Spouse with mental health issues and 'Exceptional Circumstances'

[MartyBilge]

I would be grateful for any guidance on where to start with my situation. I am a British Citizen, live in the UK and was born in the UK. My girlfriend lives in the US, is US born and has both US and Brazilian nationality. We met via a mutual American friend of ours. Over the last year we have been able to spend about a month together in person, and have spent hundreds of hours in phone calls and Skype video calls. I am currently in the US on a visit and we are considering getting married before I depart. We want to spend our lives together and are trying to work out the best way to do this.

I have had a difficult couple of years with employment. My current job fell some way short of the required earnings, but I will shortly be starting a new job that will meet the financial requirements threshold by a healthy margin. I would normally be prepared to sit out the 6 months I need in order to meet the financial requirements, however my partner has some pressing circumstances. Last year she was afflicted by spells of serious delusions, which I believe were exacerbated by the poor standards of care she experienced in the US mental health system. This resulted in multiple hospitalizations which reached a peak in August and September when she was hospitalized four times and was being prescribed a terrible cocktail of medications that were making her increasingly unwell. Her mother had been struggling for some time to improve the situation and things were getting completely out of control.

I have been trying to help manage her healthcare mostly from abroad, including talking with hospital doctors and other healthcare professions, which takes a huge amount of effort and is incredibly draining. This has impacted on the work I felt I could accept, but she is doing so much better now, is in a very good job and earning decent money whilst managing her illness and going from strength to strength. The time we have spent on this trip has been a joy, and we are putting things in place to help her build her own strong foundations, but it apparent that we would be so much better off together.

She needs to be able to work as part of her ongoing mental health care, so I would not want to bring her in on a visitor Visa or as a tourist on her passport without a right to work. I would consider my own immigration to the US as a spouse, but she has a desire to come to the UK, and the health care arrangements are likely to work out much better, particularly as I have a connection with a very good mental health hospital (if we would have the misfortune to need to call upon one). I am worried about sitting out the 6 months for me to qualify as a sponsor in case she has an episode and I decide to fly out to be with my partner and take care of her on short notice to my employers.

I saw that there is an 'exceptional circumstances' clause where the financial requirements can possibly be amended to having secured a new job within the threshold, and I wondered if it would apply to situations such as ours. I am conscious that if we marry in the next week and I apply in the next month I would effectively be looking to shave at best five months off of the application process, which some might not consider worth gambling the application fee on, but that can be a very long time for someone recovering from such a bad spell as my partner has had. I have already moved my flight to extend my stay on this visit because I could not bear to leave her.

Does anybody have any advice? It will be gratefully received.

[geoeng]

I saw that there is an 'exceptional circumstances' clause where the financial requirements can possibly be amended to having secured a new job within the threshold, and I wondered if it would apply to situations such as ours.

Details of the exceptional circumstances provisions of Appendix FM of the immigration rules are provided in the guidance document linked below from page 66:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... .0-ext.pdf

It is a very high threshold to meet and, more or less, comes down to the applicant and their partner not being able to live together anywhere else without unjustifiably harsh consequences. There is consideration given to illnesses requiring ongoing medical treatment but you would likely have to somehow show that healthcare in the US should be considered inadequate, which might be difficult in a global context. The United States is likely to be considered a reasonably secure country with a relatively high standard of living where your girlfriend has significant family relationships and where there are minimal (if any) cultural, language or legal barriers to the two of you living there together.

If you want to go down this route, your best bet might be obtaining professional advice on how to build your case but this is likely to be costly and still would not guarantee success.

While it would be understandably difficult and undesirable, the easiest, cheapest and quickest path towards your girlfriend being able to stay permanently in the UK likely lies in waiting until you meet the financial requirement; though this is my opinion only and, as mentioned, some professional advice may be best.