Hello

This is my friends experience. He married a filipina 7 or 8 years ago. He did not read forums, he did not seek any advise, he just left it up to his wife to apply. He submitted the marriage contract, some documents to the british embassy and the visa was granted. His wife knew a lawyer in the Philippines who organised it all.

His wife has a sister in the UK already just to give you a background information.

The visa was granted which I assumed was a spouse visa. My friend had very little involvement (he is a british national) in the visa process. He just provided her with the documents and she fixed it all with a lawyer there.

When she arrived into the UK she had in her passport DEPENDENT VISA and it had a validity period of 6 months in it. Close to the 6 months they went to the home office in Croydon then extended it for I think 2 years. She is now a UK citizen and has got the ILR and everything sorted.

Well he is insisting to me that there are 2 ways to bring your spouse to the UK. Either a SPOUSE VISA and we need to provide all the proof etc or a DEPENDENT VISA where you provide limited relationship evidence mainly financial documents and accomodation documents etc and bank statements but its similar to a tourist visa but also allowed to work.

From anyone's experience is the above true? If its not true do you think that his wife just got lucky and the British Embassy made a mistake? Lastly could it be she applied as a dependent visa through her sister even though my friend insists she applied with his details and because of him.

He is still insisting that I am wasting my time going for a spouse visa when I can easily get a dependent visa and its less hassle and less paperwork.

Any opinions would be welcomed! thanks