Fiancee visa, looking for lawyer

Hi all,

 I am currently living and working in the UK (I am a EU citizen) My girlfriend is from the US and some months ago she came to stay with me for awhile. Unfortunately, she was deported because the officer at the UK border thought that although she was entering as a tourist, she wanted to settle in the UK. Since them, we lived a nightmare applying for different visas so she can legally come here. In September we applied for a fiancee visa and apparently the UK is now holding these applications because they are reviewing their policy. Now she got a second US passport and we are reconsidering other strategies. We are looking for a trustable lawyer to let us know what is the best way to get her in the UK. Any suggestion?

 We really appreciate your help because at this point we are pretty desperate with the whole situation. We never expect something like this to happen, we have been separated already for almost 8 months.

 Thank you so much in advance,

Antonio

If you are an EU citizen exercising your treaty rights by working in the UK, and can manage to get legally married in the US or another third country, she would not need a UK visa at all. Once you are married she will be eligible for an EEA family permit which has no financial requirements.

Thank you so much for your reply,

 Initially we thought about that option but we thought that the paperwork for that would take longer. In addition, we also would like to consider additional options.

 Thank you!

Antonio

What "other options" are you hoping for?  Unless you have lived together for the past two years (with documentation), marriage is really the only option.  She won't be granted a fiancé visa as you are not a UK citizen (I would recommend you withdrawal that application as it was incorrect to apply for).

Other options to marriage would be for her to apply for a student visa and get a degree in the UK or a work visa if she is highly specialized in her field (and there is a shortage in that field in the UK).

Thank you for your reply,

 Are you sure fiancee visas are just for UK citizens? as far as we know, those are also for EU citizens.

 We were thinking about a visitor visa. Last option would be to try to come here again as a tourist but since she was deported once we believe they would not allow her to come as a tourist anymore....

 She has a MSc and was enrolled on a PhD program so that could be another option to consider.

 Do you think consulting with an immigration lawyer would be helpful?

 Thank you!

Antonio

I used a lawyer and they were a big help. If you do use a lawyer try and get one on recommendation as I have heard that some of them are not so good. I can't say a bad word about mine.

Our spouse application was slightly complex due to a past conviction however the lawyer put a great application together and the visa got approved in less than a week without so much as a question.

Do you NEED a lawyer? Probably not...But if you have the money it sure makes life easier.

A visitor visa would certainly be an option.  She would need to apply in advance and prove strong ties back to the US (job she must return to, evidence of maintaining a mortgage/lease while away, enough funds to finance the trip, a return flight, etc.).  The stronger the ties the more likely her application will be successful.

She wasn't deported, she was refused entry.  It's not too big a deal, but she will need to obtain a visa prior to traveling in the future (at least she should).

I am not 100% certain that a fiancé visa was wrong...  Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.  I remember a past member being refused a visa as their partner was EU and not UK.

Hi,

 Thank you so much for your replies. Good to know about the main points to get the visitor visa. Thank you as well for the rest of your comments.

 I also agree that a consultation with an experienced lawyer could be really helpful. Yankybrit, do you mind to share with me the contact info of your lawyer? (if you prefer you can private message me)

 Thanks!

Antonio

Antonio,

I used a company in Mayfair, London called Westkin Associates. I found them about two years after seeing good reviews and I have to say that they did a great job!

Their website is:

http://www.westkinassociates.com/

I visited their office twice over the time I was preparing my wife's application. They charge a flat fee for the application. They were more expensive than some other places I looked at but I got a really great service so I'm not complaining.

Always available by phone. Always responded to emails. I even got a response to an email on Boxing day this Christmas!

Check them out. They come with my recommendation. I will probably use them again for future applications just because they made it so easy.

The only people who can sponsor a fiance visa are either UK citizens or permanent residents of the UK. If you are an EU citizen who has exercised treaty rights in the UK for at least 5 years and you hold permanent residence, then you can sponsor a fiance visa.

If you don't hold permanent residence in the UK though, you cannot apply for a fiance visa for her. So in that case, you should withdraw the application because it will be refused (this happened to someone else last year - they applied for a spousal visa, but their EEA citizen spouse was not a permanent resident in the UK and their visa was refused).

Also, it's much, much easier and cheaper to get an EEA Family Permit (you would have to marry first though) than to qualify for a fiance visa - for a start, the permit is free of charge and then only another £55 or so for the 5 year residence permit once she arrives in the UK. After 5 years, it's £55 for permanent residence documents. Also, there is no official minimum income requirement or accommodation requirement.

In comparison, the fiance visa is £851, then you have to pay either £578 or £953 for the FLR(M) visa after marriage, then another £578/£953 after 2.5 years, and over £1,000 for ILR (Permanent Residence). Plus, you have to meet the minimum income requirement of £18,600 for every single visa.

Hi,

 Thank you Ksand24 for all your useful information. Good to know that we actually do not qualify for the fiancee visa. Since I am a EU member, I live in the UK and I have a job in the UK, I assumed I was automatically considered permanent resident but I see I was wrong. Actually we just withdraw our application for getting a second passport but we were planning to re-apply again. At this point we better consult with a lawyer and see all the alternatives. As someone mentioned, my girlfriend can potentially apply for a student visa and maybe there are other ways we are missing.

 Thank you so much yankybrit for the contact info of the law firm. We appreciate it very much. We are writing to them right now.

 Well, thank you so much to everybody for your help, I will update you later whenever we get news from the lawyer.

 Thanks!!

Good to know that we actually do not qualify for the fiancee visa.

Yes - I would get on and withdraw the application now and get all your documents back. You don't know when they will actually start processing the visa again, and you're not going to get it anyway, so it's not worth them keeping the documents.

Also, if you withdraw before the decision is made, then no harm done (other than losing the visa fee), but if the visa is processed and refused, then that will be on her permanent immigration record, along with the refused entry.

Since I am a EU member, I live in the UK and I have a job in the UK, I assumed I was automatically considered permanent resident but I see I was wrong.

No, unfortunately, you don't gain permanent residence status until you have lived and worked in the UK for 5 years (although it is automatic). Then once you have held permanent residence for 12 months after that, you can apply for UK citizenship.

As an EU citizen it doesn't affect a whole lot though, other than being able to sponsor a UK visa, because you already have access to public funds.

On a fiance and spousal visa though, there is no access to public funds for 5 years, until you get permanent residence.

Actually we just withdraw our application for getting a second passport but we were planning to re-apply again.

Re-apply again for what? A second passport?

It's not needed - just withdraw the visa application, and you'll get her normal passport back...they should return it, and her documents, within 20 working days. Then you can decide what option you will go for next (either marriage and an EEA family permit, or perhaps a student visa).

Plus a second passport will still have the information from her refused entry because it's all on their computer systems, and she will still need to apply for a visa before trying to enter the UK again.

You can still apply for a visitor visa for her (although it can depend on the reason for her refusal), but she would need to apply in advance in the US, and have lots and lots of evidence that she was a genuine visitor, including having a job and a home to return to in the US, and that she had no intention of living in the UK.

At this point we better consult with a lawyer and see all the alternatives. As someone mentioned, my girlfriend can potentially apply for a student visa and maybe there are other ways we are missing.

The only ways are:

- get married and apply for an EEA family permit (currently only takes 1-2 weeks for processing in NYC, or you can pay $150 for faster processing - about 48 hours).

- she can get a student visa (she would need the first year of tuition fees and either £7,200 or £9,000 in living costs... so about £25,000 available to her in order to apply).

- she can try to get sponsorship for a work visa (can be very difficult to qualify for unless she works in an in-demand shortage profession or a highly-skilled profession)

Hi,

 Ksand24, thank you again for so much extremely valuable information.

 We are getting a second passport so she can at least travel to my home country (Spain) while she is applying for another visa (her first passport would be on hold) As I mentioned, our intention was to re-apply to the fiancee visa, but I see now that is not the proper visa.

 Thank you very much for all the information about the other visas. As for the student visa, do you know if she actually needs to spend all that money before getting the visa or she just need to proof that she actually has it?

 Thank you, thank you!!

We are getting a second passport so she can at least travel to my home country (Spain) while she is applying for another visa (her first passport would be on hold)

If you are applying for a student visa or an EEA family permit, they usually only take a few days, maybe a couple of weeks to be processed (even less if you pay for priority processing), so she would most likely only be without her passport for maybe 2 or 3 weeks... and probably won't have time to visit Spain while it's processing, as she will need to be at home to sign for the visa when it is delivered (and she won't necessarily know when this will be), and also they may contact her to ask for more documents while it is processing.

For a student visa, you also cannot apply for the visa until a Certificate of Sponsorship has been issued, which is usually around June/July for a Autumn course, and you can't apply more than 3 months before the course start date, so if she was going to attend university starting in Sept 2014, she can't apply for the visa until June at the earliest, which means she could visit Spain on her current passport between now and June, and then just send it off for a couple of weeks in June/July to get the student visa.

As for the student visa, do you know if she actually needs to spend all that money before getting the visa or she just need to proof that she actually has it?

She needs to be able to show that she has it (she won't be able spend it before getting the visa, because you usually don't pay the fees until you start the course, and she will need the living cost money to support herself for the year).

As she is from the US, she will be considered a low-risk student visa applicant, so she doesn't actually have to include the financial information in her application, but she must be able to prove she has all the money if they ask her to send it to them while the application is processing.

Most people get US loans to cover the money (in which case, the proof is the loan letter), or if they are lucky, they have it in personal savings.

Hi,
 Thank you so much for all the information about the student visas. We will start working on that. Let see if we can get something like this but for a summer program.

 Thanks again, to Ksand24 and to all the forum!

Antonio