- People keep talking about "intent" and "lying about the reason for visit". Sure, our intention is to live together and enjoy our relationship...but I don't see any visa option to clearly allow that (short of getting married). Obviously, without ever having lived together for an extended period, how can we know whether marriage is right? Two UK residents wouldn't be under this pressure to marry so soon. A visitor visa was the only realistic option.
There are three classes of visa. Visitor, Settlement and Temporary.
Visitor is exactly that, a visit. It's defined as being for a short period. UKBA consider that to be < 6 months.
Settlement is when you want to come to live here - which is what a longer visit is considered to be.
Temporary is a special category for some workers (like domestic workers) who are given a very specific length visa to allow them to perform a task.
So in those categories - your girlfriend wasn't really intending to visit in UKBA's definitions. Hence the talk about intent. It's not judgemental - it's just how UKBA see things.
- From the UK Borders perspective, surely it's natural and reasonable for someone to visit a 'friend' in the UK for six months...things develop and they become partners? They live together and want to settle based on time spend living together?
Yep - and in those circumstances they expect the 'friend' to go home, apply for a fiancee visa and them to get married. They don't make provision for a 'relationship' visa. It's the harsh reality of the situation. UKBA doesn't consider it has a responsibility to allow you to bring anyone over.
A good example here is that the UK does not have a 'family reunion' visa and you will see many postings on here about how hard it is to bring non-dependant relatives (e.g. brothers/sisters/mothers/fathers) over. The UK authorities don't see it as their job to allow extended families to travel/be together unless it's absolutely necessary and even then it's a real tough job to get them in.
European law is a bit different, especially in their definition of 'partner' - hence why I mentioned the european law route. Don't dismiss this option too quickly - Ireland would be considered Europe for this purpose and you'd only have to be there for 6 months or so. Sadly European rules don't apply unless you are in another member state.
a) Once she goes back after expiry of the visiter visa, does she have to wait six months before returning on a fiance visa (should we go down that route)? Or can she come back much sooner?
She can come back immediately if they grant the visa.
b) Do you think the original visitor visa thing may prejudice any other visa applications in the future? We didn't try to deceive, but were rather unaware of any option for partners who are not married and who havn't spend years living together in another country. As we were hardly going to rush into marriage so soon, a visitor visa seemed the only option.
You've done the right thing given the situation and you've stayed within the time constraints, the key is not to look like someone trying to settle on a visitor visa.
My wife and I did the same thing when we were "courting" (if I can use that word) - she had a visitor visa and would come and go on visits, just as I would to see her.
c) Could anyone enlighten me on 'Settlement visas' and 'citizenship' that have been mentioned? Other than our relationship, she doesn't have any other reason to be here/anything other advantage over anyone else who wants to move here. Whatever fees it would cost are not a problem.
Already been covered. It's a long process - 3-4 years and it will cost upwards of £4k ignoring flights etc.
d) Would the travel patterns, r.e. an eventual student visa be that strange???
On the example you've given of student visa no - but the strangeness I referred to was about long visitor visas quickly one after the other as in your first few lines of your OP.
I genuinely hope you can find a way to be together.
M.
