Second UK Visit Visa for girlfriend - Longer stay

[jrjchapman]

Hi all,

 

This is my first post here and firstly I want to say thank you to the users in this forum for very useful information. My girlfriend and I successfully submitted her first UK Visitor Visa application without any outside help besides the info in this forum. I could do with advice now I am looking at a *second* UK Visitor visa application.  I did search but couldn't find information on this specific concern.

 

I met my girlfriend when I was on holiday in Thailand in April 2016. After I came home we stayed in touch pretty much every day online and  we decided to apply for a Visitor visa to the UK (for a 10 day trip in August 2016), I gathered going for a short trip at first is better. I followed advice on this forum and prepared all of the supporting documentation myself. This visa was granted. As it was a multiple entry visa, after her first trip here, I invited her over to the UK for Christmas (for 20 days) which was all good. In April this year I went to Thailand to see her for 3 weeks.  So we have a lot of proof of the legitimacy of the relationship and that she is not going to overstay the visa (as she could have done that already if it was her intention)

 

Now her previous visa expired, and we want to spend more time together. This time I would like to bring her to England for the summer to stay with me and plan to have her come for 3 months (90 days).

 

My main concern now is that her previous employer cannot keep her job position open (understandably), and this was her main tie to Thailand (this is a fully legitimate job in a restaurant). Her employer is pretty good and has agreed to write a letter saying that *if* there is vacancy at work when she comes back to Thailand she is welcome back but that's the best they can do. We are going to explain this on the application, and I was going to state that I will financially support her when she returns to Thailand until she finds a job (as she has no savings). However, there aren't any concrete 'reasons to return' other than that she likes to visit her mother and sisters regularly - and the fact she already applied for and adhered to the terms of a UK Visitor visa on two recent trips.

 

Does anyone have any advice or has anyone been through a similar situation? I can imagine it being quite common that a visit to the UK longer than a few weeks means there will be no guaranteed job for the applicant when they return. Are there any particular points is worth stressing on this application?

 

[darren1971]

I'm no expert but I think the fact that she complied previously and the fact that her employer is at least prepared to offer a job if available should be enough, like you say, If she was going to stay she probably would have done it on her previous visits...

[rasg]

I've sent you a PM as my wife's situation is almost the same as yours although my wife was laid off while she was in the UK as the flooding meant that the hotel she was working in went very, very quiet. She ended up staying here for 18 weeks on her first VV. I explained that, as a result, I was financially supporting her by then and the second VV for two years was granted with no problems.