Hello Everyone!

[aryM]

hi, I am new to this site and find it very interesting. I was invited by my bf to visit UK with my kids. We plan to apply for a visit visa but felt unsure upon reading some posts here. Shall we apply for fiancee visa or a visit visa? I will be bringing my kids with me, our intention is to really visit there for a month or two to see what awaits me and my kids there. We can't stay long there as I have work here and my kids are also schooling too. Please give me some advise as to the right things to do. God Bless everyone!

[IainBusby]

hi, I am new to this site and find it very interesting. I was invited by my bf to visit UK with my kids. We plan to apply for a visit visa but felt unsure upon reading some posts here. Shall we apply for fiancee visa or a visit visa? I will be bringing my kids with me, our intention is to really visit there for a month or two to see what awaits me and my kids there. We can't stay long there as I have work here and my kids are also schooling too. Please give me some advise as to the right things to do. God Bless everyone!

It's not easy to get a visit visa and I think it would be almost impossible to get one for both yourself and your kids. A fiancee visa is for six months for the purpose of getting married in the UK within that six month period. If your relationship is at the stage where you would both wish to get married and you are both free to marry, ie neither of you are going through adivorce or an annulment and if you think you can meet all of the requirements for a fiancee visa, ie you bf has a steady income, adequate accommodation for yourself and your kids, (you don't say how many kids you have) evidence of a strong relationship and a resonable amount in the bank and a stable savings record, then I would say that this is the one you should go for. If not I guess you could try for a visit visa, but the chances of getting one are usually much lower, especially when it's to visit a bf or fiance.
Iain

[Ana_may365]

hiya!welcome here to the forum

[aryM]

Hi Iain, thanks for the reply. I am a teacher here, widowed with two kids. I meet my bf last 2007 in a social network site., we became close friends then., I personally meet him last October-Nov 2008 when he decided to visit Philippines and hired me as his personal guide. Later on fell in love with each other and became bf & gf in 2009. He came back again for a visit last April-May 2009. We have marriage plans but i said its too early for that and i need to think of if many times as I have 2 kids. So, we decided to make a visit first before deciding when and where to marry.

[irobot]

Irobot...." Sunny... Different From The Rest "

Hi there aryM .... Welcome to the forum...

[nids123]

hi welcome

[IainBusby]

Hi Iain, thanks for the reply. I am a teacher here, widowed with two kids. I meet my bf last 2007 in a social network site., we became close friends then., I personally meet him last October-Nov 2008 when he decided to visit Philippines and hired me as his personal guide. Later on fell in love with each other and became bf & gf in 2009. He came back again for a visit last April-May 2009. We have marriage plans but i said its too early for that and i need to think of if many times as I have 2 kids. So, we decided to make a visit first before deciding when and where to marry.

I think you might be able to get a visit visa for yourself if you meet all of the requirements. The reason that most visit visas are refused is that the ECO (Entry Clearance Officer) deciding the case thinks that the applicant is unlikely to return to the Philippines before their visa expires.

How they make this judgement is based on the strength of the reasons the applicant would have to return to the Philippines and usually this means if you have full-time regular employment in the Philippines, land or property in the Philippines and money in the bank in the Philippines.

If the applicant has all or some of these things, then they assume, on the balance of probabilities, that he or she is likely to return to the Philippines before the visa expires. Unfortunately they also assume, rightly or wrongly, that if the applicant doesn't have any of these things, then it's likely that they would overstay their visa and work illegally in the UK.
Iain.

[Arthur Little]

Welcome to the forum. Like your boyfriend, I visited the Philippines twice to meet my THEN girlfriend - also a teacher by profession - with whom I'd been corresponding by email for roughly 12 months. Both of us had been widowed for more than one decade, thus we were able to get married during my second trip to Tagum City last December, and she was granted her spousal or settlement visa to come to the UK in March.

I note you're a widow too. Having dependent children places you in rather a different category, however, and so really there's nothing further I can add to the good, sound advice kindly provided by my friend Iain ... except to join him in wishing you the very best of luck with whichever route you ultimately decide upon.

[aryM]

Thanks Arthur and Iain for the suggestions...

Arthur, does your wife have sons and daughters? How young are they? Was she able to bring them there? What adjustments did they undergone there, of course like the change of weather, cultures and traditions, lifestyle in general? Those were some of the questions that bothers me so much that is why i thought of a visit visa as the most applicable for me and my kids.

[pinoyni]

hmmm... just wondering what is the difference between a visit visa and a tourist visa or are they the same thing?