Want to Marry my student girlfriend of 4 years

[gunner4life]

I am a British Citizen through Naturalisation and I have a girlfriend who has completed her studies in the UK. She did both her undergrad and post-grad programmes here. We are also from the same nationality and tribe. We have been in a relationship since 2011.

Now her visa will run out in February 2015 and we both love each other and want to get married.

What route can we go through for us to get married so she can continue to stay with me here in the UK as I have a full time job and just recently graduated as well.

[gunner4life]

These are the following routes I understand are possible:

Unmarried partner visa route - however we haven't been living together as she has lived in uni halls but we now plan to live together

Fiance visa route - not sure how possible this is. She is currently here in the UK.

[Rayking]

Provided you meet financial requirement of 18600 per annum,all you need do is apply after getting married on form flr(m)
Documents you need to provide are listed on the form but the main huddle is the financial requirement you need to meet.

[gunner4life]

Thanks for your response.

We do meet the financial requirements. However, what if we are not ready to get married yet?

[Rayking]

If she hasn't got any other course to do,then she can return to her country and when you're ready you then follow the same procedure, you'll have to show proofs of communication, like whatsapp,call logs and all that though,but basically the same procedure, just from outside the UK.
She can't apply for fiance/fiancee visa from within and since you're not ready to marry there's no point because if you apply for that without getting married it can affect the next application, moreover it's for 6 months to get married and then apply as stated above.

[MPH80]

Rayking's given a pretty good summary ... to shorten it down a little

Her options are (from here):

Find a company to sponsor her on a tier 2 visa (hard)
Carry on studying if possible
Marry you - apply for a spouse visa (easy if you meet the financials)
Return home - apply for a fiancee visa or spouse visa when ready

Let's put it this way - if you're not ready to get married today - 6 months won't make much of a difference to the plan - so a fiancee visa today won't help you. If you're ready to get married - do it and get the spouse visa done.

[gunner4life]

Thanks very much for all your contributions.

We are now thinking of the unmarried partner visa route. Although we have not been living together for two years due to her living in the university accommodation and myself living with my parents, can we still apply based on the grounds that we have been in a genuine relationship for more than 3 years, and always seen each other almost every day?

We are also planning on getting our own place and start living together before we apply and before her visa runs out in February.

[Casa]

Having a genuine relationship won't be sufficient. The case worker will want to see more than a 'boyfriend and girlfriend' relationship. The requirement for an Unmarried Partner Visa is that you have been living together in a relationship 'akin to marriage' for a minimum of 2 years. This will include joint commitments such as joint finances, tenancy or mortgage, utility bills etc. UPV applications come under a great deal of scrutiny, especially when the applicant has a visa which is close to expiry.
You say in your first post that you want to get married. Has this changed?

[gunner4life]

Having a genuine relationship won't be sufficient. The case worker will want to see more than a 'boyfriend and girlfriend' relationship. The requirement for an Unmarried Partner Visa is that you have been living together in a relationship 'akin to marriage' for a minimum of 2 years. This will include joint commitments such as joint finances, tenancy or mortgage, utility bills etc. UPV applications come under a great deal of scrutiny, especially when the applicant has a visa which is close to expiry.
You say in your first post that you want to get married. Has this changed?

We do want to get married but looking at the funds for hosting a proper marriage and inviting family over from our country is not readily available.

If we do get married in December, as her visa is expiring in January/February, won't we be rounded up by ukba?

[Wanderer]

Having a genuine relationship won't be sufficient. The case worker will want to see more than a 'boyfriend and girlfriend' relationship. The requirement for an Unmarried Partner Visa is that you have been living together in a relationship 'akin to marriage' for a minimum of 2 years. This will include joint commitments such as joint finances, tenancy or mortgage, utility bills etc. UPV applications come under a great deal of scrutiny, especially when the applicant has a visa which is close to expiry.
You say in your first post that you want to get married. Has this changed?

We do want to get married but looking at the funds for hosting a proper marriage and inviting family over from our country is not readily available.

If we do get married in December, as her visa is expiring in January/February, won't we be rounded up by ukba?

Then you just apply for a Spouse visa, assuring you pass all the test, before the current visa runs out...

[gunner4life]

Having a genuine relationship won't be sufficient. The case worker will want to see more than a 'boyfriend and girlfriend' relationship. The requirement for an Unmarried Partner Visa is that you have been living together in a relationship 'akin to marriage' for a minimum of 2 years. This will include joint commitments such as joint finances, tenancy or mortgage, utility bills etc. UPV applications come under a great deal of scrutiny, especially when the applicant has a visa which is close to expiry.
You say in your first post that you want to get married. Has this changed?

We do want to get married but looking at the funds for hosting a proper marriage and inviting family over from our country is not readily available.

If we do get married in December, as her visa is expiring in January/February, won't we be rounded up by ukba?

Then you just apply for a Spouse visa, assuring you pass all the test, before the current visa runs out...

We both pass all the tests including the financial one. My question is I hope we won't get interrogated or disturbed by TheUKBA as it is very close to when her visa will run out.

[Wanderer]

We both pass all the tests including the financial one. My question is I hope we won't get interrogated or disturbed by TheUKBA as it is very close to when her visa will run out.

No, there is no reason for them to doubt your situation is there?

[gunner4life]

We both pass all the tests including the financial one. My question is I hope we won't get interrogated or disturbed by TheUKBA as it is very close to when her visa will run out.

No, there is no reason for them to doubt your situation is there?

There isn't any reason. Just wanting to be sure and hear of other people's experiences.

[Rayking]

If they doubt you,you gave them reason to,the reason you stated isn't a very good excuse,why will you leave it till when it's a month or thereabouts before doing what could have been sorted.
Registry stuff will cost you less than 200 quid,nothing stops you doing the family stuffs when you have the money.
I'm doing the same,so I'm not just talking about this,we'll both go and do the family stuff when we've got the money as it's non negotiable!
But we've got to do the one that's more important FIRST.