Fiance Visa--We're both students, can it work?

Hi everyone!

My fiance and I just got engaged on New Year's Eve and are planning a wedding next January.  Ok, we're both in uni right now, I'm in the States and he's in Scotland.  I will graduate in December, but he still will have 1.5 years left of school after we would get married.  Basically, I'm really concerned about whether they'll grant me a fiance visa or not.  I'm planning on moving there permanently and will be qualified to work, graduating with honors and a university degree.  My degree is in elementary education, and I have to go through a whole paperwork torture to get to teach there (but am willing to other jobs until I get placed in a school).

To get to the point...both of us are students, so we're essentially broke.  We are self-sufficient in that we have enough money to live on, but not really anything in savings.  Steven works and goes to school, and I work part-time here while I go to school.  His dad would let us stay in his house (it's huge and just the two of them live in it) if we honestly couldn't afford our own place.  

I'm worried they'll turn us down because I don't have a job lined up there and I don't have a lot in savings.  His family is more than willing to support us if we hit a rough spot, and are willing to write letters stating that, but I honestly don't think we'd really need their help.  I have no intention of taking money from the government, but how can I prove that to them?  

Is there anyway I can apply for jobs ahead of time?  Will the fact that I have a degree help me at all or will they only look at my savings account balance?  Does anyone know what are chances of getting a visa are?  Any suggestions?  Please help.  We're just two young people starting out, so we don't have a lot of extra cash but are skilled, hard workers.  Thanks everyone.

Congrats on your engagement

I don't think you are allowed to have a job if you come over on a fiance visa anyway, so for now, that isn't an issue. Also, they are hurting for qualified teachers over here, so you should be able to find employment fairly easy, which is something that will look good on the settlement application.

If your fiance isn't able to show that he can support the two of you yet, you may want to see if his father can sponser you. I believe that would be one option for now. You have time on your side to research it completely, which is good.

Keep in mind, that when the time comes, you may find it cheaper for him to fly to the States to marry, and apply for the spousal visa from the States. That way, you don't have to splash out for both a fiance visa, AND the FLR, or spousal visa.  

It's not as confusing as it seems, I promise

Thanks for the reply and encouragement.  Yes, I understand that they are needing more teachers, so at least I have that on my side.  His uncle and aunt and his father would be willing to "sponser" us, so maybe the immigration people will take that into consideration.  Fingers crossed.  Is it easier to apply for the spousal visa?  

It would probably save you guys some money by only having to apply for one visa, rather, than having to apply for the fiance visa first, and then having to splash out for the spousal visa later on. But that depends on if you can book cheap airfare between the states and the uk. If you still want to marry in January, that is a very cheap time of the year to fly. Also, the spousal visa will allow you to seek work right away, whereas with the fiance visa, you can't seek work legally.


I am not positive about how you get sponsored by someone other than your fiance or spouse, but this site should have lots of people to advise you on that. I don't think you will have any trouble in going that route tho.

EDIT,, start saving letters between you, and photographs of the two of you. Anything that connects you together you will find is helpful to send with your application. A copy of your education credentials, etc. You will find lots of help on here

Yes it can work.  So long as you have someone to sponser you.  They have to agree that should anything happen they will save your butts from taking public monies.  It's pretty much the same for people coming to the US as well.  My dad sponsered by husband (bugger did not tell me he had a load of savings at first) and they let him in even though I had just graduated with my Masters.  They also tend to take into consideration your qualifications and potential ability to find a job.  By having degree in hand that will help too, though it is not a requirement to be educated nor have savings to immigrate.  


Also have his parents draw up or include in their letter an agreement of sorts showing that you will be living with them.  

Ok, so here's kind of a complicated question in relation to the topic of us needing to have "sponserships" here.  So, we're planning on getting Steven's aunt and uncle (he's really close with her since his mom passed away) and his sister and her husband to both right us letters stating they will help support us in times of financial need.  Both of them are well off, have nice homes they own, and have a good amount saved up in the bank.  

But...someone suggested that we have his dad say we could stay at his home until we found our own place, etc.  His dad is more than willing to let us stay there since it's huge and we all get along just fine.  He has four bedrooms, and he doesn't use three of them, so we could have one for our own living room, one for an office, and one for our bedroom if we stayed there.  Right now Steven lives there and I stay there when I visit and it's fine.  

We're not even planning on living there, but thought it would be a good backup and a temporary base until we got our own apartment or whatever.  Here's the problem, his dad is on housing assistance and doesn't pay his rent for the council house.  His name and Steven's name are both on the lease agreement, but I'm worried that we can't stay there since you're not allowed to have any government assistance when applying for visas.  It says on the Home Office webpage that you can't receive any housing assistance, so are we allowed to even stay there?

I'm just worried about getting approved for all the visas and doing everything according to the book....I'm not going to mess this up and risk getting sent back or separated from him.  Any help in regards to our situation would be much appreciated.

YOU can't receive housing assistance.  But I don't think Steven has to give up whatever benefits he already has based on his single status.  He just can't apply for any others based on being married to you.

So the housing situation with your soon-to-be father-in-law sounds ideal, really.

Ok, the closer the whole visa process gets, the more nervous I get.  What I'm wondering now is if we should seek out more than one sponser or do the immigration people really only require one?  His aunt and uncle have agreed to become our sponsers, so we already have them to vouch for us.  Do we need to have any other sponsers?  I know our situation will look bad to the immigration officers (as far as money goes), but once my degree is processed through, I'll be able to get good, steady work (with a decent salary...probably between 18,000 and 20,000 pounds) in the school systems in Scotland either supply teaching or doing my induction year.  So even though we don't have the money up front, we'll only be struggling for a couple of months.  Since we're planning on staying with his dad until I get a job established, we'll only have to come with money for food, our car, and utilities until I'm steadily employed.  Any suggestions?  I just don't want our visa to be turned down.

Also, we're planning on getting married in early February and were thinking about applying for the visa near Christmas time.  Should we apply earlier?  We were going to wait so we could apply in person, but maybe we should just send the stuff in.  

Relax Krissy!!!  It will be okay, im sure of it.
I had big doubts about our fiance visa as he has NO money, he works part time for 5 pounds an hour, pays his rent with his student loan, and has maxed out his overdraft.  He also has another full year of school left.  I had about $3,000 in savings.
We got our visa in no time flat!

We had his grandad as our sponsor, with a letter that we may live in his house while we get settled and that he would provide financial support as needed.  He is retired and lives on savings and pensions.  We got from him bank statements and proof of pensions.  His mum also wrote a letter of support and provided bank statements and her part-time employment contract, and i honestly got a bit worried when i looked over her most revent bank statement as she was near her overdraft limit.  I started to panic, but it was perfectly fine - got the visa on the 5th business day with NO questions asked!

I think that they are understanding that young people and students arn't going to have a lot of money, but as long as they have accomodation and some people to vouch for them and essentially "take responsibility" (even though you may be self sufficiant, they just want to be sure you will have other recourse, other than needing public funds to survive).
Having an aunt and uncle as financial sponsors should be FINE, as we made it with out little money and our sponsors not having much either.

Honestly, it seems so much harder than what it really is!  I think the key is being organized with your application, because I imagine that perhaps the folks at the consulate will fight over getting to process the easy, straight forward, and organized application.