Which country can we move to?

I am from Indonesia and my boyfriend is from UK. We met during an earthquake when he was on vacation in this country and he saved my life. When thousands of locals and tourists on Gili Trawangan were evacuating to the hills for safety due to the tsunami warning, he carried me on his back to the top as I had a foot injury from falling bricks. I fell for him further when he cancelled his flight home to stay an extra two weeks with me in Indonesia and we spent it helping families in the small villages who were homeless because of the damages in their property. We took them food and water and supplies (the Indonesian government took donations from the whole world but only took water to the places with a lot of people, while the people in the smaller villages starved).

I applied for a visa in March 2019, hoping to visit him in the UK for the month of July 2019. Sadly, this was declined as they did not believe that I was going to return to Indonesia after my stay – because of not having significant ties to Indonesia (I do not own property) and that I could not finance the whole of my stay – in case anything went wrong (I do not have a large amount of money on my bank account).

We were both heartbroken, and my boyfriend quickly applied again – he showed evidence of his finances and that he was able to provide (free) accommodation for me and unfortunately this was declined again, because we had previously applied and been rejected – and they did not believe that our circumstances had ‘significantly changed since the first refusal’.

We were devastated, and he impulsively booked a flight following this second visa rejection, and he is due to fly over to see me next Thursday. We have been apart since 28th August 2018, calling for hours every day and I’ve never felt so happy than I do knowing we are going to be together soon, for three weeks. Thankfully he was also able to negotiate with his workplace to take next holiday days early to also come in December 2019 !

I know how desperate he is to show me the village where he grew up, and to introduce me to his family and friends. I’ve never been there, but I would be so happy to live there to be with him – but this is feeling impossible because of how hard it is to get the visa.

He’s also looked into moving here, but the cost to extend visas add up quickly, and he would be not paid very well here compared to his job in England (government)... also I think I want to leave Indonesia because of the corruption and sexual assault (usually to women) that happening here.

We have talked about both moving somewhere else but when I tried to google it, there was just lots of old clickbait articles like ‘10 easiest places to get into’, which seem very dangerous places that criminals run away from their countries to.

My bf said he has contacted immigration lawyer, and they gave him some ‘free advice’ which was not helpful, before explaining their price was £200+ each hour, which we really cannot afford. So, I thought I may make a post here, I wonder if there is anyone reading this who has been in a similar situation. We don’t know what to do, we just want to be together. Every time he wants to visit me it costs him between £800 and £1000 per return flight, plus accommodation (He can’t stay with me because I live in a dorm through work).

Both of us moving to a whole new country might be the only easy option at this point – but we have no idea where. Any advice would be really appreciating. We don’t have much savings now because the visa applications cost over £200 each and I earn only 3mil IDR (£173) per month at my full-time receptionist job in Gili T.

What are our options here?

If our only easy option is to move country to be together, where would be the easiest place to go to live? He only speaks English, and I speak Bahasa (Indonesian) as well as English because I have learned from American TV – so we would prefer to move somewhere that speaks English – but at this point we know we don’t care as long as we can work to make money for rent. Because he has taken his holiday in December, it means we will not see each other next year unless we find a solution. I am desparate.

Sorry for my English

Why do you appear to be disregarding the UK to settle? If your partner earns a minimum of £18,600 p.a and you choose to get married, you could apply for a spouse visa from Indonesia, or apply for a fiance visa to marry and then reside lawfully as his wife in the UK.

Thank you so much for the tip - I had no idea it was that simple..! I'll ask him and fingers crossed he won't think I'm trying to trick him into marriage! ^_^