Glad to be here....and welcoming any feedback! :)

Hello all! I’ve recently discovered this site, and have yet to explore it all yet, but I wanted to say hello and introduce myself.  My name is Laura, I'm from Wisconsin, and am 30 years old.  I met my boyfriend online, who is from England, and we are trying to figure out how I can move there to join him.  I am struggling a bit with the fact that, not only have I met someone online (which is much more commonplace now anyway), but also that he lives in the UK.  I have only told my mom so far, and a couple of friends, and I just do not want to deal with everyone’s judgments.  But nonetheless, I am committed to not letting everyone else’s opinions get in the way of our decisions.

As for the actual move, I understand it is quite the challenge to get a work visa, since my position is not on the shortage occupation list (Accountant).  So I am struggling with trying to figure out how I can realistically move there.  I know we could marry, but I don’t necessarily want a visa to be the tipping point for if/when we would get married (perhaps short-sighted of me, so I know I may have to reconsider this). I have also read that there is an Unmarried Partner visa as well, but I seem to get lost in the details of how that works.  Would I be able to work there under a Partner visa anyway?  I considered a student visa, but I don’t believe that would be a good option for me, for financial reasons…..however, I may re-review that if all else fails.  Also, what if we did choose to get married after I am there – would that be an issue with any of these options?

Ultimately, my preference would be to obtain a work visa (which may or may not be a further challenge finding a job, due to my occupation and differences in regulations, etc.); however, I am really open to figuring out what other avenues might work for us, too.  We have been talking about perhaps in a year as the goal for me to move there, and the end goal is for me to obtain British citizenship.  Anyway, sorry this is such a long post, but I’m glad to be here and I look forward to getting to know you all! 

Welcome to the forum .

Unfortunately, if you don't want to marry just for a visa, then your options are very limited.

There's a work visa, but as you said, you may not qualify (the UK company would have to prove they couldn't find a single accountant in the UK or the other 26 EU countries before they would be allowed to hire you).

There's also a student visa, but you would need a lot of money for that - the first year of tuition plus at least £7,200 in living costs available to you before you could get the visa.

The unmarried partner visa requires that you have lived together at the same address for at least 2 years before you apply. This is not going to be an option for you unless you first go to the UK on a work or student visa (or he moves to the US on a work or student visa) and then you live together for 2 years before you apply.

You can work on an unmarried partner visa. It is basically the same as a spousal visa - the only difference is that you aren't married, but have been living together for 2 years already.

Also, what if we did choose to get married after I am there – would that be an issue with any of these options?

If you went to the UK on a work or student visa and decided to marry, you could switch to a spousal visa (known as FLR(M)) from inside the UK without a problem, as long as you met the requirements of the visa.

We have been talking about perhaps in a year as the goal for me to move there, and the end goal is for me to obtain British citizenship.

If you want to get citizenship eventually, your best bet might be to marry and come to the UK on a spousal visa (you would have to apply for two 30-month spousal visas, then permanent residence, then citizenship right away).

Student visas do not lead to permanent residence or citizenship themselves and they are restricting the number of work visa holders who can qualify for permanent residence and therefore citizenship (after 5 years, you would have to meet certain salary requirements for permanent residence, and going the work visa route, you can't get citizenship until you have held permanent residence for at least a year).

Hi JustLaura!  Where in WI are you from?  I grew up in La Crosse.  There are a few other WI natives on UKY as well.  As Ksand said, it's not so easy to move to the UK without marrying a British citizen...and even then it's not so easy, but it can be done.  Good luck to you, and welcome to UKY!

Thank you ksand for all the info!!! I believe my best bet at finding a job would be working with a company that deals with American contracts, so should be familiar with US accounting procedures (GAAP), or of course if I were to work for a company where I could do an inter company transfer (which I don't). So if I, by some miracle, were able to get a work visa, you mentioned issues with limits on who qualifies for permanent residence and citizenship. By that, were you referring to more than the salary requirements and 5 year timeframe you mentioned?

I could financially do a student visa if I absolutely needed to - but I'm not sure I would be able to sustain paying for all of the tuition out of pocket without benefit of student loans after the first year or two. And from what I've read, I can work on a student visa, but only for a max of 20 hours per week. However, if I was there on a student visa, I could switch to an unmarried partner visa after 2 years (or spousal visa at any time if we married).....did I understand that correctly?

I do agree that it would be easiest to marry and go there on a spousal visa, I just would like to consider all our options first. However, as that is one of the potential options, is there anything we should be aware if we do end up going that route? He would need to make £18,600 - is that for a certain length of time prior to the application? Any other requirements or things that would be helpful to do now if we end up going that route (ie, documentation, etc.)?

Thanks again for all the info! While a lot of what you said I have read before, it is so unbelievably helpful to have someone who is familiar with it to put it into verbiage that I can actually understand and apply to my situation!!


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Hello historyenne! I'm from Green Bay. It's nice to see a fellow Wisconsinite on here! Yes, the more research I do, the more difficult and overwhelming the process seems. I am so glad I came across this site though, because at least I can see that it can be done!

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So if I, by some miracle, were able to get a work visa, you mentioned issues with limits on who qualifies for permanent residence and citizenship. By that, were you referring to more than the salary requirements and 5 year timeframe you mentioned?

Well, the 5-year timeframe has always been there (5 years to permanent residence, 6 years in total to UK citizenship), but now they've restricted it so that anyone applying for ILR based on a Tier 2 work visa from April 6th 2016 will need to be earning at least £35,000 per year (http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/working/tier2/general/settlement/).

I could financially do a student visa if I absolutely needed to - but I'm not sure I would be able to sustain paying for all of the tuition out of pocket without benefit of student loans after the first year or two.

You don't have to pay for it all out of pocket if you don't want to or don't have the money.

The majority of student visa holders here on UK-Y use US student or private loans to fund their studies.

And from what I've read, I can work on a student visa, but only for a max of 20 hours per week.

Yes, that is true, although in order to get the visa in the first place, you must show you have access to all the money for the first year of study and living costs without needing to work.

However, if I was there on a student visa, I could switch to an unmarried partner visa after 2 years (or spousal visa at any time if we married).....did I understand that correctly?

Yes, as long as the rules haven't changed by then. However, the 5-year count to getting permanent residence (ILR) won't start until you get your unmarried partner or spousal visa, so say you moved on a student visa in 2013, then lived together until 2015 and applied for an unmarried partner visa then, you wouldn't qualify for ILR or citizenship until 2020.

Alternatively, say you married now and moved before the end of this year, you could qualify for ILR and citizenship in 2017.

However, as that is one of the potential options, is there anything we should be aware if we do end up going that route? He would need to make £18,600 - is that for a certain length of time prior to the application? Any other requirements or things that would be helpful to do now if we end up going that route (ie, documentation, etc.)?

The rules have just changed for spousal and unmarried partner visas - the main changes being that your UK partner needs to earn at least £18,600 per year (if you are applying from the US, then your income does not count at all, if you apply in the UK after already living here, your income will count) and you can no longer use third party financial support (i.e. from a family member) to meet the requirements.

Also, the time to ILR has increased from 2 years to 5 years (you now have to get two 30-month spousal visas instead of one 2-year spousal visa), so you can't qualify for citizenship until you have spent 5 years on the spousal visas and have ILR (used to be 2 years to ILR and 3 years to citizenship, now it's 5 years to both).

Here's more information on the requirements: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/partners-families/citizens-settled/spouse-cp/