i'm a UK citizen, my partner is a Filipino living in PH. We've been together since about september 2011, and i visit her every two months or thereabouts for a period of around 6 to 7 weeks at a time (i have a year long entry visa for ph, only obtainable after getting a "one off" 59 day visa). we've also been on holiday to another country in asia together (we both have passport stamps for that, of course).
she rents over there and when i go over, i stay with her. i don't have any bills or anything like that in my name from PH, because obviously that's all in her name. we are considering setting up a joint bank account though (in ph, if that's possible. not sure yet but a bank account over there would be handy to have).
she hasn't visited me in the UK yet, as her salary is basically around £12,000 while mine is closer to £36000 so its a lot easier for me to take up the travel slack (we both work for same company too, me in UK office and her in PH office). as for me, i also own a house in the UK (joint owned with my ex, i dont live there anymore).
i want her to come here and live with me permanently as we're very much in love and want to spend the rest of our lives together, and we're tired of not seeing one another for 2 or 3 months at a time (its also a huge slice of cash that could be going into savings too).
i'm just baffled by where to begin. just getting to grips with the info on the home office site and not much seems to make sense. my questions:
1) it mentions the £18,600 minimum salary on the immigration site, but seems to make out that's the wage *she* has to be earning. its only from looking at complaints on news articles about the rule and posts on forums that it seems to be either a "joint" total earning between both partners, or just the amount required to be earned by the UK citizen. can someone clarify?
2) where does that minimum salary requirement of £31,000 thing come into play - has that now replaced the £18,600 benchmark? or is that only for some people with specific circumstances?
3) we'd like to get married in her home country, but also for her to come here permanently sometime after that. what level of savings / wage does she actually require to have to enter the UK as a (insert most appropriate form of residence here)?
4) and how can we show "proof of having lived together as a married couple" (another requirement) when, like most people who meet from different countries, the best we can do is that we've stayed together in places that only one of us has a name down for (ie her condo). or is that not really a problem?
thanks in advance
