Welcome to the forum
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We haven't lived together and would like to do so for awhile like normal couples not desperate for a visa.
As we say here on UK-Y, there's no such thing as a 'shacking up' visa - there's no visa that allows you to try out living together for a while before you decide to get married.
Which is why a lot of people end up having to get a fiance or spousal visa before they really want or are ready to, because it's the only way they can be together on a more long-term basis.
1) Should we just try things out for 6 months while I'm on a holiday visa, or will this impact us if we are in a serious relationship?
The main issue you will have is being allowed into the UK in the first place, especially if you are in a serious relationship. If you no longer have a job, then the chances of you being allowed to enter the UK as a visitor to stay for a whole 6 months are going to be fairly slim.
In order to enter the UK as a visitor, you need to be able to show that you have no intention of living in the UK and you are a genuine tourist (who is NOT just trying to use a visitor visa to live with their boyfriend, because that is not allowed on a visitor visa).
You need to show ties to your home country that you MUST return to and which will prevent you from trying to stay in the UK. The longer you try to stay in the UK, the more ties you need to be able to show and the stronger the ties need to be.
For example, you need to show:
- you have a return ticket
- you have a job in the US that you MUST get back to, and you have a letter from your employer giving you time off from work and stating what date you are expected back
- you have a home in the US that you are maintaining and paying for, for the entire length of your visit to the UK (evidence of homeownership or a valid rental agreement)
- you have enough money in your bank account to support yourself without working for those 6 months
- any other ties to the US that you must return for, i.e. a family member you care for, important events to attend, interviews, conferences, court dates... anything that you cannot miss.
2) Should I get a year long student visa at a community college and establish our residency together, then try for the 2 year long unmarried partner situation?
First off, if you only get a 1-year long student visa, there is no way you can live together for 2 years to get an unmarried partner visa, because you will only have permission to live in the UK for 1 year. You cannot use time as a visitor towards the 2 years for an unmarried partner visa, so your student visa must be valid for at least 2 years in order to be able to live together for the required length of time (or you will need to be able to get another visa to stay in the UK after the 1-year student visa is up).
Secondly, there isn't really such a thing as 'community college' in the UK. The UK equivalent to US Community College is either the last 2 years of high school (Sixth Form or further education college), or the first year of an undergrad degree. Depending on your educational background, I suppose you could maybe come to the UK to study for an adult education course at an FE College, but honestly, if you want to get a student visa, you'd probably be best doing a full undergraduate degree, a masters degree (but masters degrees are usually only 12 months long), or a PhD.
3) We are both open to the fiancee aspect, I just dont want to go down that route for legality--furthermore after getting married, would I need to return to the US to apply for any future visas (marriage, partner visa)?
No, you wouldn't need to return to the US. The whole point of a fiance visa is that you can come to the UK, get married within 6 months, and then apply for an FLR(M) extension visa to stay after the wedding in the UK without having to leave.
As the fiance visa is valid for 6 months, it gives you some time to live together before the wedding, but you do have to get married and apply for the next visa within those 6 months and you need to show evidence of wedding planning in order to get the visa. Your boyfriend would need to meet the financial requirement in order for you to qualify for the visas though.
4) Ideally, it would be awesome to get sponsored by an employer, but despite having a master's degree, I'm in the arts so it isn't very lucrative.
Yeah, an employer-sponsored work visa can be extremely difficult to get because the job either has to be listed on the
Skills Shortage list, or the employer has to prove that they couldn't find a single suitable applicant across the UK or the EU (that's 500 million people in 27 countries) before they are allowed to hire you.
During the recession, I was looking for work in a field that was listed on the Skills Shortage list and supposedly was in demand in the UK. I'm a UK citizen and so don't need sponsorship and should get priority for jobs... so it should have been easy for me to get a job. But even with 2 masters degrees, I still didn't qualify... all the jobs were senior level and required a PhD and/or 10 years of experience in the field. It took me 2 years to find a graduate job, and it wasn't even in the field that I had trained in.
Thank you in advance to anyone that reads this. I would like to know the most cost effective and time effective way to basically stay in the UK for as long as possible, legally.
Honestly, unless you want to get yourself another masters degree, or do a PhD, your best option would probably be to stick to short visits for the next few months/couple of years and then when you're ready, either apply for a fiance visa to marry in the UK, or get married in the US and move to the UK on a spousal visa.
