Advice needed...

Hi all, I'm looking for some advice here as I don't want to mess this up!

I am English and lived in Canada with my Canadian Girlfriend for 11 months last year.

We both want her to move to England with me (I have been back since December). However, we do not have much cash behind us. We are both working relatively low paying jobs and both have student loans.

We have not lived together long enough for her to apply for a visa that allows her to live with me and work in England.

We are not currently engaged, although we would strongly consider getting engaged/married if it is the only option. If we were engaged she would be able to apply for a visa that allows her to live in England for 6 months on the premise that we would marry in that time. But she would NOT be allowed to work. We cannot afford that.

She is able to apply for a working holidaymaker work permit that allows 2 years in England with up to 12 months working... BUT the main thing that worries me here is that it does stipulate that you must not plan to stay and no extensions are allowed.

My work are willing to provide her with work when she gets to England so that she does not have to prove that she can support herself for the first x many months.

I am looking at taking out a loan that will enable us to afford the initial costs of getting out here. If we plump for the working holidaymaker option then at the end of 12 months either she will not be able to work for a year, or we then have to apply for permission to get married in England and then apply for the 2 year preliminary marriage visa.

It is much cheaper for us to get married as soon as she gets to England. Does anyone know roughly how long it takes from getting married to getting a visa/work permit that would allow her to work asap? If it takes 6 months then it is not an option and we should go for the holidaymaker work permit.... it it takes 6 weeks then we would have to seriously consider if we are ready for that commitment (only been together for 16 months)

We have spent a long time trying to look into this without getting any advice. I really need to find out how long these things take to sort out as if I am taking out a loan I need to be sure that we will both be working and able to afford the repayments.

Thanks for reading

Tom