Holiday Visa / Fiance Visa

[ukman]

Hi

I am just after some specific advice, so I hope someone can help me.

My girlfriend lives in Russia and would like to visit me for a holiday to see what life is like here in England. She has 2 young children of school age whom she would not bring as we don't want to interrupt their education at this time. (Will be bad enough when we make a Fiance visa and they are here permanently). It would only be for a week or 10 days and this might seem straight forward, but there are several caveats that make me a little worried.

1) She has just recently lost her job as her company closed, she is looking for a new job at the moment and shouldn't have too much trouble getting one, (She had about 10 job offers recently and took one but she didn't like it so has finished there). As long as she has a job, will the lenght of time in work affect her visa application. She owns her own appartment and has money in the bank.

2) I know I could sponser her visa, but I am not yet divorced, so I am not sure how that would go down with our visa dept and I don't want to create issues that might affect our Fiance Visa later.

3) She worked as a Turkish/Russian/English translator in the fashion Industry and has been abroad quite a few times on business and pleasure, we have met In Czeck Republic (Prague) and in Turkey 3 times. But prior to our relationship, she has visited france about 2 years ago and made regular business trips to Istanbul. Is it true that if you have visited other EU contries within the past 12/24 months you stand a better chance of sucessful visa applications, eg holiday visa?

4) She tells me the advice in Russia is to book a holiday to the UK at a russian tour operator with accomodation as the best way to get a visa, but this will waste money for us on an unecessary hotel as we want to tour a little and I want to show her a few places and obviously stay in varied hotels. On the Tourist visa form, I notice that it asks for hotel information, how important is this?

5) Obviously its important to be honest on the Tourist Visa application form and the question about "Do you have any friends in the UK" and "What is their relationship to you" are somewhat problematic. No matter how we apply for a Tourist visa, if we answer this truthfully, how much is it going to be looked into, and what are the relistic chances of her being granted a Tourist visa if we do or don't declare. Clearly I don't want to talk to up and future Fiance visa, so I would rather meet elsewhere in europe, if this is going to be difficult or create problems for us later.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

RC

[Stu13]

Speaking from personal experience as I am still not divorced and have a Ukrainian girlfriend that has been issued a vivit visa the fact you are not divorced will not influence things at all. If you wanted a fiance visa that would be different though.

On the question of her not being in employment at the moment as long as you can prove you can support her, you can prove your relationship and she has good reason to return to Russia a visit visa will not be a problem. The fact she has two children left in Russia to return to should be good enough reason to return.

I would advise making sure all the paperwork and supporting evidence is perfect though as any small errors are picked up on. You are very correct that you don't want any problems now as this could influence future fiance visa applications, be honest with them about your relationship now as I say you being still technically married will not influence a visit visa application.