Chinese partner - advice needed

I am seeking some advice regarding my future with my Chinese partner.
We have been together for around one year and met while she was studying at university in Edinburgh.

She has now completed her studies and returned to China. We are in contact every day and miss eachother sorely. Our relationship is serious and we would like to get married and spend our future together.

Having looked over the rules / regulations online, I'm not quite sure where we stand.

Here is our scenario:

- I'm a British male, she is Chinese.

- I have been unable to work for some years due to health problems. My income over the past few years til present is benefits.

- We would like to get married and hopefully settle in the UK.

- She has recently completed her master's degree at university in the UK and would like to work here if she can live in the UK.

Due to ongoing health problems I am unable to commit to a move to China as I presently require medical treatment.

I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone could let me know our options so we can start preparing and planning a path for our future.

thanks in advance

Best to get married first, it makes thingds a lot easier. Otherwise the trend is to be able to prove living together for 2 years which is not easy.

If you are on DLA and shes your carer might work for a spouse visa but otherwise the only way I can see would be execise treaty rights and go to another EEA state.

I'm in a similar position, been on incapacity since 1992 but got the ATOS medical next week where I expect to be miraculously cured.

My plan is to go to Ireland and open a B&B, the management role would need my brain not muscle and sweat. I'm about £10k short at the mo but its doable.

What 357mag has said is correct.

Basically - if you want to get married and for her to live here you need to:

a) either apply for a fiancee visa and marry in the UK (and then extend her visa into a spouse visa) or
b) get married in China or a 3rd country and then apply for a spouse visa from China.

However, be prepared for a visa price shock. The spouse or fiancee visa is currently £851 (about to go up soon). So the initial visa will require that - and if you go down the fiancee route - you'll have to pay to extend it - which is another £578 - or more if you want to get a 'same day' service.

So you have to trade off that additional visa against the cost of flying you back and forth to china to get married in the first place.

A couple of points:

- I have been unable to work for some years due to health problems. My income over the past few years til present is benefits.

You have to be really specific about what benefits you are receiving and whether you can 'adequately maintain' your wife. You need to have, after housing costs, £102 per week free. And you can only fall into this calculation if you are in receipt of certain benefits - DLA being the obvious choice. Otherwise you'll need to show an income of £18,600 per annum.

Due to ongoing health problems I am unable to commit to a move to China as I presently require medical treatment.

Without wishing to sound harsh - they do have doctors and hospitals in China! There MIGHT be an article 8 argument if you can show that the treatment you require is completely unavailable in China and you're married.

The alternative highlighted by 357mag is what's known as the Surinder Singh route. This requires you to move the centre of your life to another EU country (say Ireland) - live and work (or be self sufficient) for at least 6 months and then return with your wife under and EEA family permit. Please note that this has become significantly harder in recent months - and we're still working through the implications of the new rules.

The other alternative is for your wife to find a company willing to put her on a tier 2 sponsored visa. This might be the easiest route for you (depending on the benefit calculation) as once she's here her income in the UK would qualify for the spouse income calculation - so she could rely on her income rather than yours. So she could arrive on the tier 2 visa, work for 6 months, then switch to the spouse route.

HTH.