fiance visa

[Swannie]

Hi

My Japanese fiance will be applying for a fiance visa in August to come here in October and hopefully be married in December. I am looking for any advice of anybody else who has brought a Japanese fiance to the UK and any advice for any problems that I may encounter and what are the most obvious pitfalls to avoid, and what exactly the embassy is looking for in my documentation and hers. Thank you in advance !

[John]

I cannot comment specifically about a Japanese person applying for a fiancée visa, but the same UK law applies to such visa applications worldwide.

If you have not already done so have a good read of Guidance - Husbands, wives and partners (INF 4), and don't be put off by the title of that document.

Basically you need to show that the applicant, your fiancée will not need to claim certain Public Funds, that is that there is sufficient money around to prevent any such claim, that the accommodation to be provided is "suitable" and certainly not overcrowded, and that there is "evidence of contact".

The comment must be ... don't skimp on the evidence! If the two of you have not yet started to gather together the needed evidence then do so without delay. When my wife applied for her spouse visa in Bangkok, Thailand, she handed in a neat, well-organised folder about 2 inches thick. It worked .... visa granted!

[Swannie]

Thank you John for the advice and website. I have all the evidence needed, original copies. I have heard that embassies can try to ask "trick" or awkward questions to test a fiance, but this came from a website regarding Russian women so I was wondering if anybody else has experienced this ? Do embassy officials seem to be positive or negative towards granting these types of visas or does it just depend on a case by case basis ?

[John]

I think it is all summed up by the Global Statistics Booklet 2003-04.

If you download that PDF and then go to page 6 of 90 in that file you will see that in 2003-04, the last year available, the British Embassy in Tokyo granted 522 Settlement Visa applications and refused just 7.

In the main the Settlement Visa rejections are very different for so-called Visa Nationals, who need a visa to enter the UK for any reason whatsoever, and non-Visa Nationals who do not need a visa to enter for a number of reasons such as tourism.

That is, if a Japanese citizen wishes to get into the UK they can simply jump on a plane without a visa and invariably enter as a visitor. Japanese only need a visa for some specified reasons, including Settlement as a fiancé(e) or a spouse. That is there is far less likelihood of a non-Visa national entering into a "marriage of convenience" in order to gain entry into the UK. Indeed why would they bother? Accordingly the embassy would not be applying the same tests in Tokyo, as compared to say Bangkok, Thais being visa nationals, or in Moscow, Russians also being in that category.

In short, based upon the evidence you have mentioned, there is very little chance of your fiancée's application being rejected.