Need visa help asap

[darren-b]

My quick question is , If my wife does do the tourist Visa for 6months and we decide to settle here in Uk Is it possible to change her Visa over from Tourist visa to Settlement visa???

The immigration rules no longer allow someone to switch from a tourist visa into a fiance/spouse visa. So your wife would have to return to the Philippines before her tourist visa expires - this is assuming of course she is granted a tourist visa in the first place.

[freedom2009]

Hi to everyone who has posted back,, ok i see so she would need to return to the phils,,, regarding if she will get a tourist visa -well there should be no reason why she shouldnt get a tourist visa as we have been married for over 4 years and we have a baby who is registered as british in the phils through the british embassy, i am british citizen from birth also, i work full time etc etc...

So if my wife came here on tourist visa then had to leave after the 6mths, is it possbile to apply for her application for settlement visa before she leaves Uk so the application wouldnt take so long to process,, ???

[darren-b]

Hi to everyone who has posted back,, ok i see so she would need to return to the phils,,, regarding if she will get a tourist visa -well there should be no reason why she shouldnt get a tourist visa as we have been married for over 4 years and we have a baby who is registered as british in the phils through the british embassy, i am british citizen from birth also, i work full time etc etc...

So if my wife came here on tourist visa then had to leave after the 6mths, is it possbile to apply for her application for settlement visa before she leaves Uk so the application wouldnt take so long to process,, ???

The ECO may question why your wife is going down the visit visa route, rather than the spouse visa route if you are now settled back in the UK. Part of the requirements for the granting of a visit visa is that you will leave the UK before it expires - you have given lots of reasons why your wife wouldn't want to leave the UK.

I don't think it's possible to really start the application from the UK as your wife will need to pay the fee (which I think needs to be done in the Philippines) and have an appontment to give her biometric data.

If it's likely that your wife is going to want to live in the UK why not apply for a spouse visa instead of visit visa?

[Mrs.JMajor]

Hi to everyone who has posted back,, ok i see so she would need to return to the phils,,, regarding if she will get a tourist visa -well there should be no reason why she shouldnt get a tourist visa as we have been married for over 4 years and we have a baby who is registered as british in the phils through the british embassy, i am british citizen from birth also, i work full time etc etc...

So if my wife came here on tourist visa then had to leave after the 6mths, is it possbile to apply for her application for settlement visa before she leaves Uk so the application wouldnt take so long to process,, ???

I suggest, why not give a try the tourist visa route, but you can't switch it to spuse visa, she really need to go back to the Philippines if she lucky to grant visit visa, just state in the cover letter why you are applying for visit visa, ECO might confussed why you are just applying v.v instead of spouse visa, anyhow good luck to both
Welcome to the forum

[IainBusby]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I think your best bet, if you can meet all the requirements, would be to forget all about the visit visa and apply for a settlement visa.

You haven't given any details of your situation with regard to employment, accommodation or savings, but if they all measure up to the requirements and given that your evidence of relationship is very strong, getting a settlement visa would be almost a formality.

If you did apply for a visit visa, I think the ECO's are likely to be confused about it and wonder if your trying to circumvent the normal, lengthier and more expensive settlement visa route of bringing your spouse to the UK.
Iain.