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Applying For Uk Visa By Eu Citizen Residing In The Uk


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OK, this is the full topic/question:

I'm not UK born, but from an EU country and have been residing mostly in the UK for the last 10+ years.

I met my Thai GF on holiday start of 2009. I moved to Thailand from the UK and lived with her for the last year or so.

I'm now returning to the UK and would like her to join me. I assume I would apply for her UK visa from the UK embassy.

But as I'm not born in the UK or a UK citizen, would this likely throw a spanner in the works? Ie. she will be applying to

join an EU citizen in the UK.

I will talk to the embassies, but I've been wondering for a while what the MO will be.

Also, with regards to visa, when we get to that stage: Of course we can go the route of applying for a student or friendly-visit

visa, but I'm leaning towards a fiancee/wife type visa. Is it better we simply marry now, here in Thailand, to at least have that in the bank sooner

rather than later or is that premature?

I basically want to have the most freedom with regards to her being able to work or study or a combination there of when in the UK and not

have a 6 month visa deadline looming over our heads.

I know these are kind of big questions and will probably require more details. But for a start, it would be nice to know if anyone has

any experience with a visa application to the UK where the guarantor is a non-UK citizen.

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Citizens of EEA states have various treaty rights which allow them to live in and travel to other EEA member states without requiring visas. These same rights apply to their family members. See EEA Family Permit. and EEA and Swiss nationals - visa application guide. Note that the permit can be used either to come to the UK to live or to visit; but she must either be coming to join you or traveling with you.

However, being your girlfriend is not enough for her to qualify. She must be either your wife or your unmarried partner (which means that you must have been living together outside the UK for the last two years in a relationship akin to marriage).

Otherwise she will need to apply for a visit visa under the UK's immigration rules. That you are not a UK citizen is no bar to you acting as her sponsor. See Visitors - visa application guide.

For where and how to apply and current fees (EEA Family Permits are free), see UK visa application website in Thailand.

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Citizens of EEA states have various treaty rights which allow them to live in and travel to other EEA member states without requiring visas. These same rights apply to their family members. See EEA Family Permit. and EEA and Swiss nationals - visa application guide. Note that the permit can be used either to come to the UK to live or to visit; but she must either be coming to join you or traveling with you.

However, being your girlfriend is not enough for her to qualify. She must be either your wife or your unmarried partner (which means that you must have been living together outside the UK for the last two years in a relationship akin to marriage).

Otherwise she will need to apply for a visit visa under the UK's immigration rules. That you are not a UK citizen is no bar to you acting as her sponsor. See Visitors - visa application guide.

For where and how to apply and current fees (EEA Family Permits are free), see UK visa application website in Thailand.

Thanks for this.

As you imply, it looks like we fall short of the 2 years of "living together" so the EEA "unmarried" option is out of the window for now.

So it's a toss between a marriage and trying for the EEA family permit or the standard visa route.

I think I'm reversing on the marriage at the moment and leaning towards a visitor type visa. I just want her to have the best/most options to actually "get involved" in a UK life and actually "have" a life.

Rather than twiddling thumbs in the house.

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For my two pennies worth:

Visitor visa with you as sponsor, I think for any chance of this you would have to demonstrate you are a in the UK as a long time resident.

As you state you were in the UK for over 5 years did you apply for a "permanent residency card" if yes this may help, but you/she will still need to demonstrate accommodation, financial support, reason for the visit and reason to return.

Also note as a standard visitor she will not be able to spend more than 6 months out 12 in the UK.

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My "easy" and personal guess, unless you get married your Visa will be declined, no matter how many guarantees you will provide, with no refunds on the Visa fee too, think about it.....:whistling:

Visitor visa with you as sponsor, I think for any chance of this you would have to demonstrate you are a in the UK as a long time resident.

Both wrong.

For a visit visa there is no requirement for sponsor and applicant to be married and no requirement that the sponsor be a UK national or resident.

Also note as a standard visitor she will not be able to spend more than 6 months out 12 in the UK

Insert 'usually' between 'not' and 'be' then this is correct.

Schmutzie, if settling in the UK is what you both want then an EEA family permit is the best route for you. EEA permits are free, UK visas are expensive; and she would still need to be your wife or meet the unmarried partners requirement. Unless she applied as your fiance, but then she would have to marry you within 6 months and then make another application; even more expense.

So you need to decide whether to marry now, or live together in Thailand until you satisfy the unmarried partner's requirement. Once you have done one or the other she will then be eligible for an EEA Family Permit.

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There's no scope to sit out the 2 year requirement to apply for unmarried EEA permit, as I'm basically out of money now, which is why I'm going back to the UK.

I'm not against marrying, if that would facilitate being able to apply for the EEA permit. I just have to get my head round, how much "easier" it actually is as a chosen route.

I'm not so much against risking or paying fees for normal UK visas, it's just finding the best option.

What I can't currently get my head around is that it seems like it "cheaper" or "easier" to get have my Thai GF come to the UK with me as "non-EEA wife/family" than it would for me to bring

her as my wife to my own country...!?

I still need to read through all the various docs to scope out the pros and cons of the options.

I'm also keen for her to have NHS cover (she gets sick a lot IMO). Just one of the many things I'm worrying about right now.

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What I can't currently get my head around is that it seems like it "cheaper" or "easier" to get have my Thai GF come to the UK with me as "non-EEA wife/family" than it would for me to bring

her as my wife to my own country...!?

That is the way the system works; daft as it seems.

If an EEA national is exercising their treaty rights in another EEA country then they can use the EEA regulations to have their non-EEA family join them. But if they are living in their own country then they have to use that countries immigration rules.

However, if they have been exercising their treaty rights in another EEA country and their non-EEA family has been living there with them, if they wish to return to their home state they can use the EEA regulations to take their family with them.

As with most things to do with the EU/EEA, it's complicated!

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What I can't currently get my head around is that it seems like it "cheaper" or "easier" to get have my Thai GF come to the UK with me as "non-EEA wife/family" than it would for me to bring

her as my wife to my own country...!?

That is the way the system works; daft as it seems.

If an EEA national is exercising their treaty rights in another EEA country then they can use the EEA regulations to have their non-EEA family join them. But if they are living in their own country then they have to use that countries immigration rules.

However, if they have been exercising their treaty rights in another EEA country and their non-EEA family has been living there with them, if they wish to return to their home state they can use the EEA regulations to take their family with them.

As with most things to do with the EU/EEA, it's complicated!

Well, from my perspective, it's kind of a blessing. And since there's nothing untowards in our application, I can only applaud that one bureaucracy has more common sense than another. But that's another discussion/topic.

From what I gather, under the EEA-family permit, my Thai partner would be able to study and work and receive NHS cover whilst in the UK. There's the caveat about not being a burden on public funds, but I think that's common across all visa types and is not an issue.

The one thing I cannot see mentioned is whether she will have to demonstrate English proficiency as per new regulations of Nov 29th 2010. Will she have to take the test as part of the EEA-family permit application?

AFAICT she does not need to.

Edited by schmutzie
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From what I gather, under the EEA-family permit, my Thai partner would be able to study and work and receive NHS cover whilst in the UK

If she is taking up residence; definitely. If only visiting, I'm not sure.

The one thing I cannot see mentioned is whether she will have to demonstrate English proficiency as per new regulations of Nov 29th 2010. Will she have to take the test as part of the EEA-family permit application?

AFAICT she does not need to

You are correct; this requirement only applies to spouses etc. applying under the UK immigration rules, not the EEA regulations.

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Visit this page below to find out more. Also email the British embassy to get some confirmation on anything you are not sure about. You will be applying through a Visa Application Centre (VAC) and from my experiance they are useless.

Did you know if you go the family permit route, your wife / husband ect can work, no need to apply for a work permit.

I agree with what people are saying on this Forum. I am applying for my wife to come to Belgium to live with me till i finish my job here in two years. i am a UK National. So i'm kind of in the same boat.

I am applying for a 3 month visa and then once she gets here i will get her a family permit (which i have found out are free, Visa and family permit). Once i finish working here she will join me back in the UK via the family permit route, due to the right to move her back with me.

http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/ecg/eunationalsschemes/eeafamilypermit

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Did you know if you go the family permit route, your wife / husband ect can work, no need to apply for a work permit.

Yep. And that's a big bonus. Nothing like getting her out there if anything to find friends and "integrate"...All the other things that apply to the EEA family permit I mentioned are big winners IMO.

Now the small business of marrying!

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Just to point out that people entering the UK with a spouse or unmarried partners visa can also work immediately; people entering with a fiance visa can work after the marriage and they have received Further Leave to Remain.

As for the UKVAC being useless, one wonders useless at what. Their function is to collect applications and pass them to the embassy; in what way are they useless at that?

dean999, if you mean they were useless at giving advice; not only is that not their function, they are not actually allowed to give advice!

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Just to point out that people entering the UK with a spouse or unmarried partners visa can also work immediately; people entering with a fiance visa can work after the marriage and they have received Further Leave to Remain.

As for the UKVAC being useless, one wonders useless at what. Their function is to collect applications and pass them to the embassy; in what way are they useless at that?

dean999, if you mean they were useless at giving advice; not only is that not their function, they are not actually allowed to give advice!

maybe useless was the wrong word. I should of just said be carefull when applying through them. When my wife put her application in to the VAC for a settlement visa, they told her to take out her divorce certificate. The reason they said was because the embassy wanted to know about me and the wife and not her past marrage. Me personally would of challenged that, but the wife is very timid. I never found out they had done this and the embassy never believed she was devorced. But then when she went in for her interview the embassy never said to bring the certificate. I'm not one for conspiracy theorys but this was around the time the UK was putting a cap on Immigrants and the VAC and UK embassy looked like they were trying to get an excuse to help reject are application. Might be wrong but thats what it looked like.

They say there not allowed to give advice but from what i have writen, you can see, that doesn't stop them.

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10000 baht! :o

The British embassy charges 2725 baht to witness the affirmation.

Translation shouldn't be more than 300 to 500 baht.

Authentication of translation at the MFA, and registering the marriage at an ampur; can't recall how much these are, but they certainly don't total over 6500 baht!

Either your embassy charges significantly more than the British embassy to witness your AFM, or someone is ripping you off somewhere!

The above is just for the legal registration. If you are contemplating a ceremonial wedding as well, 10000 ain't going to be anywhere near enough. My step-son was married last year, and the cost was more than 10 times that! (Before anyone makes a comment, the bride and groom paid for the flowers, but the bulk of the cost was shared equally between us and the bride's parents. And he got most of the sinsot back.)

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10000 baht! :o

The British embassy charges 2725 baht to witness the affirmation.

Translation shouldn't be more than 300 to 500 baht.

Authentication of translation at the MFA, and registering the marriage at an ampur; can't recall how much these are, but they certainly don't total over 6500 baht!

Either your embassy charges significantly more than the British embassy to witness your AFM, or someone is ripping you off somewhere!

The above is just for the legal registration. If you are contemplating a ceremonial wedding as well, 10000 ain't going to be anywhere near enough. My step-son was married last year, and the cost was more than 10 times that! (Before anyone makes a comment, the bride and groom paid for the flowers, but the bulk of the cost was shared equally between us and the bride's parents. And he got most of the sinsot back.)

Just a point, the OP claims to be from another EU member not Britain.

From the British Embassies website, How to register a marriage.

. We provide this service to British nationals only. The fee of Baht 2,725 per affirmation is payable.

http://ukinthailand.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for-british-nationals/living-in-thailand/how-register-marraige1/

Edited by Basil B
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Just a point, the OP claims to be from another EU member not Britain.

I know he is not British; I also know that one can only have an AFM witnessed at one's own embassy. Which is why I said: "Either your embassy charges significantly more than the British embassy to witness your AFM, or.............."

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My embassy charges approx. 4500THB for the service. However, they do the translation into Thai.

But they add another step, which is to get a marriage certificate from my last place of residence in my native country (not UK). This adds 3000-4000THB the total cost.

Plus they recommend to have the final, embassy-issued document certified by the Thai Foreign Ministry. Another small fee.

Hence my conclusion, that it'll cost roughly 10000THB.

We would just go for a simple registration at the amphur. Not a full-on Thai wedding.

Edited by schmutzie
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What I can't currently get my head around is that it seems like it "cheaper" or "easier" to get have my Thai GF come to the UK with me as "non-EEA wife/family" than it would for me to bring

her as my wife to my own country...!?

That is the way the system works; daft as it seems.

If an EEA national is exercising their treaty rights in another EEA country then they can use the EEA regulations to have their non-EEA family join them. But if they are living in their own country then they have to use that countries immigration rules.

However, if they have been exercising their treaty rights in another EEA country and their non-EEA family has been living there with them, if they wish to return to their home state they can use the EEA regulations to take their family with them.

As with most things to do with the EU/EEA, it's complicated!

Well, from my perspective, it's kind of a blessing. And since there's nothing untowards in our application, I can only applaud that one bureaucracy has more common sense than another. But that's another discussion/topic.

From what I gather, under the EEA-family permit, my Thai partner would be able to study and work and receive NHS cover whilst in the UK. There's the caveat about not being a burden on public funds, but I think that's common across all visa types and is not an issue.

The one thing I cannot see mentioned is whether she will have to demonstrate English proficiency as per new regulations of Nov 29th 2010. Will she have to take the test as part of the EEA-family permit application?

AFAICT she does not need to.

I am in the same situation as you but reversed, i.e. a Brit living in Europe.

Get married in Thailand, very cheap,you just need a document from your embassy confirming you are free to marry, then when married, apply at the British Embassy for the EU Visa. This is a facility for all members of the EU automaticly granted, it's free and the best part, your wife does not need to take any language etc tests. You have the right, as an EU citzen to settle in any other EU country and take your wife with you. If the Brit. Embassy starts to bullshit you then send or show them the relevant EU docs (download from Web). For me it was so easy and so smooth, and very inexpensive. Good luck.

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The fact of the matter is... EEA Family permuts are a right under EU law. (under treaties on the free movement of labour within the EEA, which is why the Family Permit is also required to be free and the embassy have far less leeway when it comes to grounds for a refusal.) i.e. can't refuse on language ability, etc.

However normal visas, not covered by EU treaties aren't free. Regular Tourist visas aren't even able to be appealed if refused (unless specifically applied for to visit family).

There is a reason why some Northern Irish people choose to apply for Irish Nationality (given as a right by being born on the island of Ireland until fairly recently, regardless of which side of the border it was) which allows them to use the EEA Family Permit to avoid the outrageous UK visa fees. (UK visa fees are set at a rate which covers their costs several times over...)

For the OP. The problem with getting his girlfriend a tourist visa will be that, as a tourist, she would need to show a reason for returning to Thailand. If she mentions her boyfriend works in the UK and that you're even thinking of settling in the UK, this will almost certainly get refused. You'd then be looking at a settlement visa, and, I'm sorry, but your cost of 10K for getting married is dwarfed by the visa fee for a regular UK settlement visa (i.e. fiance is 37,500 baht currently (with no refund if refused) and that is then followed by more fees when you apply for FLR once married, and for ILR after two more years.)

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10k is actually quite optimistic an estimate for acquiring a german affirmation of freedom to marry from the registrar when you are abroad. Just hope the registrar will be content with what you send and does not demand any aditional docs or legalisations.

gl!

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The fact of the matter is... EEA Family permuts are a right under EU law. (under treaties on the free movement of labour within the EEA, which is why the Family Permit is also required to be free and the embassy have far less leeway when it comes to grounds for a refusal.) i.e. can't refuse on language ability, etc.

However normal visas, not covered by EU treaties aren't free. Regular Tourist visas aren't even able to be appealed if refused (unless specifically applied for to visit family).

There is a reason why some Northern Irish people choose to apply for Irish Nationality (given as a right by being born on the island of Ireland until fairly recently, regardless of which side of the border it was) which allows them to use the EEA Family Permit to avoid the outrageous UK visa fees. (UK visa fees are set at a rate which covers their costs several times over...)

For the OP. The problem with getting his girlfriend a tourist visa will be that, as a tourist, she would need to show a reason for returning to Thailand. If she mentions her boyfriend works in the UK and that you're even thinking of settling in the UK, this will almost certainly get refused. You'd then be looking at a settlement visa, and, I'm sorry, but your cost of 10K for getting married is dwarfed by the visa fee for a regular UK settlement visa (i.e. fiance is 37,500 baht currently (with no refund if refused) and that is then followed by more fees when you apply for FLR once married, and for ILR after two more years.)

Thanks. We're definitely doing the marriage/EEA family permit route.

But thanks for your advice.

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