Kiwi girlfriend visa extension

[NLNZUK]

Hi

Our situation is as following:

Me: Dutch passport, born in NL, NL parents - living in the UK as a EU citizen since 2 years
Her: Kiwi passport, born in NZ, NZ parents - living in the UK since this summer under YMS (Tier 5)

We both live in the same town and have jobs in England (therefore paying NI taxes)
Her visa expires in may 2013. This is still some time away but I decided to find out all the possibilities to be able to take action on time before it expires.
We currently do not live together but are planning to.

Are there any possibilities for her to extend her visa without leaning towards the inevitable marriage? We will probably end up doing that in the future but it feels too premature to take such a big step at this moment.

I have looked at several different options:
Seeing as I'm a Dutch citizen living in the UK she has right of abode here when considered spouse.. this means marriage.
The only exception is when providing evidence of having lived together for 2 years which we can't prove as by the time her visa expires we couldn't possibly meet the 2 year target.

Is it possible for her to extend her visa in any other tier by work/sponsorship?
Is there any possibility to extend her visa based on relationships from the British Commonwealth?

Another thing I have looked at is registering civil partnership in The Netherlands which is a form of commitment close to marriage but not actual marriage. I reckon it would allow us to be & live together anywhere in the EU.

Last option is to simply get married in the UK I suppose..

Any ideas / advice?

[John]

Another thing I have looked at is registering civil partnership in The Netherlands which is a form of commitment close to marriage but not actual marriage. I reckon it would allow us to be & live together anywhere in the EU.

You are male? She is female? If those are the facts I am not sure I agree with you. Whilst the Netherlands will not doubt consider you to be in that legal relationship, I do not think that necessarily binds other EU countries. The UK considers a Civil Partnership to be for a same-gender couple, and accordingly UKBA is highly likely not to recognise that relationship.

Her visa expires in May 2013. Lots of time to decide whether marriage is the right way to go.

[NLNZUK]

Another thing I have looked at is registering civil partnership in The Netherlands which is a form of commitment close to marriage but not actual marriage. I reckon it would allow us to be & live together anywhere in the EU.

You are male? She is female? If those are the facts I am not sure I agree with you. Whilst the Netherlands will not doubt consider you to be in that legal relationship, I do not think that necessarily binds other EU countries. The UK considers a Civil Partnership to be for a same-gender couple, and accordingly UKBA is highly likely not to recognise that relationship.

Her visa expires in May 2013. Lots of time to decide whether marriage is the right way to go.

Yep I'm male she's female.


More info can be found here
http://www.access-nl.org/our_services/p ... tation.pdf

As far as I know is that as long as the partnership is recognised by the Dutch government you have right of abode in NL therefore any other EU country will have to tolerate this. There was a Dutch article where it was written very clearly I'm trying to find an English version of it.

Lots of time to decide, but if I read other people's experiences properly it may take up to 6 months to get the marriage finalised therefore we need to be looking at making things happen approximately 1 year from now, hence why I'm gathering information on all options

[John]

There was a Dutch article where it was written very clearly I'm trying to find an English version of it.

I would be very interested to read that.

Lots of time to decide, but if I read other people's experiences properly it may take up to 6 months to get the marriage finalised therefore we need to be looking at making things happen approximately 1 year from now

I do not understand that. In the UK, unless getting married in a Church of England Church (different arrangements apply), you give "Notice of Intention to Marry" at a Register Office, and slightly less than one month later you can get legally married.

If you are referring to the time it might take to get a Residence Card, that is irrelevant in the sense that as soon as the marriage has happened your wife (as she would be) automatically has Treaty Rights, and the Residence Card is merely confirmatory of that fact. In other words, as long as you are exercising Treaty Rights in the UK then your wife would also have those rights.