Hi!

Hello, this is both and introduction and a request for any useful tips/help you can give us.

My fiance (Jolene), wishes to move to the UK, she's currently in Pennsyvlania, USA... for the most part it doesn't seem like a huge problem... my parents are of great help both morally, and financially... Getting Jolene a fiance visa as far as I can see won't be a problem really... but she has a 22 month little boy called Jesse by another man... And here in lies the problem... I don't know how to go about getting him over... is he classed as a dependant and would come under the fiance visa? does he have to have his own visa? ... it's all very complicated...

Any help you can give me would be most appreciated!

Chris and Jolene

Hi ya!  Congrats on your pending wedding bells!  

Regarding visas, fiance visas aren't usually terribly difficult if you follow the rules and go step by step.  If you care to read about our adventure into the world of UK Immigration, here's how we went about it:

http://www15.brinkster.com/wishstar/FirstYear/notourist.htm

Kids can be tricky.  The little one will have to have a visa, and getting one for a child requires getting permission from the other parent.  There are some good posts about this under the parenting forum and here in the Visa forum if you look back a bit.  

Best advice is for her to call the consulate and get some advice.

Hope that helps and best of luck!  

First of all welcome. Secondly, i agree that the Parenting section should be a big help because there are many people on this board who have gone through the exact same thing!!! HUGS to you, and hope you stick around and post some more.

Well, I've been through it, and can tell you that you'll have to file a separate application for entry clearance for the child, not to mention fees. :-/ If the father is named on the birth certificate, you will also have to have either his written/notarized permission or court permission to move with the child.

Welcome to the site, and feel free to post any other questions you may have.

You have to fill out an IM2A for the child, but not an IM2B.  Also, when you write your "letter of intent" as far as your support of Jolene, you MUST include the child - they re-read Phil's letter to make sure he mentioned my two sons in it.  As well, the letter from his parents saying we could stay with them until we found our own place mentioned both boys by name, and a letter his best friend wrote to kind of help substantiate the relationship mentioned my boys, as he had met them himself.

Is Jolene receiving child support - is there an order for it?  Have blood tests been done?  I know that in Florida the father's name is only on the birth certificate in the case of unmarried parents if he (1) appears and signs it himself or (2) a blood test is done to determine paternity by the State in order to get child support payments enforced.  In the second instance, the State of Florida sends the DNA results to Vital Statistics and they place the father's name on the certificate.  In the case of my oldest - no blood test, no name.  In the case of my youngest - blood test done, but not until almost a year later and I had purchased about 10 copies of his birth certificate WITHOUT his father's name on it prior to that.  So any birth certificate I request now has it on there, but I used the "original" one to get his passport and his visa.

You're in luck if he's not listed.  Otherwise - I wish you luck!!

There isn't an order for child support... it was a privately agreed thing. I don't believe that blood tests have been taken, at least as far as I know.

I've looked at the birth certificate, but neither name is on it. Which just confuses us... I don't know what to do about that. The big problem is that if we need his permission... I KNOW that we aren't going to get it. He will refuse outright no matter what, I just know it.

We haven't even started this process and already it's getting to me...

Hi Chris.

I might be a bit controversial here but felt the need to point out a thing or two.  Please note that I don't know you or your sweetheart so I may be *totally* off here...that said:

I would advise that you definately need to make sure that it is cleared with the little one's dad about this moving thing.  If for no other reason then the simple fact that Jolene's moving away is taking his kid away from him.  I'm a big believer in rommance and love and all that stuff, but you gotta think of the kids first when you're a mommy or daddy, ya know?  

And the immigration laws in both the US and UK make sure that this is the case for that very reason.  

Have you given much thought to your moving to be with Jolene in the US?  Then maybe everyone would win?

Unless, of course, the dad won't give permission just out of spite, which is a totally different situation.  I'm just saying that you gotta respect a parent's wish and (as far as I'm concerned) God-given right to live near and be a part of their kid's lives.  

Just my two pence!  

My original intent was to move the US after I had finished university. That was my intent for the last 3 months... but it's become apparent to Jolene that she has nothing here... she doesn't have her own house, she has to borrow her grams car constantly (who is a mean old bag... sorry)... and her ex just makes her life a misery. He's nuts as far as I'm concerned... I don't know if I'll get in trouble for saying it... but we both know that things will be so much better for her in the UK, I have so much more to offer her there...

Jolene says that she wants to sort out some sort of custody for Jesse, like Jesse spending the summer months with his dad or something... I just don't think that he will agree to anything we suggest. He is a child, and he won't agree to anything as unless it is his own way...