Switch from expiring tier 4 for engagement

[magic-music]

Hi,

I'm a UK citizen, my girlfriend is Vietnamese, she has been in the UK since Jan 2016 on a tier 4 visa. We met and started dating in Feb 2016. Her course has finished and her visa runs out in just under 6 weeks. Recently we decided to get engaged.

We're not sure which visa she should apply for - we don't want to get married immediately, we're thinking about late summer. She would therefore like to switch to a Family of Settled Person visa (engaged) - but we're not sure whether we should be using FLR(M), as her current visa is tier 4. As the period of notice to get married for us is likely to be 70 days, it would take her past the expiry of her tier 4, so we couldn't apply for a spouse visa, as we won't be able to get married in time. We can't apply for the partnership visa as we haven't lived together for 2 years.

I should mention that I do meet the financial requirements, and have a house etc.

The only option we can see at the moment would be for her to have to go back to Vietnam and apply for the fiance visa from there. Is it simly impossible for us to get the 6 month fiance visa while she is still in the UK?

Can anyone advise us of the route to take?

Many thanks

[CR001]

There is no option to apply for the fiance visa within the UK, it is an application from abroad only and you must get married within the 6 months.

For an application within the UK, you only have the option of getting married and then FLR(M) or risking an unmarried partner visa also on FLR(M), likely to be refused due to not meeting the 2 year cohabitation requirement.

You have to give 28 days notice. It is not always extended to 70 days. You have left it quite late though to plan this.

[magic-music]

We thought that might be the case, but just wanted another opinion in case we'd overlooked something in the rules. We realise it is late, but neither of us wanted to just rush headlong into marriage after only a few months of being together!

Many thanks for your advice.