Need advice - GF moving to UK for work

Hey everyone,

I have done some searching on the forum but I have not found my situation.  Please forgive me if this question has been asked.

My GF is taking 2 year contract in the UK and has asked me to move their with her.  Her company is not sponsoring a visa for me so I'm not sure what my options are.  I will continue to be employed by my US company and return to the US every few weeks.  I have not seen a visa that will allow me to do this.  I will not need accommodation while I am in the UK because I will stay with my GF and I will have enough money to support myself.  ie: i will not be a burden to society. 

This is only an issue for the first 12 months because I should have my citizenship with an EU country by then (My mother was born in an EU country).  I am working on attaining my EU citizenship (non UK) which I should have within the next 12 months (based on my conversations with the consulate). 

Can my "Holiday Visa" be extended while my citizenship is processing?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Cheers.

Do you and your gf live together? If you've lived together for at least 2 years, you'd be eligible for an unmarried partner visa.

Unfortunately not.  We have only lived together for 10 months. 

If you plan on going back and forth between the US and the UK, you should be able to apply for a multiple entry visitor visa.  I'm not sure how that would work in terms of the  6 months out of 12 rule, though.  It's about 430AM in the UK right now, so give it a few hours for the UK folk to wake up.

My first guess would be that you don't qualify for a visa to join her - unless you are married or have been living together for at least 2 years (there's a spouse dependant visa, but no girlfriend/boyfriend dependant visa).

If you plan on going back and forth between the US and the UK, you should be able to apply for a multiple entry visitor visa.  I'm not sure how that would work in terms of the  6 months out of 12 rule, though.  It's about 430AM in the UK right now, so give it a few hours for the UK folk to wake up.

Becca suggested a visitor visa, but I don't know how feasible it would be, because every time you returned to the UK you might be at risk of being refused entry if the immigration officer believed you had already spent too much time in the UK (you're only supposed to spend a maximum of 6 months out of every 12 months in the UK as a visitor). Also, you're not supposed to be 'living' in the UK as a visitor and it would be illegal for you to carry out any kind of work while in the UK - you mention continuing to work for your US company, but you would only be able to do this if you only carried out the work while in the US - you can't do any long distance 'working from home' while in the UK as a visitor.

It's worth looking into whether it's at all possible for your EU citizenship to be processed faster than 12 months so that you won't have to worry about visas .

Unfortunately, there is no visa that will offer what you're suggesting. Only persons with a consistent UK immigration history as a visitor can get a long term visitor visa (ie more than 6 months). Even if you travel to the UK as a visitor just be aware that you may not perform anything related to your job while you are in the UK, you may not work remotely (online) and you cannot work for free even for a US based Company.

The only option that you could do is if you get married then you could apply as a dependant of her work visa or speed up your EU Citizenship application.

Becca suggested a visitor visa, but I don't know how feasible it would be, because every time you returned to the UK you might be at risk of being refused entry if the immigration officer believed you had already spent too much time in the UK (you're only supposed to spend a maximum of 6 months out of every 12 months in the UK as a visitor).

Yeah, I was thinking it might not work since he plans on being in the UK fairly continuously for a year