Visa for girlfiend / fiancee

Briefly, I have been developing a relationship with a woman in the Phillipines. We have only ever communiucated via Facebook and have never met.
We have fallen in love and want to get married.
I want to bring her here to stay but eventhough I have read many posts here I am still not sure what is the best route to take.
I was considering;
Bringing her here on a student visa (improve English) and then marry while she is here.
Try to get her a tourist visa and marry while she is here. This might be difficult as I am on social welfare.
Go to Phillipines to show documentary evidence that we have met and then wait years for visa to bring her here as my wife.
Plan to go to Phillipines anyway as soon as I can. We have only recently decided to marry

Hi Romantic123

As you will see from my posts, I've been through something similar myself, so I'll give you my experiences and hopefully this will help you.
Have a read of this website on the different types of visas too.
http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/Visa%20Types

1) Student visa option.
This is what I tried initially with my then girlfriend (now my wife). However her finances did not meet the required level and because I acted as her sponsor, INIS questioned the real reason for the student visa. Basically they could see that she was using the guise of applying for a student visa to come to Ireland to be in a relationship with me - and to be honest they were right. It was refused mainly because of these two reasons.
Any support of money from you won't be accepted as you are not family or not married. I encountered the same issue. I thought my finances could be used but INIS said a relationship could break up when the two parties are in Ireland and she (my now wife) could be left without an income and require State support.
If she does apply for student visa - my advice and it's only my advice - would be for her have the sufficient finances - either from her savings or a family member. I would encourage you not have her make any mention of you on the visa as in my belief and experience this could go against her. Also make sure she picks a school that is from a pre-approved list of English schools. You can find these on the INIS website.

2) Tourist visa option.
The most important thing with a tourist visa or any short term visa, is to show obligation to return to her home country. This can be shown be a job, study or family (if she has children) and return flights tickets. The visa itself isn't too expensive, its the translation costs - naturally the flights too. In this option you could act as a sponsor, and offer your residence as a place for her to stay. Important things like an itinerary showing places she will visit as well. It is worth pointing out that a visa is only a pre-clearence into Ireland and the GNIB official at the airport can refuse her if they feel they have grounds to. Furthermore the maximum time she can get for a tourist visa stay is 90 days. Again the GNIB official may (and probably won't) give her the full 90 days - it depends on the person and what the assess in their mind about her.
So your option to marry her here during a tourist visa may not work - as I believe you need to give 3 months notice to the register in Ireland - it may be possible to get around this but I am not sure of this.

3) Get married in Philippines
Its what I did (well in Peru).
To be honest and only speaking from my own experience it could save you time and money going this route.
If you do plan to get married in her home country, make sure you follow all local laws accordingly and that the marriage is legal.
Note you'll probably have to go through a similar process of waiting there too before you can marry. This will probably involve more than one trip over there.
Once married, apply for a Join Spouse visa. Processing time could take up to two months - maybe longer I've read closer to a year in some cases. Mine took two months (felt much longer).
In this time I would advise you to find work as you having employment will work in your favour.

There is a lot of information here to take in. I certainly didn't learn it over night but it was from helpful people on this site and others plus my own reading from the INIS web site.

One thing I will say finally is that the fact you haven't met before and your relationship exists via Facebook would be an issue for INIS. They specifically state that there should be several face-to-face meetings and skype, facebook, etc are not counted.
So try to visit her and if possible look at the tourist visa option.

4) Why not move there?
Probably easier for you to go there than her to come here.... just a thought.....

On a personal note - and you can ignore this if you wish - if you get past that entire nightmare of paperwork and she gets her visa into Ireland, one thing to be aware is culture shock. She is leaving her country - a place where she knows how things work, the cultural jokes and faux pas. Do bear in mind that a transition to Ireland where the weather, food and customs are very different could be difficult for her. This was something I overlooked and am now much more appreciative of my wife's difficult move. She'll have to re-learn a lot of things again and you must support her - especially if you get married.

Best of luck and let us know how you get on.

Thanks a million Irishman30.
I realise I am probably in the worst possible situation to be trying to bring my girlfriend to Ireland but have to try.
Going to Phillipines and getting married had occured to me. It seems the best option.
I know the system is designed to discourage 'scam marriages' but it really makes it difficult for everyone else.
I hope others will post advice or their own stories so I will have as much info. as possible.

Hi Romantic123,

As Irishman30 advised, get married in Philippines is your best option. I would recommend you the same. Once u r married, and once the marriage is genuine, no law in the world can stop u to bring ur wife with u to Ireland. there might be a delay but she will definitely join you here.

Best of Luck

Thanks for that.
I think I read on here that you have to prove you have had a relationship for some time before marriage to prove marriage is genuine.
For that, and other, reason I will go to Phillipines asap and a few times thereafter.
I am thinking we might meet and have documentary evidence that we met for about a year and then marry and apply for visa.

Appreciate the helpful advice.

Yes, u r right, your gf and hopefully future wife have to write a relationship history along with her "Join Spouse Visa" application. This is one of the main requirements to satisfy the visa officer.

Why don't u move to Philippines for a while ? it will be cheap to live there, rather than book flights back and forth.... Just an advise. An average flight to Philippines is above 850 Euros.

Most Important thing: Keep all of your boarding cards, Flight Iternaries, Immigration officer Entry/Exit stamps on your passport. Your future wife have to present them to the Visa officer when applying for her visa. This is the only way to prove that you guys have met few time before got married.

Good Luck.

Thanks for reply.
Moving to the Phillipines is not an option. Long story.
Actually she has been working in Singapore for past two years and will finish there in about 6 months.
The most I could do is fly to the Phillipines maybe twice in 2014 and if neccesary twice or three times in 2015. I think I read somewhere that you have to prove a relationship physically. Not sure how long you have to show you have known someone.
I would be interested to know on what grounds they could deny her a visa if we already prove we have met a few times over a year or two.
Thanks for advice so far.

Hi again,
Does anyone have any idea how long you have to show that you have had a face to face relationship. I think I may have read here that you need tio show that you have known each other for two years.
We are wondering if we could prove we have had face to face meetings, phone calls, internet chat for one year prior to mariage that it might be enough.
Any info and advice much appreciated

I was married 9 months after my wife and I first met.
So needing two years is obviously not true.
Nor should you need a year given my circumstances.

Most importantly is evidence of face to face relationships.
- Stamps on your passport showing entry / exit of Philippines
- Flight tickets
- Pictures together
- Text messages / whatsapp / viber / skype - can be a little difficult to collate but no harm including.
- Emails and letters
- Wedding invitations, wedding cards from guests
- Etc...

If you do stay some time in the Philippines - try and get yourself named on a utility bill if possible if you live together. Probably opening a bank account isn't an option.

I visited my now wife 3 times before my wedding.
Then the wedding itself - so I included evidence of 4 face-to-face meetings in the visa.

Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot Irishman30. That's a huge relief.
I understand from your post that you married 9 months after you met your wife. Good for you
But how long did it take you to get a spose visa . Did you, for example;
Meet your wife a few times, correspond via skype etc., Get married after 9 mothns. Apply for spous visa with documentary evidence of long term relationship prior to marriage.

I am hoping to get to Phillipines after Christmas and a couple of more times maybe in 2014 and unless something negative happens to our relationship marry in about a year and then apply for visa for her to accompany me here.

Sorry that some aspects of this are still not clear to me. I'd prefer to ask for the obvious and benefit from others experience than to remain unsure.

Thanks again

It took around 10 weeks for the visa to be processed and approved. It had to go through Mexico as that's the Embassy that deals with Peru and as it was D visa (long term visa), it then went to Dublin for consideration.

So yes I met my wife a few times and spent several weeks with her each time. While in Ireland, we Skyped, WhatsApp'd, etc.
Then we got married in Peru and after the wedding, we prepared the visa together and submitted it to the Peruvian Consulate.

Much appreciate you sharing this with me. Especially as you have already succeeded in getting your affairs in order. Irish/Peruvian kids should be interesting. Ireland will be a great place now that we have a broader gene pool.

Hope to get to Phillipines after Christmas. Will keep this page updated on progress.

No worries, glad I could help.
I know how confusing and difficult it can be when you first start off.
You are bombarded with information and INIS often will give you conflicting information and their website is not the easiest to read through.

Yes Spanish-English speaking children (with some Irish of course) at some stage down the road

Good luck and keep us updated!

Update on situation.
I visited my Filipino girlfriend in Phillipines at end of Feb. 2014.
We had a great time and have been communicating via Facebook and gmail since my return to Ireland.
We are still determined to marry and from what I can see the best thing I can do is go to Phillipines and marry there and then apply for a Spousal visa.
I am concerned that there might be some reason why a spousal visa would be refused.

As long as the marriage is valid, your relationship history shows that the relationship is true (i.e. not a sham) and most importantly that you can support your partner financially without the need of State assistance - then I cannot see a reason why they would refuse the application.

There are other requirements - see http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/Jo ... sh_Citizen
If you can provide the documentation as required then you should have no problem.
Issues only arise when the documentation provided doesn't support the application completely or there is concern of items such as your ability to support yourself and your wife.

Thank you for going to the trouble of posting this info.
Unfortunately, I am now in receipt of social welfare and I don't see that changing.
I was aware that that might prove a stumbling block.
I guess immigration would see my marriage to a foreigner and bringing them here as a potential additional strain on the states social welfare system.

What about getting married in the Philippines and then using European Law (Directive 2004/38/EC) to get your (then) wife an EEA family permit for the UK. This will work if you are not a citizen of the UK. Then she can travel to the UK with you and you could live in Northern Ireland, where you would still be able to apply for Irish citizenship for her after having been resident on the island of Ireland (obviously including NI) for 3 years (unless the law changes). At the same time, she would be able to apply for UK permanent residence if you decided to stay in the UK for 5 years as long as you (the EEA citizen) were working/self-employed/a student with medical insurance or a self-sufficient person with medical insurance. This is what my civil partner will do from this summer.

More info here: www.gov.uk/family-permit. There's also loads of info on the EEA Route Applications sections on the front page of this forum.

It's quite easy to get this EEA family permit, of course, your issue would be that you could no longer claim state benefits on this visa in the UK either. You would have to prove that you are, at least working for about 15 hours per week in order for her to qualify. Your residence would also need to be in the UK (e.g. NI).

Thanks for going to all the trouble of typing a long reply chaoclive.
The reality is I am in receipt of Social welfare and rent allowance. That is not likely to change. Maybe I could get a part time job if that would help my application. But to get a full time job is not likely to happen.

I can appreciate the requirement to show you can afford to support your spouse independently but that seems to prejudice against people who cannot find work.

I will not give up but am struggling to find a way to get her here.

A part time job (about 15 hours) would work in Northern Ireland (i.e. UK) if you go through the EEA family permit route. That's probably the easiest way. If you were working in NI you would probably still be able to get your benefits via the UK government (I'm not sure about this though: you need to check this elsewhere).

INIS has a document pertaining to the requirements for an Irish spouse visa (they call it 'family reunification'): http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Family%2 ... cument.pdf. It states that 'An Irish citizen, in order to sponsor an immediate family member, must not have been totally or predominantly reliant on benefits from the Irish State for a continuous period in excess of 2 years immediately prior to the application and must over the three year period prior to application have earned a cumulative gross income over and above any State benefits of not less than €40k.' This is the Irish immigration rules. However, this doesn't apply if you're going through the EEA route by working in another EU country (one of which you're not a citizen).

Good luck!
C

Thanks for that.
That explains the situation clearly.
At least now I know what needs to be done.
I will consider my options. My immediate thoughts are to work in London or thereabouts and apply for a visa for her from there after we marry in Phillipines. I don't know exactly how she can then get visa to stay here but that subject may have been covered elsewhere on this forum.
Giving up my house and my benefits will be difficult and I have a lot to think about.

That visa is the EEA family permit that I have been talking about above.

Are you from ROI or from NI? If you have British citizenship, you don't be able to use the EEA route quite so easily.

Cant see your nationality in the thread, sorry if I've missed it, but your nationality will have some bearing in what your options are.
If you are a UK citizen you could exercise treaty rights and go to another EU country. To bring her to the UK you would have to use National rules and meet the financial requirements, currently needing £18.6k a year income.
If getting married in PH is difficult then why not consider marrying in Hong Kong.

Thanks for replies.
I am Irish national.
She is Filipino working in Singapore.

Interested to know how marrying in Hong Kong would help in any way.

Doesn't matter where you get married at all, as long as it is legal in the country where it was performed. I wouldn't recommend proxy marriage, it seems to cause issues.

Singapore is also a good option for getting married.
Philippines does not allow divorce (I only say this coz my girl is married in PH but waiting for divorce to be done in UK court, but divorce wont be recognised in PH so we have to get married somewhere else) also the paperwork is harder and needs translation service which can be a rip off if youre not careful.
Singapore and Hong Kong can do the marriage service in English likewise the marriage certificate.
As you are Irish yes the easier and cheaper option is you move to NI or mainland and exercise treaty rights, most disability payments can be transfered around EU with you.
Getting married in other countries can be difficult because of needs to be resident for a certain length of time or having a suitable visa that will allow you to get married, you cant get married on a visitor visa in UK for instance and they are making it harder if under immigration restrictions. UK book and then wait 15 days at the moment but soon to be increased to 28 days. Denmark is only 3 days I think but they are making it harder. Hong Kong you can book from outside the country then just fly in get hitched and fly straight out, think thats a 15 day wait but dont take my word on any of that.