canadian girlfriend entrance to UK - which visa?

[d20luther]

Hi All,

I am British citizen and have been since birth. My girlfriend (28yrs) is Canadian, at the start of this year we were planning on applying for a working visa to come to the UK she is dental hygienist . We were going to apply for a tier5 youth mobility scheme.

However she is now pregnant something we were not planning for right now!

Having read up on the UK gov website, our main priority is to get her over to the UK and my options are partner, fiance of tier5. Could anyone give advice as to which would be more successful?

It seems to me that a partner visa is the best option to go with.

"This section explains whether and how you can come to or remain in the UK if you are the unmarried or same-sex partner of a British citizen or a person settled here."

However in the documentation need to get your partner visa you need to provide the documentation,

"evidence that you have been living together, in a genuine relationship that is like a marriage or civil partnership (not like a 'marriage of convenience') for 2 years or more"

We can't provide this information as we haven't been living together I am in the UK and she Canada, but it I have done regular visits to see her, may this documentation could help?

When applying for a fiance visa, documentation that we need to provide "evidence that you intend to marry or register your civil partnership within a reasonable time (usually 6 months)". What type of documentation would this be?

If she still came over on the tier5 working visa she would be allowed in to the country for 24months which would be the bet option I believe. There are only 5,500 places available for this visa. If she applies for this and it gets rejected for whatever reason. Will this put a black mark against her name if she then applies for a fiance or partner visa?

Meeting the financial requirements and proving that our relationship is genuine I don't believe will be a problem.

thanks

[anniecc]

You don't qualify for the unmarried partner visa as your haven't lived together for a minimum of two years in a relationship akin to marriage.

For the fiance visa you'll need to demonstrate that you're actively making plans to get married. For example, you could provide a letter from the registry office confirming that you've booked a date for the wedding. Bear in mind that if you go down the fiance route your partner will need to apply for the FLR(M) visa once you're married, and she won't be able to work until she receives it - currently FLR(M) applications are taking more than six months to process. Not sure if this is a consideration given she's pregnant.

Youth mobility visas are normally quite straightforward to get provided you meet the age criteria. This visa would allow your gf to work straight away, and she could apply to switch into a partner category later on. I don't know whether your gf being pregnant will create any problems. I imagine an immigration officer might ask questions if she turns up obviously pregnant and her visa says she's here for a working holiday. Perhaps other members of the forum can help?

[CR001]

For Tier 5 you cannot apply if you have children accompanying you. Not sure how they would view pregnancy and might view this as a 'round about' way of getting to the UK if you don't meet the requirements of other categories. There is the process of applying as well as the questions that could be asked on arrival in the UK.

Having said that, if the baby is born in the UK and the father is British, the baby will be British automatically.

Other requirements
When you apply, you must confirm that you have:

no children under 18 years old who are living with you, or for whom you are financially responsible;
you have never been in the UK at any time in the former 'working holidaymaker' category or under the youth mobility scheme. If you have previously been in the UK under a different immigration category such as Tier 1 (Post study work), you can apply for a youth mobility scheme visa.