Hello Brian,

youre in very good hands if you take Rob and Keiths advices, what they don't know about this process is not worth hearing about, your course of action is a common occurence which we deal with on this forum, very often sponsors do press the applicant to apply for a tourist visa, the problem with a tourist visa for visitation to non relatives is that it is not the best vehicle to bring the two of you together in the UK.

The Fiancee visa is in effect a veiled tourist visa in itself as in some cases, they applicant arrives in UK and for whatever reason, she or he in some cases may decide that the marriage will not take place again for other reasons, it could be that the applicant finds she or he does not get on with the sponsor in a living in situation, or that he she does not like the uk, or does not feel they can settle, the list is endless, the Fiancee visa is in fact the wrong term, there is no such thing as a Fiancee visa, in fact the correct term is 'Marriage visa".

If Fiancee's coming to UK actually look carefully at their visa, it will often be endorsed 'Marriage visa - George Galloway" or something like that, this means that the visa which is valid for 6 months, is only issued on the basis that it gives the applicant 6 months to arrange to get married, if the applicant does not do so, they are legally bound to return to their home country, although as Keith always points out, these can be extended in certain circumstances.

Its my belief that once your fiancee re-submits an application on VAFW 2004, the circumstances of the application are totally different, the fact that your fiancee was refused permission to enter the UK for purposes of tourism, does not necessarily mean that she would be also refused permission to land in the UK on the basis of marriage.

If the application is prepared properly, the documentation is in order, and the applicant can satisfy the Entry Clearance Officer that the their is a balance of probability that the applicant will get married to the sponsor, then they are duty bound to grant such a visa.

You may have noticed I said in this post 'the applicant must satisfy the Entry Clearance Officer' many sponsors fail to understand how important that phrase is, if the sponsor does not understand this, how can they ever expect the Filipino applicant partner to do the same, very often it is the applicant who is at the mercy of the Entry Clearance Officer, and not the sponsor, I have said time and time again on this forum and on my own website, that bad preparation is the key to most of the 'refusal to issue a visa' decisions.

Entry Clearance Officers work to a set of guidelines issued by the home office, the key to positive decisions is 'Balance of probability' very often sponsors make the assumption that they have done all they can, and that they have put all the paperework together, and then wonder when their fiancee comes crying down the phone saying she has been refused.

One of the many reasons for recent visa refusals is that the Fiancee has been unable to convince the Entry Clearance Officer that any marriage is taking place, this is often caused by poor preparation, lack of coaching, its simply not good enough anymore, to say to an Entry Clearance officer " I want to go to UK to get married to.....we will sort out the wedding when I get there"

That answer is the best one to cause a visa refusal, I recommend Brian that you take Keiths advice and navigate over to my website for a read, I am not here to trumpet my own website, but it will help you to get an idea of how Visa decisions are made, its based on lots of feedback, and actually my own personal experiences, and those of Robs, Keiths, and many others on this forum, who have their wife happy and settled in UK living with them, I hope for your own sake and that of your fiancee that you follow the advices given.

Best of luck, and come back and tell us when she gets approved.