Uk Fiance Visa Question

[craigm16]

Hello everyone.

My friend has just had his Fiance visa granted for his Thai boyfriend and he will be flying over to the UK pretty soon. But the boyfriend will have to return to Bangkok in a few months time to complete his university exams.

The question my friends wants me to post is can the boyfriend travel to the UK on his fiance visa, enter the UK for a month or so then fly back out to Bangkok do his exams and then fly back on the same visa or will the visa become void if he was to leave the UK.

Or should they get a civil partnership asap then fly back to Bangkok to do the exams ?

Thank you for any help

[7by7]

The visa is multi entry, so he can leave and then re-enter the UK during it's validity.

Remember, though, that a fiancé visa, or to be pedantic in this case a prospective civil partner visa, is only valid for 6 months. During that time they must register their civil partnership in the UK and apply for Further Leave to Remain.

If they have not done so by the time the visa expires then, if he is out of the UK he will need to apply for a new visa, or if he is in the UK he will have to leave and then apply for a new visa.

It is possible to extend the original visa, but only if your friends can show good reason why they have not yet registered their CP and that they will be doing so within a reasonable time. I doubt that taking his exams would be considered a good enough reason as the argument would be that he knew they were coming up and so should have planned around them, e.g. applied for his visa after the exams had finished.

When are his exams?

They may have time to register their CP and obtain FLR for him before he has to return for them; but FLR applications can take 3 months or more to process during which time his passport will be with the UKBA and so he will be unable to leave the UK. Asking for his passport back before the FLR decision is made will mean that the application will be treated as withdrawn, unless it's for exceptional compassionate reasons such as a death in the family abroad, and the fee will not be refunded.

Another choice is to travel to the UK, register the CP and then return to Thailand without applying for FLR. If his fiance visa is still valid when his exams are finished, fine; return to the UK and apply for FLR. However, if it expires while he is still in Thailand then he could apply for a new settlement visa as your friend's CP. This would last 27 months and replace the FLR.