are the same except for a fiance visa you need to show that you intend to marry once in the UK whilst for a spouse visa you need to show that you are already married.

See:-

Chapter 9 - The maintenance and accommodation requirements

Chapter 13 - Settlement : Fiance(e)s, proposed civil partners, spouses, civil partners, unmarried and same-sex partners

Guidance - Husbands, wives and partners (INF 4)

[benjamat]

The question I'm asking is, can they refuse you a settlement visa once you've shelled out £500 up?

Yes, see my post above; and the fee is non-refundable!

Is the fiancee visa a tricky one to get?

No more so than a spouse visa. The requirements are the same except for a fiance visa you need to show that you intend to marry once in the UK whilst for a spouse visa you need to show that you are already married.

See:-

Chapter 9 - The maintenance and accommodation requirements

Chapter 13 - Settlement : Fiance(e)s, proposed civil partners, spouses, civil partners, unmarried and same-sex partners

Guidance - Husbands, wives and partners (INF 4)

From a cost point of view the best way is to go the spouse visa route as you avoid the extra cost of a settlement visa on top of the fiance visa. It should be noted that this is not a cheap process and as well as the actual visa costs there are the costs for tb tests to be added.

If this is just a suck it and see situation I would not use either spouse of fiance routes, you will have much more hasstle than if you simply have a visitor visa.