Hello!
Im from the UK and (for some reason) wish to return there with my Taiwanese wife and our 2 children, both under 2 years old (until Dec!)
i wanted to know if anyone has advice in regards to my wife getting the spousal visa from here or when we are over there… and the kids, should i try to get them UK passports before we leave or do that in the UK as well??
UK immigration give little to no advice at all, even after paying over 2 pounds to ask a question!!
Cheers guys, stay Covid free
I don’t have an answer to your question, but I feel your pain as a Canadian since there are no telephone numbers for Citizenship and Immigration Canada. The immigration lawyers I’ve contacted were useless as well.
Would recommend this.
I guess getting a visa until December is a bit difficult.
For your kid I’d recommend getting the passports.
For your wife, I’d start the process here. The authorities in the UK don’t necessarily have much experience with Taiwanese documents etc, so you’ll need to get them legalised here in Taiwan anyways.
Maybe @meishijia can help.
If you want to stay less than 90 Days, you don’t need anything (except whatever covid immunity proof the UK wants to see), assuming your kids already have a Taiwanese passport.
If you are just going until December, she can just enter visa free, right?
A spousal visa would only be useful if you were staying long term. It is not like you get it and it lasts forever. You have to live there as a resident.
In terms of British passports, it will take you about 2 months to get them for your children if you have all the right documents already or can easily get them. If you want to know the process I can find some links for you.
Since you will need documents from your parents who I assume are in the Uk, I would just take the kids on their Taiwan passports visa free. Apply when you are there. Leave the Uk using their Taiwan passport and then use their Uk one for future entries.
This advice is only valid if going for a few months. If going long term, spousal visa, apply for passports from here etc would be best.
Better for the children to enter on their UK passports so no questions asked. For the missus, it is a little tricky. If you are thinking of long term, then a family visa is the way to go, but there are a lot of expenses associated with it. Please read on visa fees plus the Immigration Health Surcharge. This is the reason why I couldn’t bring my wife and three kids here, I would end up paying £7800 for them and that excludes the ticket, plus the £1750 fee for the hotel quarantine.
When my wife and I moved back to the uk 4 years ago she had to apply for her visa in Taiwan, she couldn’t apply from within the uk as a visitor. The rules still seem to be the same. You’ll need to read the pdf guidance doc page 27.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/996667/family-life-as-a-partner-or-parent-private-life-and-exceptional-circs-v14.0-ext.pdf
I don’t have kids so can’t advise but getting them a uk passport first seems like the most sensible option.
Agree with all here. Depends on how long you want to go in a year. Less than 90 days? No need to apply for visas. Use Taiwan passport. Thinking of living in UK? Spousal visa, do it in Taiwan and express it as well.
On another note, your wife is gonna go apeshit when she sees how UK is now reacting to covid…
What do you mean? As in they are back to normal?
Yeah… No masks required anywhere, just optional. Big gatherings. No social distancing etc etc.
Also it was announced yesterday that vaccinated travelers no longer need to have PCR tests to travel to England. Amber lists ditched- now just red and green.
(Apparently 178 deaths yesterday)
And green is no quarantine, right?
No quarantine but some kind of lateral flow test on day 2, I think.