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Settlement visa - some questions

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Merimgerian
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Fiancé to spouse settlement visa - financial requirements question

Post by Merimgerian » Thu Oct 31, 2019 6:14 am

Dear all,

My British fiancé and I reside in Hong Kong.

We are to move to the UK in January under financial requirement 3B category A. My fiancé will start his job in February. We would like to get married in February and reapply for the spouse visa.

At that moment, he will be working in the UK for less then 6 months, which puts us in financial requirement 3A category B. However, category B indicates that “sponsor has been employed in the UK in the 12 months prior to the application date”. In this case, my fiancé would have not been employed in the UK, he has (had at that time) a job in HK for 12 months. Does the job in HK count? Or it only has to be UK employment? My fiancé did have a UK job prior to coming to HK but it was years ago.

Please help us understand.

Thank you,

M

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seagul
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Re: Fiancé to spouse settlement visa - financial requirements question

Post by seagul » Thu Oct 31, 2019 7:53 pm

Merimgerian wrote:
Thu Oct 31, 2019 6:14 am
Dear all,

My British fiancé and I reside in Hong Kong.

We are to move to the UK in January under financial requirement 3B category A. My fiancé will start his job in February. We would like to get married in February and reapply for the spouse visa.
If he has earned at least equivalent to £18600 during the last 12 months in Hong kong and has job offer going to commence within 3 months after arriving to UK then his overseas income can be counted. I am sure you must be aware that you have to apply spouse visa from outside the UK.
The opinion expressed as above is neither a professional advice nor contesting/competing to other member's opinion/advice.

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Re: Fiancé to spouse settlement visa - financial requirements question

Post by geoeng » Fri Nov 01, 2019 8:23 am

seagul wrote:
Thu Oct 31, 2019 7:53 pm
I am sure you must be aware that you have to apply spouse visa from outside the UK.
It's not entirely clear from the post, but it seems like they are applying for a fiance visa first (using category A) and then switching to the spouse visa in the UK once married (using category B). In this case I think the question relates to how to meet the financial requirements for the spouse visa with the sponsor working in the UK but having been in the UK for less than 6 months. My opinion on this is that there will be no issues both because the sponsor had a job offer meeting the financial requirement starting within 3 months of returning to the UK and because overseas income can be included to meet the total income requirement of category B. Anyone feel free to correct me if I have misinterpreted the situation.
I'm just a guy on the Internet who immigrated to the UK. My opinions are based on my experience and interpretation of the immigration rules and should not be considered legal or immigration advice; your mileage may vary.

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Re: Fiancé to spouse settlement visa - financial requirements question

Post by seagul » Fri Nov 01, 2019 3:37 pm

geoeng wrote:
Fri Nov 01, 2019 8:23 am


It's not entirely clear from the post, but it seems like they are applying for a fiance visa first
Fiancee visa will also need to apply from outside the UK and financial requirement will have to be met.
The opinion expressed as above is neither a professional advice nor contesting/competing to other member's opinion/advice.

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Re: Fiancé to spouse settlement visa - financial requirements question

Post by Merimgerian » Sun Nov 03, 2019 12:12 pm

geoeng wrote:
Fri Nov 01, 2019 8:23 am
seagul wrote:
Thu Oct 31, 2019 7:53 pm
I am sure you must be aware that you have to apply spouse visa from outside the UK.
It's not entirely clear from the post, but it seems like they are applying for a fiance visa first (using category A) and then switching to the spouse visa in the UK once married (using category B). In this case I think the question relates to how to meet the financial requirements for the spouse visa with the sponsor working in the UK but having been in the UK for less than 6 months. My opinion on this is that there will be no issues both because the sponsor had a job offer meeting the financial requirement starting within 3 months of returning to the UK and because overseas income can be included to meet the total income requirement of category B. Anyone feel free to correct me if I have misinterpreted the situation.
Dear geoeng, yes you got it right. Apologies if i was unclear!

What threw me off was Part 3A, Category B (as quoted previously and apologies for the repeat) where it said "Has your sponsor had salaried employment in the UK, in the 12 months prior to the date of application?". This sounded to me that his overseas employment might not count, since the statement mentioned only UK employment. Otherwise, he does meet the 18.6K requirement (both in UK and HK), did get a job offer, the only thing we won't have in the UK is more than 6 months of employment at the time of application to spouse visa... Hence, why I posted here :)

I hope the overseas income does get included.

Thank you very much for your reply!

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Fiancee visa - Notice of marriage

Post by Merimgerian » Sun Nov 03, 2019 12:39 pm

Hi everyone,

Sorry if this question is already out there, i just wanted to clarify regarding notice of marriage.

The situation is that both my British fiancé and I (Russian passport holder) live in Hong Kong. We hired an advisor to help us with the fiancé visa to move to the UK, and she absolutely insists that we must give notice of marriage in the UK from Hong Kong, otherwise our visa will be declined.

We even contacted the General Register Office and got a letter from them saying this:
On 9 May 2011 the law regarding foreign nationals marrying or forming a civil partnership in England and Wales was changed. The law now requires foreign nationals to give their notice of marriage/Civil Partnership at a designated register office at the same time as their partner.

Prior to the new laws coming into force we had been advised by UK Visas that Entry Clearance Officers (ECO) at British Embassies were not permitted to request evidence of pre booking of notices of marriage/Civil Partnership and this was detailed in DSP 13.9. The situation has changed and SET1.18 of the instructions used by Entry clearance officers indicates that they are aware of the need for both parties to be in the United Kingdom before arrangements can be made to give a notice of intention to marry.
We also have collected other evidence of our relationship like photos, proof of trips together, living together, our conversations etc. She still insists that there is a way for us to give notice of marriage from outside the UK, even though when you call to give notice of marriage or try to do it only it is impossible, as I am a Russian national, we both don't live in the UK right now, and we haven't fulfilled the criteria of living 8 days in at our future UK address...

Can please someone advise if she is being reasonable? If so, is there anything we can do to give the notice of marriage, but we don't know about?

Thank you,

Meri

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CR001
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Re: Fiancee visa - Notice of marriage

Post by CR001 » Sun Nov 03, 2019 1:51 pm

You cannot give notice to marry at an HO approved Registry office until BOTH of you are in the UK and the non British partner has a visa and proof of address for both of you. Your 'advisor' is talking nonsense.

The requirement for a fiance visa is to show intent and HO would expect to see evidence of marriage preparation enquiries, receipt for ring etc.
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Re: Fiancee visa - Notice of marriage

Post by KristianDLloyd » Sun Nov 03, 2019 4:31 pm

Your advisor is very much mistaken. As CR001 has advised, notice can only be given once you are in the UK. Note also that you must have been a UK resident for 9 consecutive days, not 8.

The requirement for a fiancé visa is that you must show intent to marry. This does not necessarily require you to give notice. You could demonstrate your intent through ring receipts, email enquiries for photographers etc.

Additionally, you may provisionally book a marriage/CP at a registry office and they can provide you with proof of this (email correspondence/receipt). There is no requirement for you to have given notice (or be a UK resident) at this point. I found my local registrar to be quite supportive with this, allowing us to amend the booking to suit the visa.

Best of luck!

Application Type: Settlement, Fiancé
Application Date: 26 June 2019
Decision Date: 29 August 2019
Decision: Granted

Application Type: FLR(M)
Application Date: 23 October 2019
Decision Date: 28 October 2019
Decision: Granted

Merimgerian
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Re: Fiancee visa - Notice of marriage

Post by Merimgerian » Mon Nov 04, 2019 12:35 am

KristianDLloyd wrote:
Sun Nov 03, 2019 4:31 pm
Your advisor is very much mistaken. As CR001 has advised, notice can only be given once you are in the UK. Note also that you must have been a UK resident for 9 consecutive days, not 8.

The requirement for a fiancé visa is that you must show intent to marry. This does not necessarily require you to give notice. You could demonstrate your intent through ring receipts, email enquiries for photographers etc.

Additionally, you may provisionally book a marriage/CP at a registry office and they can provide you with proof of this (email correspondence/receipt). There is no requirement for you to have given notice (or be a UK resident) at this point. I found my local registrar to be quite supportive with this, allowing us to amend the booking to suit the visa.

Best of luck!

Dear Kristian, thank you for your reply. Could you please tell me how booking a marriage is different from giving notice of marriage? I am a little bit confused about this one. Thank you!

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Settlement visa - some questions

Post by Merimgerian » Tue Nov 05, 2019 8:25 am

Hi everyone,

I have a couple of random questions regarding settlement visa:

1. WhatsApp conversations
Does the immigration want to see all of them? Can I provide maybe pieces of convos from each week?

2. Is FLR (M) and spouse visa the same thing? Sorry for the silly question, just couldn't find the answer anywhere.

Also, i was just wondering how possible is it to get a marriage visitor visa and stay in the UK afterwards? I have read that you cannot extend your stay, but if you are marrying a UK national there must be a way..

Thank you for your time!!

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Re: Settlement visa - some questions

Post by CR001 » Tue Nov 05, 2019 8:30 am

Topics merged! Please keep all questions in one topic.
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Re: Settlement visa - some questions

Post by CR001 » Tue Nov 05, 2019 8:32 am

Merimgerian wrote:
Tue Nov 05, 2019 8:25 am
Hi everyone,

I have a couple of random questions regarding settlement visa:

1. WhatsApp conversations
Does the immigration want to see all of them? Can I provide maybe pieces of convos from each week?

2. Is FLR (M) and spouse visa the same thing? Sorry for the silly question, just couldn't find the answer anywhere.

Also, i was just wondering how possible is it to get a marriage visitor visa and stay in the UK afterwards? I have read that you cannot extend your stay, but if you are marrying a UK national there must be a way..

Thank you for your time!!
1. Yes, a selection of screenshots like that is fine.

2. FLR m is the application for an extension of a spouse visa WITHIn the UK. Not relevant to you for entry clearance initial visa.

3. There isn't a way and I strongly suggest you do NOT attempt it either. It is not possible to stay in the UK or switch to a spouse visa if you have the cheaper marriage visitor visa. A marriage visitor visa must leave the UK after marrying. It is only possible to stay and switch with the expensive fiance visa.
Char (CR001 not Casa)
In life you cannot press the Backspace button!!
Please DO NOT send me a PM for immigration advice. I reserve the right to ignore the PM and not respond.

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