Post
by SunBlue » Fri Apr 29, 2005 7:37 am
John,
he needs Indefinite Leave to Remain for sure!!
I went to the British Consulate in Germany to apply for an Unmarried Partner visa of a german citizen. And the officer wrote in the back of my application clearly: "German partner needs to have ILR"
The thing is: under EEA regulations, an Unmarried Partner is not considered a member of the family, so one cannot apply for Unmarried Partner visa of a EEA citizen.
If he has an ILR then the application will be seem as a partner of a person "present and settled" in the UK. The definition of present and settled is that the person has no time limit, and for EEA citizens, even they can live forever here without any visa, to be considered present and settled they must have ILR.
When he gets ILR then they can choose 2 routes:
- apply under british rules. Then his girlfriend has 2 pay the fee and gets a permit valid for 2 years, then after this she can get ILR
- apply under EEA law. It will be for free, but she will only get ILR after 4 years
Tonio: your girlfriend doesn´t need to go back to Mexico to apply for Unmarried Partner of a EEA citizen. This is really a grey area in the law. There she couldn´t get the visa cause as I told she is not considered a member of the family.
But if you apply under EEC2 form for you, and can see in the bottom that unmarried partners qualify!!!
You can just apply, even with her having a tourist visa, cause the application will be seem under EU laws, and it´s for sure more flexibe!!!!
Just do a test: call the Home Office and says: "my girlfriend has only a tourist visa, can I apply for a residence permit for us both? Can she apply having a tourist visa only?"
And they will say YES!!!!! Do this test. You can save a trip to Mexico now!
Glauco