Surinder Singh route and marital status

Hello everyone - this is my first post, so please excuse me if this topic has already been covered elsewhere. I am a UK citizen, and my girlfriend of 5 years is a US citizen. She has been, until recently, working under a tier 2 work visa, but that employment has now ended. We were planning on applying for the UK partnership visa, but I don't meet the income requirements unfortunately. My question is, does the Surinder Singh route (using Ireland for the sake of argument) recognise long term partners, or is legal marriage necessary? And if it is the latter, would the Home Office in the UK block any application made by me and her to get married in the UK now that her work visa has ended? I know that marriage wouldn't make much/any difference to a UK partnership visa given the strict financial requirements, but if it would help in Ireland we might consider it.
Thanks for your help!

SonOfConstantine wrote:Hello everyone - this is my first post, so please excuse me if this topic has already been covered elsewhere. I am a UK citizen, and my girlfriend of 5 years is a US citizen. She has been, until recently, working under a tier 2 work visa, but that employment has now ended. We were planning on applying for the UK partnership visa, but I don't meet the income requirements unfortunately. My question is, does the Surinder Singh route (using Ireland for the sake of argument) recognise long term partners, or is legal marriage necessary? And if it is the latter, would the Home Office in the UK block any application made by me and her to get married in the UK now that her work visa has ended? I know that marriage wouldn't make much/any difference to a UK partnership visa given the strict financial requirements, but if it would help in Ireland we might consider it.
Thanks for your help!

The Surinder Singh route can now also be used by the extended family members including unmarried partners in a durable relationship. This became possible following a court judgement towards the end of 2014.
Have you been living together and if so, for how long?
The problem with marrying in the UK if your girlfriend no longer has a valid visa, is that you would have to register your intent to marry with a Home Office designated Registry Office. The Registrar is then legally bound to notify the Home Office who can then extend the notification period from 20 to 70 days. This will enable them to interview you both if they choose, before the wedding can take place. If your girlfriend has no legal status here, they could remove her from the UK before you are able to marry...although in any event, marriage will not give her legal residency.

Thanks for your reply! We have been living together 'officially' for about 18 months (joint bills etc.) although we were effectively living together for about 2.5 years without my being on the lease. She has also collated a fairly extensive collection of 'proof' of our relationship (i.e. all the things we have done together), if that would help at all?

Edit - I had suspected it would be difficult to get a marriage license here with things as they are, just thought I'd check! Hopefully all of this will be moot, as she is able to apply for jobs on the occupation shortage list. So fingers crossed that will bear some fruit.

You would need to submit all the evidence you can lay your hands on to prove a durable relationship 'akin to marriage'. Although 2 years of co-habitation is mandatory under UK rules, less than this can be challenged under EEA regulations which doesn't stipulate the full 24 months, but needs proof of a 'durable' relationship.

Do you know what sort of evidence would be considered proof of a 'durable' relationship? We have all sorts, from photographs with each others parents to rubbish ticket stubs, but it'd be good to know. I completely understand if you don't have an answer to that, it seems like pretty esoteric knowledge - thank you for your replies so far.

Evidence showing shared commitments....joint finances, tenancy agreement, utility bills in joint names etc. You need to show more than a girlfriend/boyfriend relationship.

The Surinder Singh route can now also be used by the extended family members including unmarried partners in a durable relationship. This became possible following a court judgement towards the end of 2014.
Have you been living together and if so, for how long?
The problem with marrying in the UK if your girlfriend no longer has a valid visa, is that you would have to register your intent to marry with a Home Office designated Registry Office. The Registrar is then legally bound to notify the Home Office who can then extend the notification period from 20 to 70 days. This will enable them to interview you both if they choose, before the wedding can take place. If your girlfriend has no legal status here, they could remove her from the UK before you are able to marry...although in any event, marriage will not give her legal residency.

Casa i wish it was as simple as that. In the Case of Capello , which I believe you are referring to, the Home Office has appealed the decision. Permission was refused by the Upper Tribunal, and I believe it was sought at the Court of Appeal. We will see whether the Court of Appeal grants or not.

The Home Office refuses to accept the rationale of the judgement.

But a recent tribunal may help , but that too is too cumbersome to make much sense of, although it found that not meeting the requirement of Regulation 9 is not the end of a matter.

So unfortunately the Home office has still not changed its policy following that judgement.

Casa wrote:

Obie wrote:

Casa wrote: The Surinder Singh route can now also be used by the extended family members including unmarried partners in a durable relationship. This became possible following a court judgement towards the end of 2014.
Have you been living together and if so, for how long?
The problem with marrying in the UK if your girlfriend no longer has a valid visa, is that you would have to register your intent to marry with a Home Office designated Registry Office. The Registrar is then legally bound to notify the Home Office who can then extend the notification period from 20 to 70 days. This will enable them to interview you both if they choose, before the wedding can take place. If your girlfriend has no legal status here, they could remove her from the UK before you are able to marry...although in any event, marriage will not give her legal residency.

Casa i wish it was as simple as that. In the Case of Capello , which I believe you are referring to, the Home Office has appealed the decision. Permission was refused by the Upper Tribunal, and I believe it was sought at the Court of Appeal. We will see whether the Court of Appeal grants or not.

The Home Office refuses to accept the rationale of the judgement.

But a recent tribunal may help , but that too is too cumbersome to make much sense of, although it found that not meeting the requirement of Regulation 9 is not the end of a matter.

So unfortunately the Home office has still not changed its policy following that judgement.

Obie, I know that you have been fairly positive in the past about an EEA unmarried partner application with less than 2 years co-habitation being accepted as a 'durable' relationship. Are you now more cautious and if so, how do you view the OP's situation here? As you know, I'm generally reluctant give false hope.

No Casa I am not more cautious at all.

The British Government is clearly acting unlawfully and we have to call a spade a spade.

It is clear in my mind that the OP will have a community law right to bring his unmarried partner in , for the reasons explained in Capello.Capello.

All I am saying is that the UKVI does not seem to have recognised the legally sound basis of the judgement and are seeking to challenging.

However I believe even the most right wing of judges will find it difficult to complain about the logic and reasoning of the judgement.

A coury in Northern Ireland even criticised the UT for not going far enougj in Capello.

Something bugging me about the Cain appeal.
The appellant and her partner lived in Spain and Portugal.
Now I am wondering if the partner had got a residence permit in either of those host states could they have used the OB case and "strengthened relationship" as their argument? or does OB only back up "family members"?

I've been in a durable relationship since 2011 but my partner had to leave UK last November. I have bought a house in Bulgaria in August and got my "long term resident certificate" late August as self-sufficent.
We are now looking into her coming to BG but trying to get "attestation" recognised by MFA BG before she quits her job and sells property.
Plan is for her to join me in spring and get her a BG residence permit prior to trying to get her into UK using the McCarthy judgement and OB. Bearing in mind I have not been a worker and she is just "extended family member" I think we might run into a brick wall with UKVI so the Cain case gives us hope.

Maybe one of the gurus can tell me if I am understanding the Cain case?
Looking at 2 examples
1. An EEA citizen can come to the UK (as self-sufficient if they want?) and bring their non-EEA partner (in a durable relationship duly attested) and be issued a residence permit and residence cart respectively.

2. A British National can do likewise into another EEA state and so be acting as an EEA citizen. But if they return to UK they cant bring their partner because they are British.

I would ask what happens to say a Polish person if they were to return to their home nation with a non EEA partner, would they face the same restriction? Ah forget that National rules can apply?

Is seems to me to be discrimination on the grounds of nationality.