General visitor for US girlfriend

[Jaylee]

Hello guys, first off I would just like to thank anyone who is willing to help. I'm in such a predicament...

My name is jay and I live in London and 25 years of age. I have a
girlfriend who is same age and lives in America. We met 5 years ago and instantly clicked and we see eachother every 4-5 months.
We both have jobs in our own country. She has been employed for 10 months and earning a $33000 salary.
Recently an oppotunity has arrived where I have started to rent and we could now live with eachother.
We have applied for a general visitor visa for 6 months (only just realised we didn't even need too but that's another story) where she would come to London and we would see how it works out with us.
She has a graduate degree.
She has gained many friends after coming here over the years.
So our application went like this:
Main purpose of trips was to come and visit uk and travel around and spend time together when I'm not at work. She was down as staying with a couple of family members as well as myself.
She has a written letter from her boss giving her a unpaid leave for 6 months.
She currently lives in a house and rents off her mum.
She also stated that for reason to come home after 6 months was to again look after her dad who is a alcoholic and has little access to anything due to where he lives (we have no evidence support this).
She stated she has a bf of 5 years (hoping honesty would be best policy).
We couldn't think of anything else for her to prove she will come back home, no morgage or anything like that.

We have just had a reply back declining her visa on grounds of not enough evidence for her show that she will leave after 6 months.
I'm astounded by this, as she could at any point in the past stayed in country and lived illegally from previous visits.

Now what is done is done, but what we really want to do now is get her in uk to see if we will work.

Can anyone help with the best way to go about this. We know we could just go and get married and take that route but I think it gives us a huge burden and such a huge step to take. Maybe after 6 months we can dive in and do it but I feel we need that living experience.

So what options do we now have?
Re-apply for another general visa with a more detail statement-scared of another rejection and the unknown repucussions.

Appeal- I believe this is very limited

Different visas as in marriage visa- but one of requirements is to state that she needs evidence to show she will leave at the end of visa, which was the origional problem proving with general visa.

She has tried working visas in past and as worked for a uk-American school assistant in hope of going down that avenue, but after 2 years it was a waste of time. So working visa is out of question.

Can anyone suggest anything that we should do and what answer we can expect to get. Am I right in saying one more strike and she got no chance!? We really don't want to wait any more longer because it's having such a strain on us and is frankly making us seriously depressed where two young people are wasting there best years apart from eachother. We just want a fighting chance without having to marry.
It's only really possible for her to come here at the moment as I'm relied upon by my parents etc.
Once again thanks for your time.
Regards

[Lucapooka]

Why did she apply for a visa if she is a US citizen? Seems all she managed to do was indicate her negative points by revealing too much about matters that are not important. If she is a US citizen and had simply arrived in the UK it is likely she would have had no problems getting entry clearance on arrival.

[Jaylee]

Completely agree. I was given bad advice from a approved British approved immigration advisor. Livid.
But I'm just looking at anyways we can do this with the hand that we have been dealt.

[Lucapooka]

The problem now is that the cat is out of the bag and if she were to travel without a visa (like any normal US citizen) and get EC on arrival, she will be stopped because the previous visa refusal is now firmly in the datebase. Obviously, if she is carrying sufficient information to counter the points in the first refusal she might be admitted but there is no guarantee. She will be held for questioning and may not be landed in immigration vernacular, and will on the next flight back to the US. If I were her I would make a new application before travelling that shows her social and economic ties to the US

[Jaylee]

Have you got any ideas of how I could do that. She's been employed for 12 months and has a letter from her boss granting her a sobatical?
Many thanks

[MPH80]

To be honest - the main thing you've got to deal with is the paragraph you posted about her father. You'll need some letters confirming the arrangement to look after the father, letters from the siblings confirming they are picking up the slack while she's away, but it's unsustainable due to <x> reasons and that they require her back after that period.

If you don't deal with that - you're likely to get a further refusal - particularly if you don't mention it on the second attempt.

But if you're not willing to go down that route, or you do and it fails, then I see four potential options for you:

1) You go to the USA
2) You plan to get married and bring her on a fiancee settlement visa
3) You go to the USA, get married and bring her on a spouse visa.
4) Give up