extending 2 year working holiday visa - PLEASE HELP

i am a UK citizen and my boyfriend is a south african with no english parents/granparents etc. he is in the UK working on a 2 year working holiday visa which expires in may this year. he is unqualified/unskilled etc but has employers willing to support an application to extend his visa.
i've been browsing the net desperately but finding it hard to find anything useful and i am sorry if you've seen this a million times, i couldn' find anything relevant.
is there any way he can stay here longer? what are the rules surrounding this? how do we go about it? any comment appreciated... i don't want to move to south africa!!

Well, I don't know perhaps I am not getting this right but...Why making life so difficult if he could apply to be here as your fiance, for example? Have you co-habited for at least some time to prove that your have good and strong relationship?
If you decided to get married then it would be even easier. I think it should not be a problem to get the Home Office Permission for him to get married here.
But he will still probably have to return to South Africa to make this application, although it is not a big deal at all.

Best wishes

Jeff

I agree - AIUI, the working holiday visa simply cannot be extended beyond two years.

Without UK ancestry or WP (or HSMP)-able skills, there are very limited options open to rhipate's boyfriend. I don't think that people should ever get married only in order to get a visa, but if marriage is on the horizon, it would certainly be one way of clearing the logjam - unless, of course, rhipate felt like sampling the delights of life in South Africa for a while....

thankyou for your replies. my boyfriend and i have only just moved in together and we've been together almost a year. we think we will get married one day but its not something we want to do right now in a rush so he can stay in england. we hoped there may be some way around it. what is WP and HSMP?

if there really isn't, he may return to SA and apply for a visa for spain and we may move there to give us some more time. i'm very nervous of moving to south africa.

You neet to sit down and seruiously think about his future plans and your future plans..

no straight forward easy way round your situation...

good luck

an ex immigration officer mentioned something to us about being able to claim back time out of his 2 year visa that he has spent in SA. he has spent a total of 3 months at home during this time. does anyone know anything about this?

i see that when you have an application in progress, you are allowed to stay until you have a descion - is there anything he could apply for then leave when it gets refused? we really need to buy some time as I can't leave my UK job until september, after that I'm happy to move to another country with him. am i right in thinking that he'll be able to obtain a working visa for spain in the same way he obatined one for the UK?

thanks for all you help so far. its very much appreciated.

Not sure about Spain. I thought that the WHM visa was only in and for commonwealth countries?...

Maybe someone from the moderators might be here to comment on this soon.

rhipate wrote:
am i right in thinking that he'll be able to obtain a working visa for spain in the same way he obatined one for the UK?

thanks for all you help so far. its very much appreciated.

another concern of mine: presumably, if we were to marry in south africa at a later date, he would then be able to obtain a spouse visa for the UK?

and if we co-habit in another country for over 2 years, would he then be able to live and work in UK on that basis? i'm sorry to be a nuisance but i'm sure you can appreciate my concerns over our future.

rhipate wrote:another concern of mine: presumably, if we were to marry in south africa at a later date, he would then be able to obtain a spouse visa for the UK?

rhipate wrote:and if we co-habit in another country for over 2 years, would he then be able to live and work in UK on that basis? i'm sorry to be a nuisance but i'm sure you can appreciate my concerns over our future.

Yes and yes, but have a look at this page on the UKVisas website

an ex immigration officer mentioned something to us about being able to claim back time out of his 2 year visa that he has spent in SA. he has spent a total of 3 months at home during this time. does anyone know anything about this?

If you read the guidence notes for the working holiday visa you will see that it states quite clearly:

How long can I stay?
You can stay in the UK for up to two years from the date you were first given permission to enter as a working holidaymaker. We will count any time you spend outside the UK during that period as part of the two years.

To be fair, Dawie, I don't think this was always the case. I believe that one used to be able to take WHM in a number of shorter stints, provided the total didn't exceed 2 yrs. So I think the ex-IO was out of date, rather than being completely wrong...

you'll have to excuse my ignorance in this field, but i'm wondering about work permits. would my b/f be eligible to apply for a WP if an employer could prove the vacancy could not otherwise be filled? what conditions surround a WP? would he then have to work for this employer and only this employer?

where can i find more info on how an employer goes about proving this if i need to?

thank you all so much once again. your replies are invaluable.

You should look at the official work permits website:

http://www.workingintheuk.gov.uk

But from what you've said about your boyfriend being unskilled and unqualified he probably doesn't stand a chance of obtaining a work permit even if there's an employer willing to go through all the hassle. It's highly unlikely the WP office will accept that there isn't another British or EU citizen who can do whatever job he plans getting the work permit for if it's unskilled and your boyfriend doesn't have any qualifications.

By the way, I'm South African and I can tell you South Africa is one of the best and most beautiful places in the world to live. Why on earth you'd be scared to live there I have no idea.

HOWEVER, I must warn you, it's probably easier for a South African citizen to obtain a work permit for the UK than it is for a UK citizen to obtain a work permit for South Africa.

So from what you've said, your boyfriend has next to no chance of getting a work permit in the UK and you definitely have no chance of getting a work permit in South Africa. The only answer to your dilemna, it seems, is for the two of you to get married.

hi dawie, thanks for your comments. I know south africa is a beautiful country and its not south africa in particular I'm scared off - just moving country all together really. i've yet to be lucky enough to even visit SA and I can't wait to see it.

however, moving there is an option I was still thinking over until I read that you think it would be impossible for me to get a work permit there! i'm totally shocked by this, i assumed it would be fairly easy for some reason and my b/f certainly never mentioned it could be a problem. could you possibly elaborate on that point or point me in the direction of more info please? i'd really appreciate it.

when i say my b/f is 'unqualified', i mean he doesn't have a degree and i assume that that is what is required and by 'unskilled' i mean he doesn't have a skill which can't be learnt by most people in a few weeks/months.

rhipate,

The Work Permit system has a requirement for 'an educational and/or work experience of x years at NVQ level 3 equivalent'.

It might be best for your bf to arrange a consultation with an immigration practitioner (1 hr is more than enough) for an assessment of his chances given that we do not know what sector he works in, skills he has etc i.e. your specifics are needed and this bb is not the right place unless you want to bare all so to speak.

Likewise I concur that RSA is a wonderful country despite having its share of problems to include those steeped in its history but also current global economic realities. If you do decide to be a bride perhaps consider taking your honey moon in the Cape...do ensure your b/f takes you to the racetrack sharing my name....careful though he might perhaps find it an ideal venue to exchange your vows .

I hope things work out for both you in some way.

Regards

Kayalami

Yes, I agree with Kayalami, you won't know for certain what is possible without consulting a professional. This BB is good in so far as people can share their opinions with you, but that's all they are, opinions.

You can view the South African department of Home Affairs website here:

http://www.home-affairs.gov.za/

Like most countries, South Africa is very protective over its local employment market. The major problem is that South Africa has unemployment of well over 30%. However this is mainly in the unskilled sector. Ironically there is also a major skills shortage in South Africa as with most other large economies. This gives rise to the situation where work permits are by and large only issued for skilled occupations and NOT for unskilled work such as restaurant/bar work.

thank you. how do we arrange a consultation with a professional and find out more info about this?

dawie, would it not be possible for me to work in SA for a period of time in a similar way to the 2 year working holiday visa my b/f has used here in the UK? we simply want some more time to co habit together before taking the marriage step.