UP Visa application - By mail or in person?

If you have irrefutable proof that you've spent the 24 months living together, you'll be just fine.  I have heard of several people applying *just* before the end of their two years, and they were okay.  Any longer than that (I think there was once someone on here who wanted to apply 5 months short of the 24!), and I'd slip another visit in there to make sure.

Does anybody know how difficult it is to obtain a visitor's visa to the UK while waiting on an appeal (should the first application be turned down)?

If played strictly by the book, issuance of another visa - even a visitor's visa - is interpreted by the tribunal as having abandonned your appeal unless they say otherwise beforehand.

OK, we're 22 months living together and then several weeks (at least six) visits. Been together as a couple since Jan 03 - three years. SOMEBODY PLEASE tell me if it would be a mistake to apply now. If so, I'll have to figure out a way for one of us to visit the other, but we're both working.

AARRGGHHH!!!

If you have proof that you've lived together for a total of 24 months, you can apply now.

OK, we're 22 months living together and then several weeks (at least six) visits. Been together as a couple since Jan 03 - three years. SOMEBODY PLEASE tell me if it would be a mistake to apply now. If so, I'll have to figure out a way for one of us to visit the other, but we're both working.

It doesn't matter how long you have been a couple; it's the length of cohabitation.  And to be really precise, it's the length of cohabitation that you can satisfactorily document. 

There can be smaller periods in the total timeframe of your cohabitation where you were not cohabitating, and they would be best placed in the middle, rather than on one of the ends.  22 months will work if it is placed in the middle of an otherwise unbroken cohabitation.  If there's a significant amout of time since you were last together, you run the risk of the conclusion that it was a trial relationship. 

If you are on the very *brink* of your 24 months and one partner has gone ahead to set up the household,  that seems like a reasonable strategy, no?

Finally, if you do opt to apply early, or if there are difficult gaps in your cohab, it makes VERY good sense to print out the rules and take them with you when you apply.  Doing so covers the event that they think you do not qualify and you think you do qualify - you and the ECO can both read the rules together and perhaps sort the matter out right then and there.

We're applying by mail. Here's how our co-hab breaks down so far. Jan-Aug 2002 living together in London; Mar 2003-May 2004 living together in US (until my visa ran out). That makes 22 months. We've visited each other when possible since, and have never gone six months without seeing each other.

We're applying by mail. Here's how our co-hab breaks down so far. Jan-Aug 2002 living together in London; Mar 2003-May 2004 living together in US (until my visa ran out). That makes 22 months. We've visited each other when possible since, and have never gone six months without seeing each other.

That's 22 months over the last 38 months!  It's important, given these dates, to know what has transpired since May 2004.  It's important to know that because it strongly impacts your strategy to demonstrate that the relationship is subsisting.  Have you been cohabitating since May 2004?

No. I moved back to the UK to get a job and find us a place to live - the plan has always been for my girlfriend to apply and move over as soon as these things were in place. How else are we supposed to qualify for the visa?!?! I need to show abode and earnings, and I have to be here for that. I was out of status there, she didn't have a visa to come here. We've done everything we can by the book.

Some more info: I moved back to the UK May 2004, stayed with my parents, looked for a job. My girlfriend came over for three weeks July/August, interviewed for a job here in London - didn't get it. I went over to the US for her birthday in October. I also went over to the US for 2 weeks at Christmas/New Year and spent it with my gf and family.

I have now been working in London for approx six months. Have a flat. We have phone records/emails/letters to show we've been in constant touch while apart.

No. I moved back to the UK to get a job and find us a place to live - the plan has always been for my girlfriend to apply and move over as soon as these things were in place. How else are we supposed to qualify for the visa?!?! I need to show abode and earnings, and I have to be here for that. I was out of status there, she didn't have a visa to come here. We've done everything we can by the book.

It's not going to fly.

When Lola said above that you needed 24 months, I'm sure she impled that it would be a *contiguous* 24 months - at least that's what I thought when I read it.  And also that it needs to be a *recent* 24 months.  Yes, they will allow and forgive a gap in order for the UK half to set up the household.  Even several.  But I'm afraid your circumstances are stretching it.

Let's have a look at the IDI's, Chapter 8, Section 7...

"... In order to assess whether a couple is in a genuine long-term relationship we would expect to see evidence of cohabitation for the preceding 2 year period. Short breaks apart of up to 6 months would be acceptable for good reasons, such as work commitments, or caring for a dependent relative. Evidence must show that the relationship continued throughout that period by visits, letters etc...."

So your work commitments and need to set up the house would be part of the last 10 months apart, but difficult to establish that there was an abode for the first part of your cohab - the one in the UK.  6 months is ok, even more is ok if the relationship is subsisting.  But 10 months is going to raise alarm bells.

The IDI's go on to say...

"... Where a couple claim that they have maintained their relationship during the 2 year period by merely visiting each other as often as they can, this will not be sufficient to satisfy these provision of the Rules. However where a couple have been living together in a committed relationship for the preceding 2 year period, barring short breaks, but have been dividing their time between countries (for example, by using the "visitor" category), this will be sufficient to meet the requirement...."

So based upon what you written so far, you have a weak case for a UP.  Not necessarily an impossible one, but absolutely a weak case.  It lacks a strategy for demonstrating that the relationship is subsisting.  If you applied right now, it's unlikely that it would even reach the point where you paid the fee...

Based upon all that, your next port of call would be to lay it all out with an advisor.  Sometimes when it gets all laid out, they can spot an opportunity that's not apparent going back-and-forth in a forum.

What do you mean by an advisor? The people on the phone at the LA consular? This doesn't seem fair to me - surely our timeline suggests the opposite of a couple in a trial relationship?

What do you mean by an advisor? The people on the phone at the LA consular? This doesn't seem fair to me - surely our timeline suggests the opposite of a couple in a trial relationship?

Consular staff are on the policy side by definition.  You would need someone on the advocacy side.  And I agree that sometimes it seems dreadfully unfair.  And it's going to get worse by all indications in the media.  So try http://www.oisc.gov.uk for starters...

It's not going to fly.

When Lola said above that you needed 24 months, I'm sure she impled that it would be a *contiguous* 24 months - at least that's what I thought when I read it.  And also that it needs to be a *recent* 24 months.  Yes, they will allow and forgive a gap in order for the UK half to set up the household.  Even several.  But I'm afraid your circumstances are stretching it.

Yeah, I should have been clearer about that.  I'm talking about the past 24 months (or the 24 months leading up to whenever you choose to apply) -- not a total of 24 months over the past 10 years or whatever.  Otherwise, plenty of us could add up all of the time we've spent with our SOs in order to qualify for the UP visa. 

Say you've spent six months of each of the past four years together -- sure, you've lived together for 24 months, but only 12 months of that would fall in the previous 24 month period.  It's what you've done in the other six months of each year that counts -- if you've visited back and forth, have proof maintaining the relationship, and evidence of preparing for the other to move over (i.e., securing a job, finding a house, etc. -- feathering the nest, really), then I'd say you're okay. 

So, in the past 24 months, how much of that time have you lived together?  And in the times you weren't together, what were you doing to maintain the relationship and prepare for your girlfriend to move over?