Need advice and help

[dancingc]

Hey guys,
I have been searching the internet for quite a while now to find out more about immigration to UK.
Here is our story. We are a lesbian couple. I am from Germany, 23 years and my girlfriend is from the US, 24 years old. I'm in the US on a student visa right now so that we can live together. But after I finished my studies...I have to go back to Germany. Immigration for same sex bi-national couples always seems so complicated and confusing. We wanted to go to Canada but restrictions won't let us. I can't stay in the US because the bad economy makes it as good as impossible to get a work visa. Germany is not an option because my girlfriend can't speak german. The UK seem to be the only country where we could stay together without worries about immigration anymore.
I started to read in many blogs about immigration to UK and read at the government website from UK about immigration. So many information and things I need to know. Every counrty is different and I am confused.

I understand that since I am born in Germany and I'm a EU national I can go to UK whenever I want to, to find a job and reside there. Am I right so far? Do I need a residence card?

My girlfriend and I marry each other next year in June in Germany and after this we plan on apply for her residence card...
Is the residence card the one we need to apply for, for her to come with me to UK? Or are the family member residence stamps the ones, we need to apply for? Or something else? How is it called exactly? I can download the applications for it at the UK government website right?

I know I need to provide some proof that I have enough money when applying for her residence card.
But how much money does it need to be? We planning on wokring in the UK as soon as possbile....Some advise about that would be really great!!

I read in this forum that people try to figure out how much they have to provide to sponsor their loved one. Is there some appox. amount of money I definetily need to provide? I mean I'm planning on having enough money for at least 3-5 months. That should give us time to find jobs right?

I read on some website that when I enter the UK to look for a job that I only can stay about 3 months, right? What happenes if I can't find a job during this time but can provide evidence that I really tried to find one? Can I extend our stay in the UK then?

Can I take my girlfriend with me when I travel to UK to look for a job? Can my girlfriend look for a job also if she has the family member residence card / stamps ?

Do we have to apply for her family member residence card/stamps while we are in the US?

Does the application cost money? What evidence of the relationship beside the marriage certificate do we need to provide?

What would be the first step to do for us? We apply for the family member residence card/stamps here in the US? The UK embassy send us the visa for her to the US? Then we can go and enter the UK?

Does anyone has any lawyers to recommend who can help with UK immigration?

Everything I read on the Uk government website sound so easy and nice, but when I look and read in the blogs ....its a difference like day and night.
I really want to make sure, to do everything in the right way, the right steps and so on....because my girlfriend and I don't want to live seperated for a long time again. We did it before and its really hard...
If someone has some "steps-to-follow" or can help us with information how to start and go about it....and/or infos about lawyers....I really appreciate every comment I can get!!!!!!
Thank you so much....for reading my posting,
dancingc

[Mr Rusty]

As no-one else has grasped the nettle, here goes:

Same-sex couples who go through a legal form of ceremony in whichever country are referred to as "civil partners" in the UK rules. So it doesn't matter whether you get married in the USA or Germany as long as you can legally register it.
As an EEA national you can enter the UK, as you say, for any purpose for up to 3 months. After that, you are supposed to be a "qualified person", which can be a worker, self-employed, student, economically independent or retired. In practice, you can be any or none of these things for as long as you like, because unless you commit a serious crime you won't be forced to leave. You don't have to get any form of residence permit if you don't want to. That's you on your own.
If you travel to the UK as a jobseeker (also a "qualified person"), your non-EEA civil partner can come with you after obtaining an EEA Family Permit from a UK Embassy. You've probably already looked here already, www.ukvisas.gov.uk/ Go to "how to apply" and from the application forms you need to find VAF5. Remember that on the form "You" is the non-EEA applicant, and the partner is the EEA national, yourself. There are some slightly intrusive questions on there, but the fact is that if you have a legally-registered partnership, an application under EEA legislation is unlikely to be refused.
The EEA Family Permit is valid for 6 months and entitles the holder to work. After that, you should apply to UKBA for a Residence Certificate (Form EEA1) and your partner for a Residence Card Form EEA2), which would be valid for up 5 years, after which she could apply for Permanent Residence. It does appear from the form that at this stage at least one of you should be in employment (there's no provision on the EEA1 for "jobseeker"), but if neither of you are after 6 months, how are you going to stay here anyway? You wouldn't be entitled to benefits.
It might interest you to know that as a German national, having "exercised your treaty rights" by living and seeking work in the UK, you could then apply in the same way under European legislation for your partner to have an EEA Family Permit in Germany, rather than under German immigration law.

I hope this is of assistance

[dancingc]

thank you....that helps a lot!!!!