I am 21 years old and currently reside in the United Kingdom as a natural-born citizen, living with my two grandparents in a three bedroom house. I am currently unemployed and receiving government benefits due to the status of my mental health (ESA & PIP). My girlfriend is 19 years old, resides in and is a natural-born citizen of Taiwan, where she lives with her parents. She is also unemployed and not in education at the moment. My grandmother worked for the NHS for 25 years, and my grandfather was a CNC engineer for 20 years, but now works as a security guard for a college.
My girlfriend and I met each other online in March last year, and have had constant communication with each other since then (via Skype). I have visited her twice in Taiwan (once in December with my grandmother last year, and another by myself in April this year) for a combined total of almost 3 months.
My girlfriend would like to visit me here in the UK in the very near future, and would like to stay for the full 6 months as she has the time to spare right now. As she holds a Taiwan (ROC) passport, she does not require a visa to enter, although I've heard that she needs to bring the same documents as are required when applying for a visa. We do plan on applying for a fiancee visa and getting married sometime next year, but believe that it would be a good experience for her to first to see the country, culture, improve her English and most importantly spend more time together. I'm sure this would drastically improve our chances of getting a fiancee visa should we apply for one in the future.
I am worried because I have heard that it is usually difficult to convince the immigration officers that you will return to your home country when you're supposed to; especially if you don't have a compelling reason to do so - which in this case, the only thing that ties her to her country (outside of wanting to abide by the law) are her family and a return ticket.
If my girlfriend proceeds to visit the UK, she plans on taking a flight from Taipei to Gatwick with China Airlines. It would be her first time visiting the UK. Due to her being unemployed, she currently has no savings and will be relying on my grandparents to take care of her, which my grandparents are more than happy to do and have already agreed to sponsor her stay. She would stay at our house and they'd finance and support her.
Because of these specific circumstances, I have a few questions I'd like to ask:
- Will it be a problem if my girlfriend brings no money with her?
- If due to language problems my girlfriend has trouble understanding the immigration officer (or vice versa), would they be able to contact me instead to assist her?
- I have heard that she'd need to bring an invitation and sponsorship letter with her; is there an official document that me or my grandparents can download and fill in?
- Does my girlfriend need travel/medical insurance?
- In case I forgot about anything, what other documents are required/recommended that my girlfriend should bring with her to show the immigration officer(s), and are photocopies ok?
- My grandparents are not married so they do not share the same last name. Could this be an issue?
- Lastly, it'd be very depressing and absolutely heartbreaking for us both if she was denied access just because they didn't "trust" her. What are the chances of this happening?
