I need help...please!

I have a very complicated situation and really need help.

I am engaged to a brit...a sargent in the military. But we can't get married because his ex is refusing to divorce him to keep us apart. I have tried looking into visas/work permits to the UK and am so confused and discouraged. I am not sure if i qualify and can't afford to apply for the wrong one and get turned down. My fiance wants me to come live with him...but in order to do that I will need to work. Problem is getting a work permit. Any jobs I have wanted to apply for say you need a valid UK work permit, but the UK immigration policy says that individuals cannot apply for a work permit and that the employer must do it for you!? Sounds like a catch 22 to me. So...long story short....what I really want to know is this...is there an easy way to apply for a visa to the UK...and second...if I do not get a visa I know I am allowed to come to the UK as a visitor for 6 months. BUT...does anyone know how long I would have to return to Canada for before I could come back to the UK again? I just really, really miss my soldier and want to be with him.

Visitor visa is 6 months max per year. So, ideally, you could try looking into HSMP or a working holiday maker visa if you're under 31. Do you have any british grandparents?

paulp wrote:Visitor visa is 6 months max per year. So, ideally, you could try looking into HSMP or a working holiday maker visa if you're under 31. Do you have any british grandparents?

Hi.

Thanks so much for your reply. But unfortunately all of the options you just listed I don't qualify for. I am too old for the holiday-maker visa (I just turned 34). I don't have the skills to qualify for HSMP (I am a pharmacy technician, but that is not enough) and I only have great grandparents that were born in the UK. Not grand parents!

So it is 6 months per year for visitors? Does that mean that I could come to the UK for 6 months and then come back to Canada for 6? And then back to the UK? And just keep going back and forth? At this point even getting to spend 6 months with him in a year is so much more than we get now.

I am not too knowledgeable on the cizitenship laws that far back, JAJ is usually the expert, but do you know if your grandparents ever asked for British citizenship by virtue of your british-born great grandparents?

Yeah, you can spend 6 months in the UK and the other 6 back in Canada. However, be on the lookout for difficulties because Immigration Officers sometimes don't like people coming on visitor visas to be with their boyfriends/girlfriends.

paulp wrote:I am not too knowledgeable on the cizitenship laws that far back, JAJ is usually the expert, but do you know if your grandparents ever asked for British citizenship by virtue of your british-born great grandparents?

Yeah, you can spend 6 months in the UK and the other 6 back in Canada. However, be on the lookout for difficulties because Immigration Officers sometimes don't like people coming on visitor visas to be with their boyfriends/girlfriends.

No. My grandparents never applied for or wanted british citizenship.

I understand that an immigration officer may not like me coming back and forth to see my fiance, but at this point I am willing to do whatever is necessary. I have heard there is such a thing as a multiple entry visitor visa or longterm multiple entry visitor visa but I am having a hard time finding any info on this. Do you know of this? and what qualifications are necessary?

paulp wrote:I am not too knowledgeable on the cizitenship laws that far back, JAJ is usually the expert, but do you know if your grandparents ever asked for British citizenship by virtue of your british-born great grandparents?

That would make no difference. Only a U.K. born grandparent can be much help if the link is back that far.

CanadianGirl2 wrote:I understand that an immigration officer may not like me coming back and forth to see my fiance, but at this point I am willing to do whatever is necessary. I have heard there is such a thing as a multiple entry visitor visa or longterm multiple entry visitor visa but I am having a hard time finding any info on this. Do you know of this? and what qualifications are necessary?

See also 10.2 - Requirements for a visitor under the Rules and Visitors consultation paper.

JAJ wrote:That would make no difference. Only a U.K. born grandparent can be much help if the link is back that far.

JAJ is the one in the know.

CanadianGirl, have you thought of studying any further in your field, maybe a masters? International fees are very expensive though.

vinny wrote:See also 10.2 - Requirements for a visitor under the Rules and Visitors consultation paper.

Hi vinny, I clicked on the first link and the use of terminology can easily trip up newcomers and that's the government's visa website itself.

It lists as:

Persons may wish to visit the UK for a variety of reasons. The following are examples of those who can be treated as visitors (although the list is not exhaustive):

...

those visiting to get married or undertake a civil partnership (but not to stay) (Paragraph 56D of the Rules);

Then, if you go to ukvisa's "Do I need a visa" page http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/servlet/Front ... 6977149962, and you put in "visitor" as purpose of visit and put in a non-visa national country, bingo, it says you don't need a visa. I think that's very poor advice from ukvisas.

Also bear in mind the HO are looking at cutting the visit visa period to three months.

paulp wrote:Then, if you go to ukvisa's "Do I need a visa" page http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/servlet/Front ... 6977149962, and you put in "visitor" as purpose of visit and put in a non-visa national country, bingo, it says you don't need a visa. I think that's very poor advice from ukvisas.

Indeed. They should have written it better.

10.10 - Visit for marriage or civil partnership wrote:This entry clearance requirement is mandatory for all nationalities except for EEA and Swiss nationals.

Non-visa nationals normally do not require visas for visits. However, they may require permission to marry in the UK.