Marriage Visitor visa or Family of a Settled Person visa?

[AppleMisada]

My boyfriend and I have started making plans to permanently be together. In other words, get married. But since he also intends to stay in England (true patriotic English gent) I will be making the major move to the UK.

But first, we need to decide which visa should I apply for and I'm confused on what type of visa I need to get.

1. Should I apply for a Marriage Visitor visa?
-is this another name for Fiance visa?
-if yes, what are the most up to date/current requirements?
-how long should we wait for us to be eligible to apply?

2. Should we get married here in Manila and apply for a Family of a Settled Person visa?
-is this another name for Spouse visa?
-again if yes, what are the most up to date/current requirements?
-how many years should we be married for us to be eligible to apply?

This link (https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa/y/philippines/marriage) states:

1. Apply for a Marriage Visitor visa if you and your partner don’t plan to stay in the UK longer than 6 months.

2. Apply for a Family of a Settled Person Visa if your partner is British or settled in the UK and you wish to join them to live in the UK permanently.

If the info in link is valid, obviously I need to apply for a Family of a Settled Person Visa because my boyfriend is British and we plan to live permanently in England.

Thank you in advance for all your much needed advice. Since I'm just 30 and he's just 27 - both have never been married, nor have any children - we are so in the dark on how to do this...

But one thing we're both sure of... we want to be together forever.

As for me, being there for 2 weeks during the last holiday season really convinced me I want to move there and live there for good. Life there is just so laid back especially in England's South West where my boyfriend and his family lives. It really broke my heart when I had to go back to Manila after the holidays. Life there is so much better than here in Manila where I had to go straight to work after I landed, answer 200+ emails in my work inbox and ensure all projects I left before I went on a holiday are still on track...

[Terpe]

Marriage visitor visa is just that......it's a visit visa for those folks who only want to visit UK for the purpose of getting married. After the marriage they return home.
It's not a Fiancée visa

If you want to settle here in UK it doesn't matter whether you want to get married in UK as a Fiancée or get marry in Philippines you'll need to follow the same application form and requirements process.

As a first step in reviewing the forms and documentation take a look at the UKVI webpage - Apply to join family living permanently in the UK

Take a look at the application form details here - Application for UK visa for family settlement: form VAF4A then ask any specific questions.

If you haven't already searched here in the forum look here to get some additional background info - How to apply for a spouse visa

Hope this helps

[AppleMisada]

many thanks Terpe! you gave a lot of info for someone who's just beginning the process.

super, super thank you!