Fiance Visa To Uk Following Vv

[benjy_a]

Hi, I am currently in the UK living with my Thai GF who is here on a visitor visa. Firstly I would like to thank everybody who advised us on this site which helped us to get that visa in the first place.

I have a couple of questions about where we want to go from here....I'm sorry if I'm repeating stuff available in other posts but I have looked around and I can't find definite answers.

My situation is; GF and myself met October 2005, lived together in Thailand until October 2006...applied for a 4 month visitor visor to UK which was granted no questions asked, no interview etc.

We have now decided that we want to stay together but not ready to get married straight away...therefore applying for a fiance visa is the next step to give us a few more months.

1) We want to be apart for the shortest time possible - does anybody know what the turn-around time is at the moment for fiance visa applications? My GF will fly back to TL at the end of March to submit the application...if the wait for interview is a long long time then I will go with her at least for a month or so.

2) Also - would it be better for me to be available in TL for the interview/ application process or make no difference if I am in the UK at the time? (money is a little tight right now - expensive hobby this! )

3) The embassy kept all our documentation from the VV application. When we apply for the Fiance visa do we need to send all our old email and telephone contact stuff again or can we just assume that they accept the relationship as it is up until our last application? What I mean is that since we have been living together we will be sending very little evidence with this application because the fact that we are here together is surely all the evidence we need? Does that make sense? ......this also applies to my property where we live....do I need to send them mortgage statements etc all over again even though they already have original documents from before?

4) I think that we are in a fairly strong position to be granted a fiance visa - are there any potential pit-falls that anybody can see...anything we should be watching out for?

Any help and advice gratefully appreciated!

B.

[the scouser]

To answer your questions in the order which you ask them:-

1. The application may be turned around within a matter of days of your girlfriend applying. Few applicants are interviewed these days, but if your girlfriend is required to attend an interview, the wait will depend upon how long the queue is in March.

2. Whether you are in Thailand or not will make no difference to the outcome of the application.

3. That you have been living together in the UK will evidently assist your fiancée's subsequent application, but you must have firm plans to marry. I wouldn't just see it as a way of your girlfriend getting another 6 months. Indeed, you will be expected to demonstrate that you have a marriage plan; i.e. you know roughly the date you intend to marry, where you will marry, how many people will attend, etc. Although the visa officer has already accepted your relationship as being genuine, you will be expected to show that it is ongoing, so I would submit more recent documentation, even if it means duplicating what has previously been given.

4. So do I, but, if possible, try and demonstrate that when in the UK on her visit visa, your girlfriend was staying with you. You wouldn't want the visa officer to suggest that whilst accepting she was in the UK, there is no evidence to show that it was with you.

Scouse.