Unmarried Partner Visa - advice please

[reneerox]

Hi,

I have read through many posts and could not find a specific answer to my question....could somebody please help?

My partner and I are both Australian citizens, he also holds an Irish passport. I am in UK on a 2-year WHM visa which is soon to expire. We want to apply for an Unmarried Partner Visa for me. We have lived together for 2 1/2 years in Australia and 1 1/2 in UK. We want to stay together living in London without the pressure of getting married. (We both come from broken homes with ambivalent feelings towards the concept of marriage)

Problem: To prepare for our relocation to UK in Sept 2005, we moved in with my parents to save money (Jan-Sep 05) . Therefore evidence of our cohabitation together at that time is non-existent as we paid no rent and had no bills in our names. However for 2003-4 we lived in our own flat and paid bills, etc which we can prove.

My question is: Does the British High Commission/Home Office only consider evidence for the immediately preceding 2 years of our relationship at the time of application? ie 2005-7 (documents for early 2005 very sketchy) or will it also look at older documents (back to 2003)for a much stronger case?

It sounds like a really stupid question, but the wording of the DSP has really stumped me. I must have read it one hundred times and am still confused. See below quote:

13.14 - Unmarried (i.e. opposite sex) and same-sex partners and how they qualify
The parties having been living together in a relationship akin to marriage/civil partnership which has subsisted for two years or more
"Living together", should be applied fairly tightly, in that we would expect a couple to show evidence of cohabitation in the preceding 2 year period.

[JAJ]

Hi,

I have read through many posts and could not find a specific answer to my question....could somebody please help?

My partner and I are both Australian citizens, he also holds an Irish passport. I am in UK on a 2-year WHM visa which is soon to expire. We want to apply for an Unmarried Partner Visa for me. We have lived together for 2 1/2 years in Australia and 1 1/2 in UK. We want to stay together living in London without the pressure of getting married. (We both come from broken homes with ambivalent feelings towards the concept of marriage)

I'm not sure if anyone is going to be able to answer your specific question (in other words, you might need a good lawyer) but you could read this extract from the Immigration Directorate Instructions:
http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/docume ... iew=Binary

I would think that good evidence of a relationship that started more than 2 years ago could only help your case. Whether the lack of evidence of cohabitation during the time preceding your move to the UK is a problem is an open question. But do you have no evidence at all? Did he not change address on his drivers licence, bank statements etc to the same as yours? (for example)

A few tips:

1. If you do decide to get advice, be careful if any advisor recommends you to apply for a permit under EEA rather than UK rules (as your partner is Irish there is a choice). However although the EEA route may be simpler/quicker, it will take a further five years to get permanent residence, rather than two years on a UK rules visa (after which you can get Indefinite Leave to Remain).

2. Do you want to become a British citizen? If so in your circumstances, provided you have held Indefinite Leave to Remain for one year at the time, you will be eligible for naturalisation after you have completed 5 years residence in the UK.

3. Any children planned? If so, you need to know a UK-born child with an Irish citizen parent is automatically a British citizen. However the Passport Office may not understand this, so in that circumstance, you could get a status letter for the child's citizenship by contacting the Home Office Immigration and Nationality Directorate in Liverpool.