Hi everyone, I am Tony, English and have a Filipino Girlfriend who is working in Singapore. I have joined this forum as it would be really good to hear the problems others have had with applying for visas, Plus it'd be great to make some friends who are in the same boat as us.
That would be great, I am hoping to bring my girlfriend here next year on a visitors visa and see how things progress for ua.
Yes. Welcome to the forum. A great member of the members here, myself included, have gone through the same journey to bring our Filipina wives or partners to the UK.
As for the question of visitors visas, I posted a reply on a thread on this topic yesterday. The post is here: http://www.british-filipino.com/index.php?threads/affidavit.15032/#post-162649
Thank you, I'll check that topic out....We have a huge problem as my girlfriend is married, not had any contact with her husband for over ten years and no annulment obtained... I cannot see any way of her being able to settle with me in the UK as my income falls short of the £18,600 requirement... I hope to bring her on a visitors visa next March time when her works contract finishes but then again I will not be able to show that she has a job to go back to...
I'm sorry for your situation. The married situation is indeed a huge problem. Without an annulment being obtained in the Philippines, you will be unable to marry in the Philippines and hence apply for a spouse visa. Furthermore, without a CENOMAR or an anullment you will be unable to apply for a marriage settlement (fiance) visa. The income requirement is also a sizeable obstacle. The visa process in the UK is an expensive one. The cheapest route is to marry abroad and to apply for a spouse visa to the UK which costs around 1700 including Immigration Health Surcharge. This is valid for 2.5 years, at which time you have to apply for a further leave to remain visa at a similar cost, valid for a further 2.5 years. At the end of the five year period, she then applies for an ILR visa which costs more. This is in addition to the costs of flights, wedding and other paperwork costs and other sundries such as clothes and setting up home when she arrives in the UK. You should therefore budget for a total minimum baseline cost of somewhere between six and ten thousand pounds for the entire process. The annulment process in the Philippines is also an expensive one. @bigmac has been through that. As I mentioned in my other post, the visitor visa is also quite restrictive. It is certainly not a route to settlement via the back door, and UKVI do not view this visa type as existing in order to facilitate online dating. It is for tourism. Given your financial constraints, I would question the wisdom of her coming to the UK for a time (since she would be unable to work) - I believe that you would be better served by both working and saving money. I know that this is not going to be what you want to hear, but you should seriously consider how you are going to financially manage to progress this relationship and whether you are both prepared, and able, to pay the required fees.
Yes I agree ChoiAndJohn... the problems are huge, I think that maybe her settling in the UK can be a no no... Plus I am not sure that I could live over there... especially re maybe future health problems... although I am completely fit at the moment.
All I can say is that you should open your eyes to the potential issues. Like it or not, there comes a moment in these relationships where you have to ask yourselves whether it is practical to continue it, and where it is going. It's rather unfair otherwise, and please don't take my post as being discouragement. If you have assets, like a house that you could sell, then you could satisfy the income requirement using those. The formula you require for savings for a UK visa application is calculated by this formula: Savings requirement = 16,000 + (18,600 - Your income) * 2.5 Hence, if you had no income, you would need savings of 62,500 pounds. If you had income of 8,000 then you would need savings of: 16,000 + 2.5 * (18600-8000) = 42,500 That requirement would be the same for all the visa applications that you filed over the period until she had unlimited leave to remain - so you would have to be able to afford to keep those savings in a savings account(which must be accessible instantly) and you would not be able to claim any interest of those savings as income in any income calculation (because that would be double-counting - the savings can not be used to generate interest income and used as savings in the same application- if that makes sense). The only way I can think of to totally circumvent the income requirement would be for you to move to europe and then apply for a visa for her to join you (as your wife) via what is known as the Surinder Singh route. You will still however need an annulment and budget for the various other costs involved. So bottom line, you still need savings.
Our pic was taken in Boracay on holiday.... I loved the Island but a little too westernised for me. I just loved the jeepney and motorbike transport... we went Island hopping and snorkelling... I stayed one night on arrival at the Manila airport hotel... it was very basic but cheap and very close to the terminal.. no problem as I was there on my own as Mila (My girlfriend ) was arriving the following day.... it was a pain as she arrived mid afternoon and all the Boracay flights had finished so we had to fly to Cebu and catch a flight there.. on our way back we stayed at the Remington Hotel which I recommend.. The airport transfers were free and regular. ... and then the long long flight home alone..
you can over come it. as choiandjohn said--i did it. sold my house to free up the capital. she got an annulment ( plan on £2-3000 plus 1-2 years ). rented a place to live. she was free and single again by april 2015-----so we were good to go. another set back--she failed the TB test--so treatment took 7 months before she was clear. visa app dec 2015--with me feb last year. now--take this on board. i calculated selling up--fees--renting 2 & half years--annulment cost--visa fees--- flights--- getting married ( that was very much less than most ) getting further leave to remain including IHS fee . purchasing our new home--fees stamp duty bottom line for all the above £30,000. price of love eh ? that would buy you a lot of trips to the filis. why dont you move there ? whats stopping you ?
