A difficult one

[CarolineH]

Ok here's the story....
I met my boyfriend (Australian) in Egypt 3 years ago where we both lived and worked. We rented a house (which we still have) and lived together pretty much from the off-set. After 6 months we came to London where we have been living (at my Mothers place). I've been in employment since then and he's been coming and going between here and Egypt (spending the majority of his time here) but working in Egypt ocassionally to earn money as he's unable to work in the UK. The problem is that he now wants to apply to stay and work in the Uk as an un-married partner BUT we can't provide proof that we've been living together 'as married'. All we have is a rental agreement for our place in Egypt and a joint credit card (although not sure if the fact the his is a supplementary card on my account stands for anything). We can't get a tenancy agreement, mortgage, joint bank account, etc for the UK as he's not a UK resident and as far as providing bills for our house in Egypt -impossible as everything is paid in cash over there and bills aren't posted but collected by water/elcctricity man.

If anyone has has any suggestions about the best way to go from here they would be much appreciated.

[Kayalami]

You correctly state that you fail to meet the rules for unmarried partners. Either get married or he may consider obtaining an appropriate employment category visa e.g. HSMP, Work Permit etc. Without knowing his qualifications, skills and work experience I am unable to comment conclusively on the chances of the relevant application being successful.

[CarolineH]

Hmmm, just as I thought. Is there no other way around it eg people who have known us to be living together to sign an affidavit saying as much.

The sad thing about having such cut and dry rules is that it doesn't allow for any exceptions.

On the other hand I'm surprised that simply by marrying a visa becomes so much easily more obtainable.

Thanks for your reply though.