Yank with Colombian partner - travel hassles

Hi

I'm a US citizen with a UK work visa that will last until at least 2009. My partner is a Colombian woman who is on a student visa until 2008. She's already been living here for four years. Unfortunately, as Colombians are not the most welcomed people in the world, traveling to just about any country in the world requires that she get a visa. Travel is possible, but it is a hassle. The two ways I can imagine to help reduce the hassle are for 1) her to become a naturalised British citizen, which she might well want to do, and 2) for us to get married, which will most likely occur in any event. My question re option 1 is whether her status as a student will prevent her years here being counted towards her naturalisation. My question re option 2 is whether getting married will really make a posative difference if we want to travel to either the US or around Europe, assuming that we continue to reside in the UK indefinitely.

any help offered will of course be greatly appreciated. I've been reading some of the official sources on the web, but finding the answers amidst the bureaucratic language has not proved to be easy.

cheers

r.

I don't know the legalities of a student visa, but I do know that if you two were to wed, that would not make much of a difference, as they are going to be looking at her passport.  Unless she has a passport from another nation, it will be much the same.  Remember, marriage to a USC is not an automatic citizenship.  Plus, some would say travel/visa hassles due to being a Colombian is much better than marriage ;-) (I am not one of those people ...)

in this case, the only thing that will ease the travel hassles is for her to get citizenship in the UK (or the US, if you guys ever move there.)  Student visas aren't a pathway to settlement, so even if you guys get married she won't be eligible for ILR  (and possible citizenship thereafter) until you are (maybe?  I've just realized I'm not sure whether her time on a student visa will count towards ILR if she switches to work permit dependent...garry or victoria will have to advise on that.)  So I'm afraid travel will continue to be a pain for her for the next several years at least  :-\\

Getting married will make her a WP dependent, and WP dependents cannot file for ILR unless the primary files, otherwise the system would be a more of a shambles than it already is.  A WP dependent stamp in her passport might make things marginally better, but not significantly so.

On the brighter side, travel on the continent is a matter of Schengin visas.  Once the passport shows peripatetic activity getting them is a breeze, so some bootstrapping may be necessary.  I help a lot of Russian wives who get absolutely stir-crazy being locked up in the UK during their spousal visa period, so Columbians are not the only ones.

I don't think getting married would help any because you both are not British Citizens. It would be you an american and her a Colombian married still on student visas...after they are up you'd still have to leave (if im not mistaken).

If she filed for British Citizenship and got approved and then you got married then you could stay...after your student visa's are up. (allthough you'd have to file for fiance visa and go through all those other legalities)

If im wrong on this then im sorry!...allthough I don't think im completely wrong.

Good luck

I second what Garry says, and will add that her route for naturalisation will be either ILR after 10 years as a student, then citizenship one year after that, or if she switches to being your dependent she will be able to get ILR after 5 years, and citizenship a year after this.  I'm not sure when she came to the UK, but I guess you can work out which way will be quicker.


Victoria

A WP dependent stamp in her passport might make things marginally better, but not significantly so.

marginally better with respect to US travel or European travel? If she's a spouse or a fiance, wouldn't that make getting a visa to visit the US easier, or not really?

On the brighter side, travel on the continent is a matter of Schengin visas.  Once the passport shows peripatetic activity getting them is a breeze, so some bootstrapping may be necessary.

by 'bootstrapping' you mean taking a trip or two? We've been to Switzerland - does that count? Or her recent trip to her own country?

thanks much for the advice

Much better for travel to the US.  Marginally better for travel to Europe.


Victoria

by 'bootstrapping' you mean taking a trip or two? We've been to Switzerland - does that count?

Switzerland counts a little bit, it's the natural choice for the first time.  Then a few short Shengins, Finland works the best because it's so easy, then a day trip to Calais, etc etc.  Then go for the 6 month Shengin, then try the USA...