Help please

[mick foreman]

Hi all ,
Would really appreciate some help from you all, I met my girlfriend Monick on-line 8 months ago as soon as we started chatting there was a spark i went out to Phili in january and we stayed together for the 2 weeks and both agreed we wanted to spend our lives together either here or in the Philipines .
Now the bad news i am currently going through a divorce but my girlfriend is still married ,she married in November 2008 and her husband ran off with another woman in March 2009 she has had no contact with him since !!!!
Good news for me as she is an amazing young woman!!!!
Unfortunately she cannot afford to have her marriage annulled and i have not got that sort of money to help her out.
So no way we can get the fiance or spouse visa .
Is there any way i can eventually get Monick into the country and what visa should we be applying for ?
And what sort of time span are we looking at before our dreams come true ?
Or would i be better of going to the Philipines to try and find work so we can start living our dreams of being together,but i have been told that is not that easy
Any help would be most gratefull !!!!!!
cheers Mick

[KeithD]

Your only way is the annulment. You'll just have to save up. Normal timeframe would be 12-24 months from now.

[stevewool]

wow, so soon, why dont you just wait till your divorce is through, then look into monicks , that will give you time to save and maybe go out to th phil again,

[mick foreman]

Is there no other visa available that Monick can come over and stay permanent on ?

[stevewool]

i dont think there is, the tourist visa is the only one, but they dont give many of those out

[Terpe]

Is there no other visa available that Monick can come over and stay permanent on ?

Mick, welcome here to the forum.

To be fair, no-one can really say for certain. It really does depend on so many personal circumstances and doing some basic research to find a possible and legal immigration route.

The big barrier at the moment is the fact that Monick is married. There is no such thing as divorce in the Philippines, only annulment. Try a search here in the forum, there are quite a few threads.
Without an annulment you cannot legally marry, and being free to marry or actually being married is a basic and important key to any permanent visa /immigration routes.

I feel that both you and Monick have some serious talking to do in order to seriously make a plan for your future.
Set your objective, set your strategy and focus everything you do on achieving it in a focussed step-by-step approach.

Please check out annulment, what it is, what's involved, how long it might take and how much it might cost.
Also check out the UKBA website to understand a little about what immigration involves, what you need to do and what it might cost.

To start off take a look at these links:-
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration


http://filipinaroses.com/showthread....ight=annulment

There are plenty of thread to review if you're interested.
Just do a search here in the forum by typing in 'annulment'

Good luck to you both

[rusty]

Another option may be to apply for unmarried partner.

It can be applied for if you can show that any previous marriage that either of you was in has permanently broken down but you have to show that you have been living together in a relationship akin to marriage which has been existing and genuine (not like a 'marriage of convenience') for at least 2 years.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/vi...can-you-apply/

[mick foreman]

Thanks for the advice , we have now made our plans my divoce is nearly sorted now i hope !!!!! Monick has been to see a lawyer so the money for her annullment will be on its way to her shortly . Her lawyer has told her 3-4 months for her annullment i thought this sounded a little hopefull but her aunty used the same lawyer and it was all sorted in 4 months !!!! Monicks case is a little more straight forward from what he has told her .
So fingers crossed we are getting married later this year ( i have been told )
So more questions now what do i need to get married in phili
and how do i go about it , have read some posts on here but iam still confused as to what i need and how to get the documents .
And also do we still need to have proof of being in a relationship 2 years even if we are married to apply for a spouse visa for Monick to come here ... if so i think i will be moving to phili to be with the my special lady
thanks in advance

Mick and Monick

[Stevi]

Very sweet. If you guys are getting married therefore there's no more need to prove that you have lived together for 2 years this only apply for Unmarried category.

[HACHE]

I'm not an expert here, in fact I've been seeking advice myself in my situation.
Like what other people say, the key to this is the Annulment process, what it entails in terms of money, and time frame, and also someone quite rightly pointed out to me, the very very important thing is getting the right lawyer, but it seems you may have this sorted

Regarding getting married, I think you have two avenues. Getting married over there, then applying for spouse visa...or getting married here. Getting married here, would require her to get a "fiancee visa" which would be for six months, in which time you'd be expected to get married here. Then once married here you'll apply for a spouse visa, which I think is issued for a "probationary period" of 24 or 27 months, or there abouts.
Whatever path you go down, remember to keep all correspondance, all evidence of contact between you both, in order to help support your application in the future.
Good luck !!!

[mick foreman]

I just thought i would let you all know the good news is Monicks annullment was sorted in 2 months just she is now waiting the final paperwork from the N.S.O office which she will get in a couple of weeks .. My divorce will be finalised in early August .
And we are now planning on getting married this October ,i cant wait !!!!!!!!!!!!! Only 17 weeks and 1 day untill i arrive in Manila , not counting the days down honestly !!!!!!!!!!!

[mike1]

From your first post to your last post you have got the necessary done really quickly, Congratulations and good luck with your future plans

[Terpe]

I just thought i would let you all know the good news is Monicks annullment was sorted in 2 months just she is now waiting the final paperwork from the N.S.O office which she will get in a couple of weeks .. My divorce will be finalised in early August .
And we are now planning on getting married this October ,i cant wait !!!!!!!!!!!!! Only 17 weeks and 1 day untill i arrive in Manila , not counting the days down honestly !!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, that's a great result. One of the fastest results I've heard of.
Bet both of you are really happy.

Well done.
Onward and upwards

[mick foreman]

Yeah really happy cant wait now !!! its just all the other bits now to sort out , really not the most organised at sorting things out and putting them in place ...A few more headaches on the way i expect but with all the help on here i am sure everything will go well !!!fingers crossed ..I would really like to thank everyone on here for being so helpfull,,,

[Arthur Little]

Confession time for me, Mick: I steered clear of your earlier posts because of my complete lack of knowledge in relation to Divorce Law. Nonetheless, I've been following your progress since you joined this site back in February, and I'm pleased to note the considerable headway you've made over the past four months.

its just all the other bits now to sort out , really not the most organised at sorting things out and putting them in place ...

... tbh, neither am I! But you'll manage ... after all, you're a 'foreman'!

So ... a belated from me, good luck with the wedding plans - enjoy your forthcoming trip to the Phils - and all the best to you & Monick.

[dontpushme]

Monicks annullment was sorted in 2 months just she is now waiting the final paperwork from the N.S.O office which she will get in a couple of weeks

That's incredibly fast! Congratulations!! Annulments here in the Philippines usually take forever and cost a lotta money.

[mick foreman]

It was not cheap even though the lawyer was a friend of monicks aunty if he had not been a friend the price he charges is 250.000 php but he did it for 150.000 i suppose the same old story you get what you pay for !!!! Still hurt my back pocket though but it will be worth it come october