Uk citizen, US fiancee - applying for UK visa

[eraylankester]

Hi! First time poster; new to all this stuff - rather overwhelmed! Apologies in advance for my litany of questions.

I have been seeing my US girlfriend for 6 years - a long distance relationship; plenty of meetings, but no official co-habitiation. We recently became engaged at Easter. She is a US citizen, but more by a quirk of birth than by origin: both her parents were Russians who worked for the US military in Germany, so she assumed her father's US citizenship. She lived in Germany until 18, then France for 5 years on a student visa, before becoming a student in LA for 2 years. Last September she took a job in Germany, which ended on April 1st. She is currently staying in France with family until her 3 month Schengen tourist visa expires, when she plans to come to me on a tourist visa for a month before returning to the USA.

Our plan is that she will travel from the UK to the USA at the beginning of August to apply for the fiancee visa (using the priority service), most probably from LA where she has friends to stay with. We would like to marry in mid October - early Nov in Belfast, where I live. I meet all the financial requirements and my parents are happy for us to live with them until we find a place, which hopefully should suffice for the accommodation requirement. I have surgery in the summer and a subsequent flight ban, else I would have considered the reverse and married in the US.

My questions are as follows:

a) Given the above info, do you believe she has a realistic chance of getting the fiancee visa without any drama?

b) Do you think our proposed timescale of mid October - early November is feasible when applying from LA in August using the priority service? I would ideally like her to be able to return to the UK in time for my sister's wedding in mid September. I don't want to make arrangements only to lose our money!

c) Will she need to take all my documents (certificates, passports etc) with her to the USA to send to the UKBA settlement centre in Sheffield, or must I send them separately?

d) Once she receives the visa, can she then come and go from the UK during its 6 month duration, until we get married? She would like to be able to visit her family in France once she can re-enter? Or can she apply for a schengen visa from the UK on a fiancee visa?

e) Is she eligible to use the NHS on a fiancee visa? I've heard conflicting opinions.

f) Is there anything else I should be aware off or bear in mind?

Sorry for being so long winded, I'm just petrified to put a foot wrong in this case!

[eraylankester]

Hi! First time poster; new to all this stuff - rather overwhelmed! Apologies in advance for my litany of questions.

I have been seeing my US girlfriend for 6 years - a long distance relationship; plenty of meetings, but no official co-habitiation. We recently became engaged at Easter. She is a US citizen, but more by a quirk of birth than by origin: both her parents were Russians who worked for the US military in Germany, so she assumed her father's US citizenship. She lived in Germany until 18, then France for 5 years on a student visa, before becoming a student in LA for 2 years. Last September she took a job in Germany, which ended on April 1st. She is currently staying in France with family until her 3 month Schengen tourist visa expires, when she plans to come to me on a tourist visa for a month before returning to the USA.

Our plan is that she will travel from the UK to the USA at the beginning of August to apply for the fiancee visa (using the priority service), most probably from LA where she has friends to stay with. We would like to marry in mid October - early Nov in Belfast, where I live. I meet all the financial requirements and my parents are happy for us to live with them until we find a place, which hopefully should suffice for the accommodation requirement. I have surgery in the summer and a subsequent flight ban, else I would have considered the reverse and married in the US.

My questions are as follows:

a) Given the above info, do you believe she has a realistic chance of getting the fiancee visa without any drama?

b) Do you think our proposed timescale of mid October - early November is feasible when applying from LA in August using the priority service? I would ideally like her to be able to return to the UK in time for my sister's wedding in mid September. I don't want to make arrangements only to lose our money!

c) Will she need to take all my documents (certificates, passports etc) with her to the USA to send to the UKBA settlement centre in Sheffield, or must I send them separately?

d) Once she receives the visa, can she then come and go from the UK during its 6 month duration, until we get married? She would like to be able to visit her family in France once she can re-enter? Or can she apply for a schengen visa from the UK on a fiancee visa?

e) Is she eligible to use the NHS on a fiancee visa? I've heard conflicting opinions.

f) Is there anything else I should be aware off or bear in mind?

Sorry for being so long winded, I'm just petrified to put a foot wrong in this case!