Hi guys/gals, The name here is Lee and I'm an English guy from Birmingham. I've just turned 51 and I currently live/work in Somerset in the south-west of England. Last year I met a wonderful young lady from The Philippines online, and after many months of getting to know each other via Facebook chat and video, I eventually plucked up the courage to take a flight out there. I had a fantastic time, staying for just under a month with her and her family. We got on so well and it was as though we had known each other all our lives! After returning back to the UK we both decided we would like to spend the rest of our lives together. I suggested she joined me here in the UK, as I don't have enough money to retire yet, and as I cannot speak her language I wouldn't be able to get a job out there. She obviously speaks English to a pretty good standard. What do you all think is our best (and cheapest!) bet? I was thinking at applying for a visa for her to come here that allows her to get married here, then stay for many years, just extending the visa whenever required. However, a colleague of mine married a Filipino a few years ago and he reckons my best bet would be to go out there (like he did) and get married there first, then apply for a spouse visa so she can join me later. My only real main concern is that I work full-time and I only get 21 days holiday to take each year and from what I've already read, these things can take a long time and requires me to go to Manila to start the process off, which makes things more difficult as my girlfriend lives in Cebu! Any useful advice appreciated. Thank you. Lee.
Hi Lee... welcome to the forum. You could have her apply for a visitor/tourist visa . Cheap, but she'd have to demonstrate very good reasons for her to return home after her stay. Do a search on here for that topic, and have a look on the government UKVI (immigration) website for accurate information. A quick google should bring that up. If you really are set on marrying, then you can do it out in the Phils within the normal 30 day visa waiver period (I did)... or you could sponsor her to come here as your fiancee, then marry here, after which she could stay, subject to meeting all the ongoing visa/settlement requirements. If you married here while on a holiday type visa.... she'd still have to go home after its expiry, and apply for a settlement visa while still in her home country. Again, do a search here and look on the UK Gov website for more details. Plenty of members on here who can also advise, so hang around. Good luck.
Welcome to the forum Lee. Marrying in the Philippines will requires you to go there and get things sorted so everything will take time, and the wait for marriage certificate is not very ideal. You have the option to apply for a marriage settlement visa (fiancé visa) which will be convenient for you. This is valid for 6 months and after your marriage you will need to apply for Further Leave to Remain (Marriage). A lot of things to consider in here so make sure you arm yourself with a lot of patience and probably a lot cash. If you only met once I would advise you to see each other again, whether you go back to the Philippines and visit or ask her to apply for a visit visa and come here in the UK. Will give you more time to decide and know each other better and strengthen your relationship in the eyes of the ECO. Whatever you decide, I wish you the best of luck
Welcome to the forum Lee, I think bringing the young lady over on a Fiancée visa might be the way to go, getting married in the Philippines would eat up all your holiday entitlement and more. Whichever way you look at it, its expensive over the five year visa period but the financial burden can be eased somewhat by your wife working in the UK once she has the FLR. Another thing about the Fiancée visa, you then have a few months to decide if you are doing the right thing or not, remember, "a Filipina is for life not just Christmas"
Thanks for the nice welcome and the replies so far. I've read quite a bit recently on the Gov.uk website as well as other websites and more often than not they all say different things! All I'm looking for is the quickest and/or cheapest way of us being able to live/work here in the UK together for the next 10 years or so (married or not). Once she is settled here then we plan to work/save for our future while taking holidays every year in The Philippines in order for her to stay in contact with her family and to give me a break from the UK! Hopefully, when I'm at retirement age (in around 16 years) we will have enough money saved to buy a bit of land in The Philippines, move there, build a little place and take it easy...until I pop off for a very very long sleep! My colleague has tried to advise me, but he went through this process around 6 years ago, so I don't things are the same anymore. Oh, and I'm in Bridgwater @Mattecube Cheers! Lee.
Your college was lucky, back when he got the visa there was no financial requirement, NHS surcharge and it was only two years before the loved one got the ILR, easy. I know Bridgwater a little, I worked for a company on Express Park for years and more recently was on the park again last week at a drinks company.
Everything costs money and time so I'm afraid there is no quickest and cheapest way available. And it will both require you to be married, there's not much option really. Just feel free to ask here if you decided which way to take.
Hi Lee, welcome to the forum. You will receive a lot of good advice here from people that have personal experience of what you want to do. Just by way of an alternative, especially if you are short of annual leave, you might consider what my wife and I did. We married in Seychelles. No visa required for you, one month on arrival for your wife. Absolute minimum of paperwork, passport copies, birth certificate copies, divorce papers if applicable. That's it. Beautiful ceremony on the beach and wedding certificate ready to take home with you. Ceremony in your hotel or on a beautiful idyllic beach, music, registrar, hairdresser & make up, cars all provided as part of the package. They will even provide witnesses if required. The marriage certificate will be sent to the presiding Philippines consulate, Nairobi in this case, for NSO certification and red ribbon. This will be couriered to you after about 3 to 4 months. We were there for 10 days including one week honeymoon after the ceremony. Thats the easy bit, the spouse visa for your wife will be the more difficult and time consuming part. Wish you all the best, know that, however you do it, you will not regret having a Filipina wife. David
Thanks for the replies again I've just been reading on the Gov.uk website about visas and I noticed that there's no mention of a fiance visa anymore! Has this recently disappeared or did I enter a parallel universe a few weeks ago!!? I was just reading that there is a visa that's similar which would allow my girlfriend to come here (without already being being married), we could live together and she would even be allowed to work...eventually! It's a 'family of a settled person' visa and the requirements (for a Filipino to join a British partner) must be one of these: already married (or civil partners). been living together in a relationship for 2 years. be engaged to be married. (If you're engaged, you must prove that you plan to marry within 6 months of arriving in the UK. Also, the Filipina won't be able to work during the engagement period). You must also meet the financial requirement of: £18,600 per year if you’re applying only for yourself. £22,400 per year for you and one child. £2,400 per year for each additional child. The cost of this visa is £1,464 (plus there might be an NHS surcharge to pay on top of this) so I'm thinking this is probably going to be the easiest solution. Then, as the visa is coming to an end, we can simply apply for an indefinite leave to remain which would see us through to my retirement age. What do you all reckon? Lee.
Bear in mind you will have to apply for 1 x Fiancee visa, 2 x FLR(M) then 1 x ILR before you are home and dry, that's where all the expense comes in.
Further Leave to Remain and Indefinite Leave to Remain which you get after your good lady has completed five years in the UK.
Fiancee visa gives you 6 months in which to marry (not counted as time in the UK), FLR(M) is valid for 2.5 years so you need two of them to take you to the five year mark where you can then apply for the ILR. After the ILR the missus then can apply for British Citizenship, again, more expense Look on the bright side, you'll be able to have a good old moan about it like we do
But according to the bit I just read on the Gov.uk website, she would initially get to stay for 33 months, then before that visa comes to an end she can simply apply to get an extension. Oh and what does the (M) mean you are putting after FLR? Thanks!
Budget about £10,000 for visa fees. Ihs surcharges. Tb test. English test.flight over. This is over the next 5 years. Most important question...do you know for absolute certain that she is single....never been married?
