Student Visa to Marriage Visa

[Brewer]

Hi all,

I'm new to the boards and looking for a little advice/confirmation.

My wife is Mexican and has been studying a PhD in the UK for almost 3 years. She is applying for an extension to her Student Visa shortly to allow her to complete her qualification.

We have been married for 5 years.

I am British and have been earning a salaried income of £21,000 plus overtime since April this year.

We have no children.

It's getting to the point now where we have decided we would like to settle here permanently but are very unsure as to which visa to apply for. From what I can gather it would need to be an FLRM, is this correct?

Will she be able to apply from within the UK provided the student visa has not expired?

From what I have read, the main thing will be proof of English, financial requirements, and proof of relationship. All of which I think we should be ok with.

Am I missing anything here?

Thanks in advance for any help, this is proving more confusing the more I look into it!


Regards

[vinny]

Yes, FLR(M) is correct.

[Brewer]

Hello all,

My wife of 6 years is from a non EU country and has been living in the UK with me for almost 4 years on a Student Visa which expires in February 2017 by which time she will have a PhD obtained from a UK university. We both lived abroad together before arriving here for her studies.

I am a UK citizen with a UK passport who has held permanent full time employment for almost 4 years with a salary of £21,000 for the last 12 months which has just been raised to £21,500.

We have no children.

We applied for an FLRM visa 2 years ago but the application was put on hold by UKBA pending an investigation into a specific English Language test (something to do with a Panorama TV program exposing fraudulent tests I believe). Unfortunately we had to withdraw the application (after 4 months of waiting) as my wife had to return to her home country briefly and required her passport/visa to do so.

We were a little too close for comfort to meet the financial requirements anyway so decided we would wait and reapply nearer the time of the expiry of her student visa, and thankfully my salary has since increased.

That's the background, now onto the questions...

Do you foresee any issues with us applying again for the same FLRM visa despite having applied before?

Is the FLRM still the relevant form to complete if we want to reside in the UK permanently as a married couple?

I'm tempted to pay extra for the premium service as the wait, lack of communication etc last time was extremely stressful for us both. Is it worth it? Have you had any problems using this service?

We completed the form ourselves last time and were never given any feedback other than it was on hold due to the English test. Because of that I don't really know if my form was completed correctly and I don't really want to hand over more than a thousand pounds to them only for the form to be rejected. Do most people use a lawyer or is it quite common to complete the forms yourselves?

Any help is much appreciated

Cheers

[vinny]

If she had completed an English taught degree, then she may use it instead of the English test. Else, take an approved test.