Quote Originally Posted by Gavanddal View Post
On the 22nd July my wife will have her British citizenship ceremony. Then we'll apply for her British passport and then re-apply for her Filipino citizenship so she has dual nationality.

Then after 5 years of paying out for visas etc, the process is over, no more expenses and she can settle down to her new life as a British/Filipino citizen.
I, like many British husbands have paid for the whole process and it's cost a lot of money. When you consider it all, it makes you realise that you've paid out all that money just because you fell in love with someone from another country. You've encountered officials trying to trip you up and prove that your wife is a scammer and that your relationship is a sham. No doubt they're just trying to keep the freeloaders out of our country but it a hard process when your relationship is totally genuine.

Once my wife gets her British passport she can enjoy the unhindered freedom of world travel that we Brits take for granted.
She will maintain her dual nationality so she can continue to own a little bit of her birth country which we and our kids can enjoy.

As soon as our beautiful 3 year old goes to school, my wife can start working and reap the benefits of this country. (assuming the recession is over by then and there are jobs about!).

I'm sure she doesn't regret the move to the UK although she does look forward to the trips back to see her family which I hope we can do once a year. It's been 2 years since she last went although I went without her last year. This November we'll have 3 weeks there with her as a fully fledged Brit.

Yep, 5 expensive, anxiety-filled years ... and all because you happened to have fallen in love with a Filipina! Call me naive if you will, but never in my wildest dreams would I ever have expected all the paraphernalia involved simply to be able to bring MY chosen partner to the country where I was born and, moreover, had lived for upwards of six decades ... nearly five of them as a taxpayer.

But such is life! To be honest, even as recently as last January when MY wife applied for her spousal visa, I'd deludedly imagined that THAT would be the process complete. How mistaken I was! And, as she only came here in March, we've still to face the additional hurdles you've successfully crossed.

Congratulations. May the three of you enjoy all the benefits of your newly-found sense of "freedom" before your child is due to start school.