visa for girlfriend and son

[bartli]

Hi, I hope someone can give some advice or help. I have a girlfriend in Belarus who has a son by her first marriage. Her ex husband has no claim on her son. We in tend to get married in the near future, and would like to live in the UK together. I am a british citizen and have suitable accomodation, (2 bedroom house) and a salary that is adequate to support my intended and her son. My girlfriends son is now 16, 17 later this year.
The questions!
Is it best to get married in Belarus and my wife to seek a marriage visa or for her to come to the UK on a fiance visa to get married?

With regard to her son, when we are married I presume he can come to the UK on a dependancy visa if applied for at the time of the marriage visa, but what happens when he turns 18?

Can my girlfriends son start studying if on a dependants visa?

Thanks in advance.

[Wanderer]

Hi, I hope someone can give some advice or help. I have a girlfriend in Belarus who has a son by her first marriage. Her ex husband has no claim on her son. We in tend to get married in the near future, and would like to live in the UK together. I am a british citizen and have suitable accomodation, (2 bedroom house) and a salary that is adequate to support my intended and her son. My girlfriends son is now 16, 17 later this year.
The questions!
Is it best to get married in Belarus and my wife to seek a marriage visa or for her to come to the UK on a fiance visa to get married?

With regard to her son, when we are married I presume he can come to the UK on a dependancy visa if applied for at the time of the marriage visa, but what happens when he turns 18?

Can my girlfriends son start studying if on a dependants visa?

Thanks in advance.

We recently had a similar question from a guy with a Ukrainian gf with a son. As Belarus is an ex-Soviet Republic I guess they follow the same ex-Soviet rules that are still mostly in place. Certainly they are in Russia, where my partner is from.

What do you mean exactly 'Her ex husband has no claim on her son'? Has he signed away any claim for custody? I'm sure written permission is necessary from the father even if he is a deadbeat dad. The exit guys in Belarus will want to see either his permission, a death certificate, or some other written proof (there is a form - i forget the name of it, I'll check when I get back home) before the child can leave. The quick and dirty answer for this problem is nearly always a couple of grand for the dads signature.

Check and search on http://www.rwguide.com/forums this subject comes up very often.

I think also (again, using my bit of knowledge of Russia to hopefully apply to Belarus) the kid will be expected to join the army at 17, so you need to act quickly.

We guys with former Soviet Union wifes and partners prefer the Spouse visa route - ie marry in her country, gives her family sth to celebrate and makes the whole process a bit easier and slightly less expensive.

Also remember it's two lots of ridiculously inflated visa fees, for ur fiancee/wife and for the kid, at least £1500 for the first visa and same again in two years for ILR. And more for Citizenship.....

[bartli]

Hi Wanderer, thanks for a speedy reply.
My girlfriend has a document indicating she has sole custody of her son.

Looks like a wedding in Belarus, which is what we were thinking anyway.

I'll look into the conscription thing, had'nt even considered that one

When my girlfriends son turns 18, if he has entered on a dependancy visa will he have to reaply then or will he have to reaply when my wife sskes her ILR?

Thanks

[Wanderer]

Hi Wanderer, thanks for a speedy reply.
My girlfriend has a document indicating she has sole custody of her son.

Looks like a wedding in Belarus, which is what we were thinking anyway.

I'll look into the conscription thing, had'nt even considered that one

When my girlfriends son turns 18, if he has entered on a dependancy visa will he have to reaply then or will he have to reaply when my wife sskes her ILR?

Thanks

Check the doc has the father signature on it, mate, I'm sure it's important it has.

I think ur stepson will follow the some visa route as ur wife, but I'm not sure so wait for others.

[John]

When my girlfriends son turns 18 .....

How old is the child now?

[bartli]

Hi John
My girlfriends son is 16, 17 in July this year

[John]

OK, if the visa is issued to your wife (as she will be) it will be for 2 years. A child settlement visa for the son will also be for 2 years.

Then near the end of those two year visas it will be a question of applying for ILR. As long as the then 18yo son is still financially dependant upon mother or indeed upon you then it will be possible for an ILR application to be made by him, at the same time as his mother (your wife) applies for her ILR.

Do note that as they will both be at least 18 years old when the ILRs are applied for, both of them will need to have passed the Citizenship Test in order to enable the ILR applications to be made.

The only downside in this is the cost! The visa applications abroad will cost circa £500 each, and the ILR applications in the UK will cost £750 each (well that is the currently-known figure, but who knows in 2 years time).

Following on from the ILRs, your wife will be able to apply for Naturalisation as British after she has been in the UK for 3 years. However her son will need to wait until he has been in the UK for 5 years. The difference? Your wife will be married to a British Citizen and your stepson will not (we presume!).

[bartli]

Hi John

Thank you very much for the post, its made things clearer. We intend on getting maried in the Autumn so I will let you know how we get on with the visa's and all then.

Regards

[Wanderer]

Following on from the ILRs, your wife will be able to apply for Naturalisation as British after she has been in the UK for 3 years. However her son will need to wait until he has been in the UK for 5 years. The difference? Your wife will be married to a British Citizen and your stepson will not (we presume!).

And also check the sitch regarding National Service in Belarus, Certainly for Russia if the child returns to his home country even if he is resident in UK, he is still a Russian Citizen and liable to be called up! Not that much of a problem mind with a bit of ducking and diving, my gf's brother has managed to avoid it for several years now....

Just Wiki'd for you!

Belarus

Belarus has mandatory military service for all fit men from eighteen to twenty-seven years of age. Military service lasts for eighteen months for those without higher education, and for twelve months for those with higher education.

There ya go - one to watch out for.

And, not wanting to put the cat amongst the pigeons but it has been known for former Soviet Union women with sons approaching the call-up to seek men abroad but I'm sure u know ur gf better than us!

[bartli]

Hi,
I just thought I would post an update and say a big thank you to all the help we got from this forum.

I married my fiance in Belarus and returned to the UK whilst she had her passport changed for her new surname.

We applied on line for VAF2 form for both my step son and wife, we had to use the old passport number.

We then applied online for an appointment at the British Embassy in Minsk, Belarus. This was for 5 days after my wife was told her passport would be ready, just in case!

For the interview we prepared several folders, based on information gained at this forum we included:

Official ID documents - translated to English and Russian
Passports
Marriage certificates
Birth certificate
Letter from my wifes ex husband stating that it was OK for his son to go to the UK with us
Bank records
2 utility bills with current address
Letter from myself as sponsor
Copies of all of the above

Other Documents on financial basis
12 moths of wage slips
Description and plan of house, (provided by local estate agend for a beer!)
Letter from the Landlords agent
Letter from my employer stating term of employment and no reason for it to end, as per requirement for mortgage etc.
Letter from personal friend describing my wife and my relationship
Letter from employment agency stating that it would be possible for my wife to find employment with her qualifications
Copies of my pension agreement and funding for my spouse if I should die

Documents detailing our relationship
Copies of letters
print out of e-mails -mine to my wife
print out of e-mails -my wife to me
Wedding photos
Flight ticket stubs
Travel itineraries
Copies of my visas to visit
Copies of my families visas for wedding
Wedding photo's

I know it seems a lot, and it was, 3 large lever arch files full. We all turned up to the interview where we handed over the documents and then we waited. After an hour my wife and step son were told to go through and see the officer. The officer wanted the money for the visas so I went through and handed over the US dollars. Yes the British Embassy in Belarus only accepts US dollars!!

Now this was the first got you, I picked up sufficient US $ at London Heathrow Travelx on my way out to Minsk, I didn't notice that they gave me different types of $100 bills, yes there are old and new notes. The Embassy only accepted the new ones!!

I now had to find a bank that would exchange the old bills for new ones! The time pressure was on as the Embassy shut at 13:00Hrs and it was now 12:00Hrs. The 3rd bank agreed to exchange them but for an exchange rate of 10%. A run back up the hill to the Embassy and we were able to pay the remainder of the fee.

We were told to come back at 15:00hrs to pick up the passports and visas, interview at 11:00 and visas at 15:00. We were told it was down to filling in the forms online and all the documents that we presented.

With regards to the national service for my step son, we have to get a letter from the college / university that he is attending and take this to the Belarus Embassy in London before the end of October each accademic year until he is 22.

Once again a big thankyou to the advice on this forum.

[sakura]

Is he planning on attending university in the UK? When does he plan to start? Does he have sufficient English?

[bartli]

Yes he wants to go to University.

He is currently enrolled on an ESOL course, English maths and IT at West Thames college, (They have been very helpful). This is entry level 2, he will start Entry level 3 / Level 1 next September.

This means that come September 2009 he will have the correct level of English to study AS / A levels and then go on to University.

His Belarus qualifications are equivalent to GCSE passes, (the college used an online education refference to find this out), so it is just the English Level 1 qualification that he needs.

[sakura]

When did he enter the UK?

[bartli]

Hi Sakura

He arrived in Late September 2007 and started college in mid October 2007 aged 17.

He will be 19 when he starts his AS/ A levels and 21 when he is able to go to Uni.

I think we will have to look into the funding for Uni.

[sakura]

The funding is what I was getting at; see my post here:

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=24258


He would qualify for "Home fees" in late September 2010 (assuming he also has ILR). Whether fees remain at £3,000 per annum is hard to tell, although word is they are soon to lift the cap on fees.

[bartli]

Hi Sakura

He will be going to Uni in Sept / Oct 2011 so the 3 year rule etc should apply for home fees assuming nothing changes!

The college are looking into AS/A level funding because of his age but they think this will be possible.

I'll look at your post in more detail later, a little more research but the next step will be citizenship tests and ILR's for both my wife and step son.

Thanks for your guidence