Partner and Child Visas?

My partner and I have been together for 7 years and now have a child together, who was conceived through donor insemination. We have our civil partnership ceremony planned for next July and depending on my job situation we may be moving back to the UK.

Because of where we live we have not been able to have a partnership or marriage ceremony and I have no legal rights to the child, although she does have my last name as one of her middle names (the space for "father" is blank and no one else has any legal claims on our daughter.)

I have been able to work out that I will need to apply for a fiancee visa for my partner, but I cannot work out what visa to apply for for our daughter. I suppose officially she is my partner's dependent, but I can't work out what visa we need to apply for for that, assuming we apply for the fiancee settlement visa. Nor can I tell what sequence we would need to apply for the visas for both my partner and child. I also hope that once in the UK to apply for second parent adoption so I can have more legal rights over our child, but the adoption visas seem very complicated and our daughter does not seem to fill the stated criteria.

Any ideas how to sort out this mess?

britoutofwater, I presume from your username that you are British.

So where you are has no Civil Partnership or same-sex marriage. But couldn't you go to another country or State and register such a CP or marriage ..... before applying for your partner's visa?

And following such a ceremony, would the status of your child be any clearer?

UK Civil Partnership legislation incorporates the recognition of foreign such ceremonies, in the same way as the UK's Foreign Marriages Act 1892 recognises foreign opposite-sex marriages.

If you have already been living together for more than 2 years in a relationship that is "akin to... a civil partnership", then you may well qualify under the "Unmarried or same-sex partner" category:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/polic ... xpartners/

Your partner could come to the UK in that category without your needing to marry abroad, and it saves the expense of getting a fiancée visa and then having to get further leave in the UK after your wedding.

In fact, if you have been living together for over 4 years, your partner could even apply for Indefinite Leave to Enter subject to her passing the Knowledge of Life in the UK test (see 295A(i)(b) in the link above). Search the boards for "KOL REQ" to see what I mean.

Your daughter should initially apply for entry as your partner's dependant, but if you then adopt her through the British court system, then I believe she will become a British citizen at that time.

I am a British citizen, so I should be able to act as a sponsor to my partner without any problem. I'm just more worried about how to apply for our child.

I don't think that marrying or having a civil partnership ceremony in another state would change the relationship of myself to my child, and I don't think as a non-resident or citizen of the USA that I can apply for a second parent adoption here.

I do see in the list of different types of visa that there's a specific visa for children you intend to adopt in the UK, but I don't think I she fits the criteria, so I'm not sure whether it's best to apply for her visa simply as a dependent of my partner and how that will impact whether or not I can adopt her at a later date.

I also don't think I'm understanding the benefits of applying for the "unmarried partner" or "Indefinite Leave to Enter" categories. Is this more or less complicated than just applying for a proposed civil partner visa and then changing it to a spouse visa once we have our (already planned) ceremony in July?

I don't think that marrying or having a civil partnership ceremony in another state would change the relationship of myself to my child

Probably right, but it will simplify the visa application process, and save a lot of money in visa application fees.

Have a look at this list, which is the list of foreign ceremonies accepted by the UK as a Civil Partnership under UK law.

After such a ceremony your partner would apply for a Civil Partner visa, and for the child the application would be for a Child Settlement visa. Both visas would be issued for 27 months validity.