Visa is driving me insane! Any Aussies/Brits help!

[bella88]

Hey there,

So I'm having visa application issues. I'm Aussie, my SO is British- so you would think it's easy but it's not! We are trying to close the distance by March next year and we are applying for the partner visa on the UK side (so me moving there as the unmarried partner).

So we have to meet a financial requirement of £18,600 I believe. My SO says that is all good as he asked his Dad to lend some money into his account to sit for 6 months. That's all well and good, but it's all the evidence part that I hate! I don't have the best job- being a supermarket cashier and my bank statements look like shit. I hope since my SO is my sponsor while over there that they will look at his bank statements more. He has just moved out of his parents home- he's 24 and I'm 25. So we hope that will look good on the application as well. We are just stressing that we won't have enough evidence.

I have collected some cards, letters, postcards and photos together (I will take screenshots of convos on my iPhone between us) and will print off some penpal messages when we met. I just hope that could be good enough evidence and we have to write a letter of introduction about our relationship etc.

Has anyone been granted a partner visa for the UK from Australia? If so, what sort of evidence did you include? We don't have a joint bank account- as we aren't married and we have lived together under our parents roof (and that's a worry if they think we haven't lived together like a proper couple). It's just that things are so expensive!

I'm just worried! I booked my flight for the 7th of March '14 and the visa isn't granted yet!- I'm waiting on my SO to send his stuff this week so I can include it into the application. I know we are supposed to give 3 months gap for processing but we are cutting it close! I think by January I'd have the application sent off. March 7th is so close! D: I shouldn't have booked the flight until I had the grant but they wanted to know what my travel date was and I thought okay well I'll book my flight and I was hoping to get my application done in November but we had setbacks :/ I told my SO if it's not granted or we are still waiting for any response, I won't have my passport with me so I'd have to cancel my flight. It sucks! I just wished we didn't have all this financial shit to sort out.

Any advice would be great!! If you have a list of things to include in evidence I'd love that!

[lucybelle]

Hey. Visa is driving me crazy, too! Been in the process 9 months now with no end in site. I do wish it was easy to just hop on a plane and live and work legally in another country. But there's rules for a reason. Rules which you seem to want to break.

That money requirement? It's there for a reason. Sorry your SO doesn't have it, but the reason it's there is to show that your SO has the means to support you without a job and without government assistance. The transferring of funds I'm almost certain will NOT work. You almost always have to show bank receipts from various months over at least half a year if not more to make sure that the money didn't magically appear. Which is what it's going to do in your case. It's not okay to just "borrow" the money, it has to be HIS money. Yes the world is expensive which is why they want him to prove he won't need assistance when you come over. Lying on a visa application is fraud, a punishable crime, you know that right?

For other evidences of a bonafide relationship you can put plane tickets, visa stamps, emails or chats, pictures with the other's family is always gold. The biggest thing they want is to be shown joint ownership of something, and money transfer you did between each other could be used.

[Zephii]

I don't want to poke a giant hole in your bubble, but unless there's something stellar about the UKs immigration system that we don't have here, or in Canada or the USA, I can't see a way on God's green earth that you're going to get this visa in time if you have not applied for it yet. I hate to be the smelly sock at the party, but the processing time for most family class visas is roughly forever, and it's the worst time of year because lots of people are taking long holidays and the like - including immigration case workers. Ok, I over exaggerate on the forever. But for an example, we got a prospective marriage visa to come here, and that took seven months. We thought we would be fine because mates of ours got their visa in three months but we weren't and had to push back his fight by two months.

Getting enough evidence is hard. I don't agree with LB that borrowing money wont work, because for the Aussie government you don't have to give a transaction record, you have to give a statement of account (which is a letter from the bank saying the account belongs to you and has this much money in it* includes uncleared checks and money orders) but really pay attention to the information in your immigration booklet and stick to it like glue.

I'm a checkout chick too, casual - not even full time, and I'm sponsoring my SO to stay here (We're on the second stage of the three-part series). It seems like if you have enough savings to live for six months unemployed they don't care so much what you have coming in. Though we were living together alone when we applied, we were planning to move in with family, and the government were fine with that. There's another lady here who applied to sponsor her partner who was offshore and they got it, despite living with their parents and planning to remain with her parents for the foreseeable future. So it isn't unheard of.

Your evidence matters! What evidence do they say you need? This is important because it varies country to country. For example, lots of US people here include chat logs in their evidence. Here in Oz though, you're strictly told not to include chat logs/print outs of chat conversations.

I wish you all the best. It is hard and stressful, but it can be done. You really have to hang on to that. People have successfully immigrated before - so you know it's possible (though a lot of the time it feels like it isn't.) Keep us posted with how you go.

[jess_mp]

The visa thing varies depending on the country of course. It sucks that you must prove your financial situation, but at least you guys don't have to take a language exam. In order to get the visa I must pass a Dutch exam (about speaking, listening and Dutch culture) at the embassy of Netherlands in Mexico. I've been studying Dutch like crazy, I think this is the most difficult part of the visa process. Proving that our relationship is real will be easy. We're planning to send plane tickets, pictures, train tickets, we went to some festivals together, we'll send receipts of that too.
In our case my bf has to earn certain amount of money and he must prove he has a steady job, a contract, and good income.
I think that if they're only asking you for certain amount, or financial requirement, and you guys have it, there's no way they deny the visa to you. Your boyfriend should write a nice letter or story about how you guys met and I think they will like it.
Just think positive and you will attract the positive. If you believe you can do it then you can. 3 months is soon but not impossible. Just remember that if plan A doesn't work , there will always be plan B, or C, or D.

My boyfriend and I wanted to start the visa process in January next year, but we don't have the money yet, so we'll wait some months. We want to submit documents in March. At first it was difficult for me to accept it, cuz I just want to close the distance ASAP!!! but then I thought it is not so bad when you do things slow and plan them well.
Just think that next year you will close the distance, sooner or late you will do it!!! Just stick to the plan and do your best... I'll be sending good vibes to you, so you guys get the visa before March. Good luck!

[pink elephant]

You mention you're moving there as an unmarried partner, not as his fiancée - are you moving there with the intention of joining your partner and getting married in the UK? The unmarried partner visa and fiancée visa require different documents.

I've gone through the process of applying for a spouse visa from US to UK. Although we were married before I moved to the UK, the rules have changed slightly since I've applied but what they have asked for in applications for remains largely the same. Most applicants find meeting the income threshold of £18,600 the most difficult hurdle. UKBA will be most concerned about your sponsor's income. Whatever your income, it cannot and will not be counted toward the income threshold. Your sponsor will need to be able to provide evidence that he can meet the income threshold of £18,600. Pay stubs, letter confirming employment and start date, bank statements, etc..

Your evidence for your relationship needs to prove that it is genuine and subsisting. In my case, I had Polaroid photos, itineraries and flight tickets with our names, letters and cards with addresses and dates, logs of Skype calls and Gmail interactions, etc. covering the span of the length of our relationship. I also included a detailed affidavit of the dates we met in person and had it signed and notarized. I'm not sure if proof of your sponsor's employment and accommodation information for the application is necessary under the current rules, but I also had them included in my application. By the time I sent in my entire application, it was surely a whole binder-full with 3 inches in thickness!

I think the biggest difference between fiancee/spouse visas and the unmarried partner visa is that unmarried partners need to provide:

evidence that you have been living together, in a genuine relationship that is like a marriage or civil partnership (not like a 'marriage of convenience') for 2 years or more
https://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/partners-families/citizens-settled/unmarried-same-sex/unmarried-docs/

This could probably done by showing housing and utility bills addressed to you both. But I think it would be best to consult with an immigration lawyer - especially when the UK is strict when it comes to having the proper documents and evidence.

Regarding your flight date, the application only asks for one so the UKBA knows around when you decide to arrive. You do/did not need to book your flight when you do not yet have your visa in hand, especially when there is a possibility of a delay in processing. For my case, I applied for my visa in early July 2012 with intended departure in August. The turnaround time was about three weeks. I did not receive my visa until late September and ended up flying to the UK in mid-November. The reason why it took so long was because I put in my application during the busiest season: the London Olympics and international students preparing to study in the UK!

Again, I would strongly recommend seeking the advice of an immigration lawyer before taking any further action on your application. I definitely did and it really helped improve my application and made everything less stressful, confusing and the result of it being approved! Good luck with everything!

[bella88]

How do you get an immigration lawyer?

Seems like most haven't understood me- my story is:

I met my SO online 4 years ago as a penpal and I flew over to visit him for 3 weeks and we fell in love. I went over again on a working holiday visa after he came to see me on a holiday. Then once I returned back to Oz, he came over on a working holiday visa. So we are just boyfriend and girlfriend- not fiances or married.

We are working on right now to get the partner visa for me to go over to the UK as the unmarried partner to him and live permanently. We don't have any joint accounts as we don't own a house or anything together over in the UK- we've just visited each other. He has met the financial requirement and he said somewhere that in the visa application you can have money given to you as a gift. He has a good steady permanent full time job as a medical records clerk in a hospital. I just hope the visa people will see he's living in his own flat and he makes enough and not look at my bank statements as they look shit. He's going to be sponsoring me when I'm there so I hope its all okay.

Still have yet to send off my application but we're hoping within the next week or so. But yes, my flight is booked for the 7th of March and I doubt it will be granted in time but I have the option to change my flight date. But Im just hoping we have enough evidence.

[snow_girl]

Why would you book a flight without having the visa?

[pink elephant]

You may want to consider checking out another forum that specializes helping expats, like expatforum.com or somewhere similar.

What I am concerned about is if you meet the requirements for showing evidence that you have lived together for two years or more. If you were in England on a working holiday visa for a year, and he was in Australia on the working holiday visa for a year, surely both of you must have some sort of official correspondence you may have received - official letters or documents showing registration for immigration purposes or usage of public services (GP registration, getting a library card, getting a bank account while you were there, even if not a joint one), for example. Even a letter from the landlord confirming that you both lived at whatever address for a year. Did you both spend one year at each other's countries living together?

Also, if he has a full-time and permanent job that meets the financial requirement and has six months worth of pay slips showing he has had steady employment, I don't understand why you would need to include additional "gift" money toward your application. Do you mean to say he won't meet the financial requirement without assistance of the gift money?

This poster from a different forum seems to have a case similar to yours, despite being from US.

And more information on meeting the income shortfall (if there happens to be one) through combining savings and income:
https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Spouse_Immigration-UK

Good luck!