Help Request - Filipina Girlfriend UK Visa selection.

The “Visa Sub Type” - “Unmarried Partner”

I would choose "Marriage" in the visa sub type not Unmarried partner. That's how we filled out the form back then.

what was all that about ?

C1 Owner said :
Just wait until I am voted as world ruler. I will fix everything then

i cant wait.

Hi Anne.

Thanks for that. When I looked at the "Marriage" visa, that was specifically for a couple who wanted to travel to the UK to marry there and then return to their own country. Just the same as people who travel from the UK to get married in a far off exotic location in another nation.

I think the person who posted above suggesting my friend goes to an agency for a paid service is right as the whole thing is unclear even after a couple of days of trying to get to the bottom of it and there clearly is nobody here who has read this thread who can assist me fully. All I came here to find was someone who had gone through the process far more recently than my wife and I did and ask them what they did. But it is nowhere near as simple as I thought as I was expecting to get a form title and a reference number of the form! No chance of that! I will simply tell the couple that whilst I thought my experience of the system some years ago would mean I could assist them with it now, it seems of no use at all as so much has changed.

Ho hum, oh well true love has a habit of overcoming all obstacles in its path so I am sure that if my friend and his girl are meant to be, it will all fall into place for them. Many thanks to all who chipped in with what they knew to assist.

P

I used a visa agency and they were very good. If you want to know them I can tell you. I used another and they were terrible so be wary.

They cost about 750 quid a shout, mind.

I know it's quite confusing. But the Settlement for Marriage and Marriage Visitor visa are 2 different types of visa. I think you were referring to the latter. I believe the forms and the documents to provide can be found in the UKVI link Maharg and Markham gave you.

Hi C1Owner, welcome to the forum.
Your friend needs a settlement visa (not a visitor visa) The marriage visa is a visitor visa so is not suitable. Your friend needs what is colloquially called a 'Fiancée Visa' (which is a settlement visa) for which the real name is: 'UK visa for family settlement'. The correct form is VAF4A and can be found here...

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/application-for-uk-visa-for-family-settlement-form-vaf4a

If your friend were to marry in the Philippines and then bring his wife to the UK, then the same application form still applies. It is then, colloquially, called a 'Spouse Visa'.

Hope that helps.

I came late to this thread, having speed-read the title as "Help with Filipina Girlfriend Selection!"

I am sorry that the OP has suffered a sense of humour failure - the phrase "Try before you buy" was used, in character, by the much respected, and very patriotic, actress and director Grace Amilbangsa, in the BBC TV Screen One drama "Filipina Dreamgirls" in 1991 - and if she said it I think it can hardly be objectionable.

Anyway, my understanding, as one who like the OP has already "imported" a Filipina bride into the UK, in 2001, and is now contemplating doing so again (yes, I know, some people collect stamps) is that the advice given in this thread is generally correct.

And I do not begin to understand how anyone can get on their high horse and say that a relationship between two other people which is only a few weeks old is necessarily "true love". Markham is certainly right when he says that the UK visa agency will not see it that way.

Thing is, Andrew, many here will be too young to remember "Filipina Dreamgirls" when it was first broadcast and that includes the OP! It is available on YouTube in 7 parts, here's the first:


The OP really needs to consider modifying his attitude and behaviour if he wishes to lead a peaceful life out here. Forcing officials to lose face will not win him any friends and may lie at the heart of the visa issues says he's having.

Very funny film!! Saw it first on UK telly. Charlie Drake at his very best!
I can remember Filipino`s asking me back then.."Can you help find me a pen pal"!
I thought I had an answer for the OP but now I think I`ve lost my bottle!

Hi Peter and welcome.
My view on this is to wait and see how your friend feels and thinks when he is in the Philippines and after.
Best to be sure the lady is right for him first.

In my case I traded-in an unreliable old banger for a much newer model whose upholstery is somewhat softer and has a very pleasant tanned hue.

Faster cars can be dangerous.

Very nicely put Markham

Only if you lose control! Have you tried driving a Russian vehicle: not only is everything printed in an undecipherable language but they're temperamental to boot. The heater in mine packed-up in the end and Arctic conditions grow very old very quickly.

Now that I have been married for some years I think it prudent not to discuss any cars anymore. I don't even look at them as they cruise by. They are from a different time and if I started looking, it may appear that I hanker over a new set of wheels.

Fast cars can also cause pain to the driver. The speed they take bends at can cause damage to driver's limbs as centrifugal force rams them into the bodywork. Seat belts are a must.