It has been a long time, and you folks here have always helped. I need to ask you to extend that hand to me once again.
I have been in Taiwan with my g/f for the last 4 years. But I wish to move back to my home (England) and she agrees that she will come with me. She will give up her job working as a translator for a Taiwanese company and move to England with me. That’s a big step from her, so I need to make all the little steps for her, to make her life as easy as possible.
So the big question is about a visa. We do not wish to marry simply for the sake of convenience, as that is not very romantic, or pleasing to her family. So I am unsure about what kind of visa she can go into England on so that she can stay there for a while, and hopefully work there,
There are a number of options, none of them particularly appealing.
Tourist visa
This will allow her to stay for six months, but she will not be allowed to work during that time. She will also need a guarantor (yourself) to vouch that you’re going to feed and clothe her during this time.
Student visa
This will allow for her to stay longer and do a little bit of work on the side, if the educational establishment she’s with permits it. Of course, she’d have to sign up as a student somewhere, and the fees for that are generally not fun (especially university as an overseas student - ouch!).
Work permit and visa
Find a job where the company is willing to apply for a work permit for her. However, it has to be a job that cannot reasonably be filled by a British citizen, so it’s not the easiest thing in the world to find such a job. Now if she were a nurse or a teacher, it’d be a different story…
Fiancée visa
You can apply for this if you’re intending to get married in the next six months. Maximum validity of six months, which then gets converted to a spousal visa.
Spousal visa
Bite the bullet and get married. The UK does also grant visas to “commonlaw” spouses, but generally this only occurs under exceptional circumstances and there are usually kids involved, which I presume is not the case for you.
These options were valid as of three years ago when I was looking in to this myself. As for the situation now, it might be worth popping down to the BTCO to ask them, but I doubt things have got any easier since I enquired.
In addition to taffy’s comments…
When my Tw friend wanted to get a tourist visa for UK, she had to provide a letter from her employer saying that she had a job to come back to in TW.(which she didn’t) So maybe she needs to keep on good terms with her soon to be former employees- I imagine they’ll help her out.
[quote=“kitkat”]In addition to taffy’s comments…
When my Tw friend wanted to get a tourist visa for UK, she had to provide a letter from her employer saying that she had a job to come back to in TW.(which she didn’t) So maybe she needs to keep on good terms with her soon to be former employees- I imagine they’ll help her out.[/quote]
That’s especially true if she has a decent bank balance. Too much money and no job keeping her here makes them think it’ll be easy for her to overstay.
You might like to google the “Highly Skilled Migrants Programme” (HSMP). If she qualifies, its possible to enter the UK without a specific job offer.
There have been some changes to the qualification period which entitles the migrant to ILR (indefinite leave to remain)*, but I have known people who have now gone on to get ILR as a result of this scheme. Its pretty straightforward to then go on and get UK citizenship if that’s what she wants.
Regarding tourist visas, I have a friend in Vietnam who was in a similar situation. I think the UK is even more worried about overstaying Vietnamese than Taiwanese. Her experience matched that of a Thai girl I once met… Once you’ve got your first 6 month visa and returned to your home country, subsequent visas are easier to obtain. The word I heard was “go through on the nod” - perhaps an exaggeration. But the logic was that the main fear is that of overstaying. By returning on time, this fear is much reduced on later visits. I would have thought they might assume illegal working if you keep returning - but apparently this is not taken into account. My Vietnamese friend was told after the interview for the first visa that she wouldn’t need to be interviewed again for subsequent visas if her applications referenced the first one.
This is just based on the experience of 2 girls I met…
(* it used to be 4 years, but has been changed to 5 years. This is currently the subject of a Judicial Review)
You are going to be up against the presumption that by not entering as a fiancee or spouse she is trying to bypass the expensive visa fee and waiting process.
Thanks to all. It always amazes me that people take time out of their day to help a stranger. So I really appreciate the time you took. We have been looking for this information for a long time, (think: YEARS) and have never even heard of the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme. However, the good news is that she appears to qualify for the scheme, which means I can avoid paying for a wedding for at least another 2 years! My girlfriend seems keen to enter first on a student visa, and then swap to the HSMP later down the line. I hope she isn’t planning her exit strategy before we even get to the U.K. !!!
Very useful book. Has gone up in price since I bought it when bringing my missus into the UK, but it’s worth 100 quid in the information and insights it provides.