British Citizen, Albanian Partner.

Hi there.

I am a British Citizen and am currently in the U.K and 5 and a half months pregnant. My partner and father of the child is Albanian and currently residing in Greece.

We want a visitor's visa for him to come for the birth in 4 months time. We would like him to stay for a bit and then return. I will then visit him at a later date in Greece or Albania.

Which category of visitor is he? We are not married or engaged and have been together for only 10 months. We have known each other many years but would have trouble proving that.

Many thanks.

A general visit visa. He does not qualify for a family visa. Does he have very good ties to his situation in Greece? In the event that they are not strong ties my suggestion would be to make no mention of your current circumstances wrt the pregnancy!

Yes he does.

He has lived and worked there legally for the past 12 years and has all the perwork and documents to prove this.

Many thanks.

With this is mind, do you have any other info or advice? I'm pretty sure we are going to be completely upfront about our situation and hope for the best. It might not work but we just don't see the point in hiding it.

Any thoughts?

Many thanks.

It very much depends on whether you are able to submit strong evidence of a reason for him returning to Greece when his visa term expires without overstaying. With you and the child you have together living in the UK, this may take a lot to convince the ECO.

lakitch1 wrote:. It might not work but we just don't see the point in hiding it.

You have to answer the questions on the application. You don't have to volunteer information that is not asked. There will not be a question that asks if the person you are visiting is pregnant with your child.

However, if you freely state that you wish to visit the UK to witness the birth of your child, from a position of applying for the visa from a country where you are merely resident rather than your homeland, this may add a dynamic to the overall risk of returnability of the applicant. Everything depends on the actual evidence you provide.

Good luck.

I see.

We were planning on saying that we genuinely aren't ready for my partner to join me full time as yet.

I am in the process of finishing my degree and we wanted to wait until after I had graduated and become employed before we started to try to arrange settlement, which we see as being in the next two years or so.

We plan to visit each other in our various countries until that time.

We were hoping that this would show that we weren't intending to do anything to jeoperdise our future plans.

How is the ECO on trust??

Thanks!

The rules have to be applied and the intention to leave the UK after the visit is the rule that will be relevant. Motivation to leave balanced against motivation to stay (having abandoned anything that was relevant in the location from where the applicant originated as it was considered worthless or worth less). These decisions are often obvious based on the circumstances but can be arbitrary if there is a lack of compelling evidence. If his situation in Greece is towards the lower-end of the socio-economic pyramid, he might have a problem; otherwise, no problem.

I think what we are worried about is that if we don't tell them the real reason he is coming, which is to be there for the birth of the child that it will be worse and that we could have sanctions placed on us for further applications made.

Would there be any compassionate grounds to help him enter?

Thanks again all.

Not for entry.

Good morning.

I was hoping to run a couple more thoughts by you.

If a person overstayed a general or family visa, do they automatically become some sort of 'illegal immigrant'? I assume they would be liable for arrest and deportation and banned for 10 years?

For me personally and for my partner, the threat of such circumstances alone would keep him from overstaying, not to mention the fact that he doesn't speak English and would never be able to earn a living here.

In Greece he has a whole network of friends and acquaintances, work and residence permits, etc.

Sorry to appear naive but his life in Greece isn't awful enough for him to give it all up to come here and try to eke out some kind of existence whilst on the run from immigration.

Again, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Basically, what I'm trying to say is, why would he overstay??

You have to bear in mind that we are talking about only very limited numbers as the vast majority of visas are granted , and those numbers tend to come from the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid, so none of this may apply to your partner. The fact that Albania has a poor record of immigration offenders does not help, but the fact that he has been living in Greece for 12 years does help.

Generally, a visitor who has a good social and economic set-up in their current location would not wish to abandon this to remain in the UK illegally and clean the toilets in Paddington Station (although I would expect that concession to have responsible managers who make the necessary immigration checks on their employees). Your partner should be able to show that this is the case with him. However, the added factors of a long-standing partner living in the UK and a British born child may skew the balance of probabilities if his ties to Greece are weak. He just needs to make it obvious in the mind of the Entry Clearance Officer that he is ready willing and able to return to Greece. If his situation is very stable in Greece he will not have any problems getting a visa. If he is one of the lucky people not affected by the crisis and still has a job in Greece, a letter from his employer would be a very good thing to include in the application.

Thanks again for the input.

I'm seeing a solicitor next week and so will see what the advice is from them.

I saw a solicitor last week who told me he should apply as a family visitor but I'm not convinced.

I will let people know what happens.

All the best!

But I should add, he IS from the lower socio-economic group and HAS become unemployed as a result of the crisis!

He is owed thousands of euros by a company that has basically done a runner!

All very unlucky for us at this moment in time unfortunately!