New Marriage Rules in UK for Foreign Fiancee's

[ginapeterb]

Home Office Announces New Rules regarding fiancee's unmarried Partners of British Nationals

Spouses of UK citizens or permanent residents (mainly those with indefinite leave to remain) may come to the UK under marriage visa category, and are able to work as soon as a visa is granted. You will need to meet the following marriage visa requirements:

If you have been together for less than four years you are granted a marriage visa for a probationary period of two years. If you are still married and living together at the end of two years in the UK permanent residence (properly known as indefinite leave to remain) will usually be granted.
If you have been together for four years or more outside the UK you will be granted indefinite leave to remain (permanent residence) in the UK without having to live in the UK for two years.
The UK citizen or permanent resident must have actually met their non-UK spouse. This is to prevent a situation that occurs sometimes in arranged marriages where the husband and wife have never met.
You must intend to live together permanently with your spouse.
You must possess sufficient funds to pay you and your spouse's living expenses and those of any dependants without claiming public funds. Public funds cover various benefits paid by the Government if you are currently looking for work, if you are on a low income and if you are in various other situations.
Accommodation for the couple, and any dependants, must be suitable and available.
Spouses seeking to come to the UK on the basis of marriage to a UK national should apply for entry clearance before entering the UK.
If you have a visa valid for six months or less in the UK you cannot change status to a spouse visa.
Children of the marriage who are under 18 years old are allowed entry to the UK as dependants, and can make their application at the same time as the main applicant.
After a total period of three years in the UK if you meet the residence requirements you may then apply for UK citizenship.

[ginapeterb]

Rules for the Fiancee unmarried partner

The requirements for immigration to UK as a Fiancé/e’s are very similar to the rules for married couples. You may wish to consider very carefully whether it is best to marry first and then apply for entry as this will avoid the necessity of making a fiance/e application and then a second application to remain as a spouse. However, please note that it is no longer possible for most visitors to change status to a spouse visa. The basic requirements for immigration to UK are as follows:

Unless you are engaged to an EU Citizen (not British citizen in this situation&#33 with a five year residence permit you must apply for entry from outside the UK. If you wish to apply from within the UK in other circumstances your application is likely to be refused unless you can show exceptional reasons why the application should be granted.
You are granted entry to the UK for a period of six months during which time you must marry your fiancé/e in the UK. If there are exceptional reasons for delaying marriage until after the initial six months an extension to stay in the UK may be granted.
You will not be permitted to work in the UK on the fiance/e visa, and you and your fiance/e must show that there will be sufficient funds and accommodation in the UK without requiring public funds before and after the marriage. Public funds cover various benefits paid by the Government if you are currently looking for work, if you are on a low income and if you are in various other situations.
You must have met your future spouse. This is to prevent a situation that occurs sometimes in arranged marriages where the future husband and wife have never met.
You must intend to live together permanently with your future spouse once you are married.
It is a requirement that the overseas fiancé/fiancée has to be 16 years old or over, and the sponsor in the UK has to be at least 18 years old.
Children of the overseas fiance/e who are under 18 years old are only allowed entry to the UK as dependants if it can be shown that it would cause serious problems if they are not allowed entry at the same time. Therefore this sort of application will be difficult to make, and in many cases it may be best to wait until after the marriage and then apply for entry of dependents.
You should apply for a marriage visa from within the UK when you are married, and will then be eligible to work freely in the UK.

[walesrob]

Originally posted by ginapeterb@Sep 26 2005, 10:30 AM
Home Office Announces New Rules regarding fiancee's unmarried Partners of British Nationals

Spouses of UK citizens or permanent residents (mainly those with indefinite leave to remain) may come to the UK under marriage visa category, and are able to work as soon as a visa is granted. You will need to meet the following marriage visa requirements:

If you have been together for less than four years you are granted a marriage visa for a probationary period of two years. If you are still married and living together at the end of two years in the UK permanent residence (properly known as indefinite leave to remain) will usually be granted.
If you have been together for four years or more outside the UK you will be granted indefinite leave to remain (permanent residence) in the UK without having to live in the UK for two years.
The UK citizen or permanent resident must have actually met their non-UK spouse. This is to prevent a situation that occurs sometimes in arranged marriages where the husband and wife have never met.
You must intend to live together permanently with your spouse.
You must possess sufficient funds to pay you and your spouse's living expenses and those of any dependants without claiming public funds. Public funds cover various benefits paid by the Government if you are currently looking for work, if you are on a low income and if you are in various other situations.
Accommodation for the couple, and any dependants, must be suitable and available.
Spouses seeking to come to the UK on the basis of marriage to a UK national should apply for entry clearance before entering the UK.
If you have a visa valid for six months or less in the UK you cannot change status to a spouse visa.
Children of the marriage who are under 18 years old are allowed entry to the UK as dependants, and can make their application at the same time as the main applicant.
After a total period of three years in the UK if you meet the residence requirements you may then apply for UK citizenship.

Quoted post

Thanks Pete good information there!

Hows Gina adjusting to life in sunny England?

[ginapeterb]

Originally posted by walesrob@Sep 26 2005, 10:34 AM
Thanks Pete good information there!

Hows Gina adjusting to life in sunny England?

Quoted post

Hello Rob,

Well where can i start, Gina likes UK, and is happy, however there are marked differences between her life in Philippines and her life so far here.

Gina notices the difference in support networks, for example, to date she has not seen a Fellow Filipino, apart from having a visit from our freinds in Scotland last weekend, we had a great night together on Friday, cooking Filipino Food and Banggus, Steve my mate and I had Chiken Tikka Massala good old British Food, the girls, thats my wife and his, had Filipino Food, and yes Elsa, they did eat the rice with their fingers, we had a couple bottles of wine, and the next morning we went to London and had a whole day at the London Eye, and toured the city, the Girls loved it.

But apart from that, Gina finds it highly noticable that their is a distinct lack of support network for her, however she is communicating with her family and freinds back home in Bacolod City fairly well and on a daily basis.

She finds the cost of goods expensive, and she doenst like wasting money on some of the things we would buy, she is very thrifty with money.

She has had periods of slight homesickness, which is to be expected, but they have been mild, and so far I am proud of what she has achieved, she is currently looking for work and has a temporary National Insurance Number, however at present, we appear to have hit a few hiccups in that she cant work in her chosen profession, without a conversion course, this isnt until next year, so that represents some waiting.

She has applied for 1 care assistant Job, but we are awaiting a reply on that, so its slow progress, but to be expected.

Apart from that Rob, it seems kind of strange, that she is here now, and when I look back, it does seem to be as you said, a blip on your life, the Embassy process and visa's seems so far away now, you know what I mean by that Rob, funny, at the time it was a National Crisis for me, I will keep updating this thread with more news soon.

[Pauldo]

Originally posted by ginapeterb@Sep 27 2005, 07:07 PM
Hello Rob,

Well where can i start, Gina likes UK, and is happy, however there are marked differences between her life in Philippines and her life so far here.

Quoted post

I hear what you're saying, it can be a hell of a shock. My wife never spoke to another Filipino for maybe a year after we got here. She met one snotty bitch in Sainsburys, but the girl basically refused to speak Tagollywog and did nothing but talk about herself and her achievements, so it was a bit of a non starter friendship. My wife does speak almost perfect English, but I think they usually get a certain comfort from speaking their own gobbledygook together.

She met an Indonesian girl who lives just down the road, who speaks pitiful English and is a little touched in the head. They've become fairly good friends but the girl has an English drunkard as a husband, who is a real oddball.

In the last year or so she has started work as a care giver, and finds 75% of her fellow workers are Filipinas, so she's built a fairly decent circle of friends. There were a few who lived by the old motto: "you can take the girl out of the bar, but you can't take the bar out of the girl". They actively looked for guys whenever they were out anywhere, despite being married already, so they have been cut out of the circle of friends now.

It'll be four years next March since we arrived on these cold and gloomy shores. There was a three week break back to the PI last year, but that won't happen again for a while yet. Money is a bit tight: the wife want to go to university and study nursing next year. The daughter is in school now. All restrictions that bind us to the workaday world shared by millions of our countrymen.

Oh well, we have plenty of souvenirs to remind us of that warm and balmy country. One is Pogi, the wood gnome, careved from a tree in Angeles City. The other is Paulina, our daughter:

[ginapeterb]

Hello Paul,


Your daughter is lovely mate, and we enjoyed seeing her, its rare we get a photo on the Forum, but this was a treat, I think if honey could get a care giving job or something it would help her to get out a bit more, last night we went for a walk to town, something of which is rare for me, and we enjoyed the chance to have a chat, we talked about our plans, you mentioned these cold and gloomy shores, I hear you on that, sometimes I get depressed with it as well, then people are not as freindly as in the Philippines, that is highly noticable, there dont seem to be any Filipinos in town or in the connurbation I live in, its a shame, as most of the support networks I think are in London, out here, there isnt much, I really feel sorry for honey, as she has to be alone when I go to work and its boring for her, how many times can you clean the house ? watching daytime t.v. isnt much fun, although she does go on the net everyy day to talk with family once they go to take their rest, its back to the same thing, I just hope we can get her a job soon, at least then she will have a routine in her day, its hard di ba ?



Here is one of my honey with her freind from weekend, when they went to Buck House, and did a few tours, its great at weekends when i am around, but other times it must be hard for the girls isnt it ? especially if they dont have much to do, sometimes someone just wants to feel they are doing something worthwhile, rather than sitting around.

[Pauldo]

Originally posted by ginapeterb@Sep 28 2005, 08:41 AM
Hello Paul,

Here is one of my honey with her freind from weekend, when they went to Buck House, and did a few tours, its great at weekends when i am around, but other times it must be hard for the girls isnt it ? especially if they dont have much to do, sometimes someone just wants to feel they are doing something worthwhile, rather than sitting around.

Quoted post

Looks like the piccie didn't work. I have mine stored in Photobucket.com, saves clogging up the forums storage space. I wasn't sure if we could post photos here before so I just thought I'd try it out. Glad you like the daughter. She's my special little souvenier of the PI :wub:

You might see if your wife can get onto one of the local care-giver agencies near where you live. We have about three advertising in our local paper all the time. My wife has a nursing background, so she knows a fair bit about the sort of stuff they do, and she just had to attend a one week 'orientation' course before they let her loose on the various old folks homes they provide for. She loves the job, and earns as much as me some weeks, when she can get some night shifts in! Minimum salary is about £6.30 an hours, going up to £11.50 an hour if she works a Sunday shift in a psychiatric ward.

Here's a coupe of pics I took a few weeks before we left the PI. I went riding on my motorbike early one morning and got all melancholy about leaving the place I'd lived for nearly ten years, so took a bunch of snaps. It's Mount Arayat, a dormant volcano near Angeles City:



Here's one taken just minutes before we flew out in 2002, from everybodys favourite airport: NAIA



Here's one of me on my bike about six years ago, younger, thinner, more hair, in the desert that was created when Pinatubo volcano decided to blow up near Angeles. We bought the bike in the PI, and it had been Filipino maintained, which means it was damn near wrecked. A six month rebuild in our apartment/room had it running pretty well though:

[moi]

Originally posted by ginapeterb@Sep 27 2005, 06:07 PM
we appear to have hit a few hiccups in that she cant work in her chosen profession, without a conversion course, this isnt until next year, so that represents some waiting.

Quoted post

If Gina wants to, she can visit your nearest NHS Trust and hand in her CV .One of my brother's friend is an RMT and working in the Nuclear Department on one of the Trust in London.I am myself is an RMT and has been working as a Clinical Respiratory Physiologist.
I will be glad to help and tell her the right direction if she wants to use her qualification here in the UK.I can give her my phone number and chat about it.

Roda