Unmarried partners options

Good afternoon everyone.

I hope you are all well.

I recently started searching an options for my partner to join me in UK and I contacted few lawyers for advice regarding Visa's options, however the answers I was given just confused me as they were complete opposites.

Basically I'm EU citizen (Czech republic) living in UK for 6 years (I have only pre-settled status as I was first 2 years au pair and I will complete 4 years of employment in September 2020), full time employed, part time university student and I meet the income threshold for being Visa sponsor. I'm planning to get settled status and British citizenship as soon as possible as I lived all my adult life in UK and I consider this country my home.

My partner is non-EU citizen (Ukraine), we are together for year at this moment, we have proof of my periodical visits to Ukraine where we stayed together or our holidays together (those which were not affected by Covid outbreak and cancelled ones due to the Covid as well) and small amounts which I'm able to send her as support every month. We are same sex couple and neither of our origin countries recognize this status (Czech republic allows registration, however she won't get any immigration rights based on that so she won't be able to join me), so the only chance to be together is for her to join me in UK based on current rules.

One of the advises was that we should use EEA family permit route as we won't be able use the fiance-spouse visa route as I do not have settled status, however those permits are available only until December 2020 if I'm correct and we won't be sharing one household for 2 years to fulfill the unmarried couple requirement.

Second advice was exact opposite. That EEA family permit is not suitable for us since we are not married or sharing household and we have to go through the fiance-spouse visa routes.

We did not plan to get together so soon if I should be honest with you as obviously for my partner leaving her country, friends, job and family is big decision which we are not sure how will be accepted by her family and before we take the step we want to be sure with everything and have everything sorted. Since the EEA permit is only until December this year, there would be lot to sort out by then, however we are not even sure if we should go that route or not.

Has anyone here similar experience as us or anyone who would be able to advice us which way is the best for us as I'm bit lost in all the Visa types, websites, advises etc.

Thank you in advance!
Eva

You don't qualify for an unmarried partner under the UK immigration rules. This visa has a mandatory requirement of evidence of living together in a relationship akin to marriage for at least 2 years and you need substantial evidence to prove this. You are also not settled so cannot use the UKVI Unmarried Partner visa option.

CR001 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 23, 2020 12:08 pm

You don't qualify for an unmarried partner under the UK immigration rules. This visa has a mandatory requirement of evidence of living together in a relationship akin to marriage for at least 2 years and you need substantial evidence to prove this. You are also not settled so cannot use the UKVI Unmarried Partner visa option.

Hi there.

Thank you for your swift reply.

So basically we cannot do anything until next September when I will be able to apply for Settled status and then it will have to be the fiance visa-marriage-spouse visa way? That is what I initially thought that will happen, however when we were told above options we got a bit confused as we were not aware that would be possible so before we would pay the lawyer and Visa fees (to get possibly refused) I wanted to double check.

Anyway, thank you again!

Not sure if I am missing something but isn't one option to get marriage visit visa for your partner to UK, get married here (you talked about registration in Czech republic so assume you are considering this) when expect relationship would be recognised and then apply as spouse of EU citizen. Not a lot of time to do before end December but may be possible.

Different sex couple and I'm British and wife is non-eu but managed to get marriage visit visa in about three weeks and got married less than three months in UK on marriage visit visa. With backlogs may be bigger problem but if flexible on time may be opportunities.