Unmarried Partner Application

[chrisbkk]

Hi,

Great Forums!

We will be applying for an Unmarried Partner visa in 1 months time and I have a few questions regarding our application.

We have been living together continuously in Bangkok for almost 3 years and have documentary evidence to support this. I will be using my savings of over 62.5k to fulfil the financial requirement. We have suitable accommodation in the UK.

I have a few concerns regarding our application.

1. I am a UK citizen but also hold citizenship from another EEA member state. Whilst living in Bangkok I have used and had visas in both my UK and other passport. Is this a potential issue?

2. Some of the visas have been long stay tourist visas, is this ok? I have lived here continuously for 4.5 years.

3. In October 2011 my Thai girlfriend applied for a tourist visa and was refused based on not providing evidence for the source of funds that had been transferred into her current account (It was from her own savings) I was in the UK for a 6 week trip at the time. I noticed that the refusal letter stated the following:

'You have stated that you are travelling alone and that you do not have friends or family in the UK'

I am a little concerned about this as I was in the UK at the time the visa was applied for. She used a visa consultancy service (a very bad one) to help with the application and does not recall checking this box. I am very worried about this as we were together at the time, I am really not sure why she stated this on the application but it was certainly not to mislead. Could this be a problem?

4. In September 2013 we applied for and were granted an Irish 'Join EU Partner' visa within 2 weeks. We did not use this visa. We were initially going to use the Surinder Singh route via Ireland but ultimately decided to wait 6 months and apply for an unmarried partner visa (The 70k had only been in my account for 1 month) I assume this is not an issue?

Sorry for the long winded post

Many thanks, any help much appreciated.

[Casa]

Unfortunately she may well have a problem. The ECO will consider that one of her statements is false:
In the visitor visa application she has no family or friends in the UK
In the UPV application she's stating you have a long term relationship 'akin to marriage'

[chrisbkk]

Thanks for your reply!

Yes, I understand what you're saying.

Just to clarify - this was almost 2.5 years ago, not a recent application

[Casa]

It won't make any difference if you're claiming in your current application that your relationship was in existence when she applied for a visitor visa - where you weren't mentioned. UPV applications come under a great deal of scrutiny and all details of previous applications are held on computer.

[chrisbkk]

So in your opinion this will be a likely refusal?

Apart from this issue I believe our application is very strong. We have substantial verifiable documentary evidence for the past 2.5 years and meet all other requirements.

Would getting married first and then making an application make any difference regarding previous adverse immigration history?

[Casa]

Marriage won't change anything. You need to be prepared to explain the omission of the relationship in the visitor visa application.