Fiancee coming to live with me in UK

Hi. Apologies if this is a question that has already been answered elsewhere - I have searched but not found anything that is exactly the same...

My fiancee is Chilean, I am English. She currently lives in Santiago and we intend that she comes to live with me in London at around Christmas time. I know that she can come here on a tourist visa for 3 or 6 months but I want her to be able to work here too. She doesn't score highly enough to qualify for the SMWP. We are going to get married, but don't want to have to do it in a rush just for the bureaucratic purposes of getting a work permit. What other options are open to us?

Will hiring a specialist immigration lawyer help in any way and give us an advantage or would I just be wasting money?

And when we are married, does she automatically gain the right to stay here with me indefinitely? I assume that to be the case...

Thanks in advance for any help/advice given.

Simon Bannister.

Any help or advice that can be given on the above situation will be most gratefully received.

Thanks.

SB

You have 2 options:

1) Your fiance can apply for a fiance visa from Chile which will be valid for 6 months. Once she has this she can then come to the UK to be with you, however she will not be allowed to work and you will have to get married before the expiration of her fiance visa. Once you get married she can apply for a spouse visa which will be valid for 2 years and will allow her to work. After the 2 years are up she will be able to apply for indefinite leave to remain (which is permanent residency). After she has had this for a year she will be able to apply for citizenship (naturalisation).

2) The two of you can get married in Chile and get the spouse visa immediately from the British Embassy there and come directly to the UK and she will be able to work immediately and follow the route to citizenship mentioned above.

Unfortunately unless your girlfriend qualifies for a work permit or HSMP visa, hiring an immigration lawyer isn't really going to help and the 2 routes mentioned above are probably your best bet.

Thanks for the reply - the info is most helpful. There is however, one thing that I don't quite understand. If we get married here, you say she should apply for a spouse visa? Surely this is automatic? Or is there a chance that any application can be rejected/turned down once we are married?

No, this is not automatic at all. Once you are legally married you will have apply to the Home Office for a spouse visa. I wouldn't worry though, as long as you have all the necessary documentation the application should be straightforward with a minimal chance of rejection.

Just to clarify - although effectively Simon's fiancée would be switching to a "spouse visa" after their marriage in UK, the Home Office don't actually call it that, and searching for those words on their website brings up dozens of results, most of which don't help....

What she would need to do after marrying in UK is to apply for "an extension of stay" as the spouse of a British citizen, on Form FLR(M), downloadable from this page on the IND website. Once that is granted, the prohibition on her working is removed.

Thanks for all your information guys - you've been really helpful in clarifying a few things for me. I'm not happy about the whole necessity to apply for a visa for my future wife though - to me it kinda feels like some kind of interview and I'm being tested to see if my marriage is/will be genuine... ...oh well, if that's the rules, I have no choice...