South African wife to be: spousal visa

[junosword]

Dear all

I would be grateful for any advice or help. I am a British National.

My girlfriend is getting divorced from her husband (EU National living in the UK). She will be returning back to South Africa as her European Residency visa will no longer be valid.

She has been living with me for sometime and we have been in a relationship for over a year. I would like to marry her immediately after her divorce comes through. We plan to marry in South Africa.

I was wondering how long the application process is likely to take for the spousal visa to clear and for her to be able to return to the UK to live with me?

Can we start the spousal application process before the divorce has come through if we have the marriage date organised etc?

The time frame is important for two reasons: there is the obvious one of how long we have to be apart but also she currently has a job here in the UK and would really like to keep it. Whether she can or not will probably depend on how long she will be forced to remain in SA as she awaits the spousal application process.

I really have no idea how long this process may take so if anyone has any experience or any sense of time frame I would love to know.

Thanks

[Sin]

HI.. search for topic " Pretoria here I come" by me. Make sure you check the british embassy website for timescale of applications.. Mine took about 2 weeks. Make sure you include the divorce cert as proof of collapse of previous marriage. Good luck....

[JAJ]

Dear all

I would be grateful for any advice or help. I am a British National.

My girlfriend is getting divorced from her husband (EU National living in the UK). She will be returning back to South Africa as her European Residency visa will no longer be valid.

Is that your assumption about residence not being valid or have you looked into it in detail?

[junosword]

Hi all

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post.

To answer your question Jaj:

[quote]“Is that your assumption about residence not being valid or have you looked into it in detail?â€

[Sin]

Yeh! The VFS website is visa applicacation centre and from there, they forward the documents to the embassy itself. After that, the embassy sends everything back to the VFS.... Any application takes 5 - 10 working
days for them to process meaning you might wanna allow around 15 days so that they can be sent back to VFS..
Alternatively, this is what me and my wife did ......On the nineth day we went straight to the embassy and I told them I was there to collect my wifes' passport as she be getting a flight back to UK. Guess what? They told me to wait 30 mins application has been approved, so I might as well take everything (visa & submitted docs) .
So in my case it didn't go beyomg the 10 days.

Making me think that if I din't go there in person surely it would've taken bout 15 days bearing in mind the time for them sending everyhting back to the VFS place. As far as i can remember the VFS lady said they send and receive docs from embassy every afternoon..

Make sure you've got loads of evidence as this will allow them to make the decision quicker. Your timescale will mostly be dictated by this...so the more the better....

[junosword]

Sin

Thank you so much for responding to my messages. It is very re-assuring to hear from someone who has been through the process. Thank you for providing some good advice too!

If anyone else has experience with how long the spousal visa process takes from South Africa to the UK please can you let me know how your experience was.

I'll compile plenty of evidence using the template you provided in another post.

[Sin]

http://www.starchartgl.com/visa.htm

I hope its useful...

[junosword]

Thanks... that is indeed a useful link!

Will get cracking.

On a side note does anyone know how long you need to have been in a relationship with your married partner not to run into difficulties with the spouse visa?

Reading this forum, I am a little concerned about the perception of a marriage of convenience. We have been together for approximately 1 year and she is now living with me. I'm assuming that this should be fine and that I have nothign to worry about?

Anyone have any views?

[junosword]

Hi there

Sin or anyone else, do you know whether or not you can send an "abridged wedding certificate" for the purposes of the spousal visa in South Africa.

I've been reading up on the subject and apparently after getting married in SA you are originally given the abridged marriage certificate and then need to apply for an unabridged certificate. Please see below

An Abridged Marriage Certificate will be issued to you immediately after the ceremony. The Marriage Officer will register your marriage with the Department of Home Affairs and apply for your Unabridged Marriage Certificate which you can use to register your marriage back in your home country. The Unabridged certificate will be stamped "Apostille" by the High Court in Cape Town. The issue of this certificate will take approximately 3 working days but can take longer.

Ideally i want to get the application in as soon as possible so would prefer not to have to wait for this unabridged certificate if this is not necessary. Does anyone know?

Thanks

[junosword]

I have just contacted my local council about sending someone over to my home which I rent from my family.

There are 3 of us living there including my fiance. I understand for the spousal visa application that I need to prove that we have suitable accomodation.

The council have told me that it will cost me £115 to evaluate my home as a suitable place to live.

Is it really necessary to do this ????
Can i just take pictures of the house instead?
It is more than big enough for the three of us.

Thanks for taking the time to read this

[junosword]

Just to let you know that my wife received her spousal visa with no problems at all.

The application was processed within 2 days of being handed in


To all that have read or responded to my messages thanks for all your advice and help.

Really appreciated! Keep up the good work!