Does anyone know if a non-EU citizen, married to an EU citizen and present in the Netherlands on a normal tourist Schengen visa, can obtain a residence permit as the spouse of an EU citizen without leaving the Netherlands, i.e. do an in-country switch? Or does the non-EU citizen have to return to th...

My wife just recently successfully applied for a family visit visa to accompany me to visit my brother in the UK and I thought I would share what documents we supplied to get the visa. The visa was ready in 5 working days. Background: we have been married for 2 months and live in Cape Town, South Af...

Cool, thanks for your reply. We've been together for over 2 years, but have only been living together for just over a year so I guess it will have to be form VAF1A.

In that case the "sponsor" will be my family member. However the main issue here is does she apply using form VAF1A or VAF1B.

if you have documentation to prove your relationship (which should have subsisted for more that 2 yrs) then you can apply for family visit. By the waywho is sponsoring? There is no need for a sponsor as she is financially independent although I'm not sure if you can apply for a family visit visa wi...

Hi there I'm currently living in South Africa and am a British citizen. I'm planning on visiting my family in the UK in a few months time and plan on taking my unmarried partner with me. However she requires a visa to visit as she is a South African citizen. It's not clear from the guidance notes wh...

Casa wrote:Yes, as long as they cover the full 2 years without any obvious long gaps.

The OP hasn't stated that he intends to apply for an unmarried partner visa, so this might not necessarily apply. If he's applying for a spouse visa then only a few months of evidence might be necessary.

You were born in 2006?

It doesn't apply to every nation Obie...countries with majority English speaking are exempt. The UKBA's interpretation of what constitutes a majority English speaking country seems a little one sided. South Africa has been left off this list despite a sizable minority of people in South Africa who ...

I don't have much faith in those crusty old British judges. They are all a bunch of old school tie lovey.

It is plain and simple, they want to limit the number of people who can come here to settle with their spouses. Infact i feel they want to suppress the idea of family reunion for 3rd world country nationals completely. The people who will be affected mostly are people fro 3th world country or Non-E...

Home Office plans to introduce an English language test for those coming to Britain to marry UK citizens could breach human rights and race relations laws, according to leading human rights lawyers. A legal opinion by Rabinder Singh QC and Aileen McColgan, of Matrix Chambers, said the decision to i...

You'll need to submit a copy of your brother's mortgage agreement, or a copy of the property deeds if he owns it outright. My main concern is actually proving that our relationship and marriage is subsisting. Because of the way things work in South Africa it's incredibility difficult to get any bil...

Hi there My girlfriend and myself currently live in Cape Town, South Africa and are planning on getting married soon and relocating to London. I am a dual British/South African citizen and my girlfriend is a South African citizen. We have savings of about £10 000 and I am an IT professional earning...

It sounds like that they are saying is that you still have ILR and therefore they cannot issue you with another visa as you do not require one as your ILR is still valid. No. I think that the decision rejects that he is a returning resident . Using a double negative is confusing. Under "The Decisio...

It sounds like that they are saying is that you still have ILR and therefore they cannot issue you with another visa as you do not require one as your ILR is still valid.

The new path to citizenship can take an extra three years on probationary citizenship depending on how much volunteer work you do. You can shorten it down to one year by volunteering (the list of what you can do hasn't been published yet). However, that's just a year difference. I wouldn't switch i...

The new path to citizenship can take an extra three years on probationary citizenship depending on how much volunteer work you do. You can shorten it down to one year by volunteering (the list of what you can do hasn't been published yet). However, that's just a year difference. I wouldn't switch i...

It's strange that it should take so long, normally spouse visa applications in first world countries are processed in a matter of days, not weeks.

My experience of the A&E department in a few NHS hospitals is that your immigration status or eligibility for NHS treatment is not questioned at all. I wouldn't worry about it, doctors and nurses are not (yet) being used to target illegal immigrants, and it would be sorry day indeed if they do. Don'...

Does anyone know if a woman choosing to keep her maiden surname instead of taking her husbands surname would have any effect on the outcome of a spouse visa application? Do you think an ECO might doubt the intentions of the spouse or have any doubts about the legitimacy of the marriage because of th...

Plenty of people lie about being employed when they are actually unemployed, but this is the first time I've heard of someone lying about being unemployed when they were actually employed.

Thanks for that. The reason (and the solution), is pretty clear. You arrived in the UK as a visitor and you tried to switch to a spouse visa while on limited leave to remain as a visitor which is not allowed.

The solution is pretty straightforward, you need to return to the US and apply from there.

Can you please clear up on what basis the application was refused? You haven't mentioned this.

Is there any particular reason you want to switch to a spouse visa? The ancestry visa gives you much more flexibility in terms of not being reliant on your spouse.