Student visa with sponsor

[European]

Hello all.

I am an EU citizen and my girlfriend is Peruvian. She recently graduated as a translator and we started deciding what to do in the future.
We agreed that the best thing for her would be getting a Master degree in the UK, so I found myself a job and moved to England last November.
Now the problem is making her come over here. It is obvious that for us being together is important, but it is also true that the Master would be a very important opportunity for her and an investment for me (when we are a family, here or somewhere else, it could grant her a better income).
Now, I don't know if the HO or whoever is in charge of deciding about a student visa application will be able to understand the genuinity of this thing. Bear in mind that I am talking about a Master degree and the cost of the whole operation may easily reach 20.000£ if not more. The opportunities I have are the following:

1) I sponsor her, show my bank statements, pay slips, etc. I sincerily write the things I just pointed out.

I'm afraid they may argue on the genuinity of the intentions and see the Master as a trick to be with me. How do I convince them that my girlfriend really wants to study?

2) A cousin in the US sponsors her. Latin people have very strong family bonds. This cousin is older than my girlfriend (she's in her 40s, I think) and was risen in the same house with her mother, before leaving for the US and becoming an American citizen. The bond between her and my girlfriend's mother is very important and she may decide to help.

In this case, is a cousin living abroad a good sponsor or she would have to demonstrate tighter links?

3) I send the money over to her bank account.

Master classes start in October and I guess she should apply soon. The embassy guys would see a huge amount of money coming one shot from a British bank and I guess that wouldn't be acceptable (even if I don't really get why). Actually, I don't know. Would they see where the money comes from or just the amount? Anyways, I've been told that sudden richness is not considered good. And supposing that they are OK with this, while making a decision would they be interested in how she got the money or they just want to know that she has it? I mean, would they want to see a periodic income or money stashed in an account would be fine?

I gave you my 3 opportunities. Can anybody tell me which one has the best chances of success and if such chances are good or every path is likely leading to a dead end?

Thank you very much.

[Wanderer]

Here's what we did...

1. She came over here on a Short Term Student visa for a two week English course. For this the visa is a six month one - no work. We did this visa via an agency in Russia (Ekaterinburg) and they claimed a 100% success rate. I was not in the picture here at all...

2. Whilst in-country, she took advantage of her previously sorted offer of a uni place with me as sponsor, application obviously in-country, much easier to get, got the visa for three years, switched in-country absolutely without any probs. So far!

That's it, in-country is loads easier, less suspicion, the short term visa via agency was all sorted by them, we just paid, slightly over the odds but not much, doubt if it was more than 100 quid more than the costs individually...

Christ, this is her fourth year here.....

[European]

Thanks for your message. I'll think about it. It's not easy for us, though, because even tourist visas are very hard to get for a Peruvian.
You talked about agencies. Agencies are always in the foreign country or there are people who can help in the UK? I mean, OK, she's in Peru, but maybe an English agency can do more than a Peruvian agency.

[Wanderer]

Thanks for your message. I'll think about it. It's not easy for us, though, because even tourist visas are very hard to get for a Peruvian.
You talked about agencies. Agencies are always in the foreign country or there are people who can help in the UK? I mean, OK, she's in Peru, but maybe an English agency can do more than a Peruvian agency.

Check - there may well be something, check with the British Council in Lima.

[VictoriaS]

If you are looking to use an agency to help with the visa application you should alwasy use a regulated firm in the UK.


Victoria

[European]

Any names for these agencies, please?
Can they really help? Do they have any kind of "influence"? By influence I mean the chance of making things clear with the authorities before getting the door shut.
I feel I can't go through this alone. I'm completely lost and it does not matter how many times I write to embassies and offices: the only answer I get is "apply and see". Not a single advice or explication.

[VictoriaS]

The registered agencies can be found on www.oisc.gov.uk I run one, the hosts of this board run one, there are a lot of us about.

We don't have 'influence', but we know the best way to present a case and we know the case law. We'll know the pitfalls and the strong points in an application, and often you stand a better chance with using one of our firms.

Victoria

[Wanderer]

The one we used was called 'British Education' but I can't find it now. I'm sure they used plenty of 'blat' as the Soviet's used to say...

Kinda means 'connections'......