Marriage out-of-country and T2 dependents

[Eggles]

Hi there,

looking for advice regarding getting my partner to be able to come stay with me.

My situation: We are presently unmarried, and both of us are in the UK. My application for a Tier 2 General (employer sponsored) visa is currently being processed. I'm currently on an earlier T2 visa, she's on a visitor visa. We've been together for a over couple of years now, and can prove that the relationship is genuine; but we won't be able to show that we've been living together for that time because we won't have the requisite evidence.

I know that we can't get married in the UK while she's on a visitor visa, and for her to apply as a dependent she needs to go back to Australia. I'll need to stay here until my visa application is complete, which should be in July. At that point it looks like we've got two options:

(a) I go back to Aus after my visa has been accepted probably in later August, and we get married, then she can apply as a dependent from Australia. The catch is she's going to be working in Aus until November, so she won't be able to apply till then. If we show plenty of evidence that we've kept the relationship going long-distance in the meantime, can I expect no real problems with this?

(b) She applies for a Marriage Visitor visa here in November, she comes in and we get married, then she flies back to Australia and reapplies as a dependent with me.

Are either of these options viable? From reading these boards it looks like people try (a) a bit, and there can be problems with demonstrating that the marriage has been "subsisting". It's *totally* unclear what that means or what the requirements of subsistance are, but we can definitely prove that the relationship is real and has been going since before either of us arrived in the UK, and that it will continue long-distance from August to November.