unmarried partners visa requirements

[Douglascrown]

My girlfriend and I have been together for 3.5 years. I am a UK citizen and she is Canadian.

She started off on a TWES permit, then went back to Canada for 7 months and finished her degree, then came back here for two years on a working holiday visa and left for a few months before coming back on a normal tourist visa.

We met in the UK and she has been living with me for a substantial part of that time. For over 2 years in total.

For an unmarried partners visa, do the 2 years of living together have to be consecutive?

What documentation do we need to prove that we lived together for over 2 years? We have had a joint credit card registered to my flat for over 2 years and she has had a bank account registered at my address for just under 2 years. Is that enough or do we need more documents?

I understand that she has to apply for this unmarried partners visa outside the country. Is that correct and how long does the application take before a visa is typically issued? Does she have to do it in person or can she just send the info to the British High Commission in Canada and when the visa is ready, travel to Canada for a few days to collect it before returning to the UK with the unmarried partners visa?

Finally, if the unmarried partners visa is refused, is it more likely that a fiancee visa will also be refused? I plan to marry her but it would be good if she is able to work for a few months before hand under an unmarried partners visa.

Thanks for all your help.

[ppron747]

This Section of "Diplomatic Service Procedures" on the UKVisas website has the current staff instructions for unmarried partner applications - para 13.13 is particularly relevant.

I hope the British High Commission in Ottawa's website answers your other questions.

[Douglascrown]

Thanks for the help.

Everything seems okay apart from the "living together for 2 years" element.

We have been together for 3.5 years with some periods of months that we have been apart. In total we have probably lived together for about a year and a half that we can prove. In addition, we have had a joint credit card registered to my flat for over two years. Do we meet the requirements for the unmarried visa?

Thanks

[ppron747]

Others may want to chip in, but I can really only point you back to the DSP reference I gave you - particularly this passage:

"Living together", should be applied fairly tightly, in that we would expect a couple to show evidence of cohabitation in the preceding 2 year period. Periods apart would be acceptable for good reasons, such as work commitments, or looking after a relative which takes one partner away for up to 6 months where it was not possible for the other partner to accompany and it can be seen that the relationship continued throughout that period by visits, letters etc.

It seems unlikely to me that being able to prove 18 months out of a total of 42 months would be an acceptable substitute for what they're asking for.
Sorry...