I am a US citizen working in the UK on a Tier II ICT visa since November 2016.
My current visa will expire November 2019
My sponsor company has agreed to my contract up to that date but I am unsure if they will allow me to extend past (Tier II ICT has a maximum extension of 5 years - at my current paygrade anyway
)My boyfriend is an Irish citizen and has been living/working in UK since 2014. My understanding is that Brexit will not effect Irish and they are considered settled in UK upon arrival.
We live together now but that is a recent development. We are definitely planning on getting engaged and maybe even married (in Ireland) in the next year if it means that I can guarantee I can stay here. I'd prefer not to rush a wedding if it was at all avoidable but both of us know that we want to be together and would like to do it in the least stressful way possible.
The issue may go away if my company agrees to extend my visa, however I wouldn't know until a few months before and am trying to plan ahead. At the moment I am stuck at my company as well, as you cannot switch employeers on the ICT. It's very frustrating as I've been speaking to a few different companies about potential work opportunities but my hands are tied.
Has anyone had this problem or something similar? I need to know what options I have to switch from ICT to either dependent/fiance/spousal visa from inside the UK.
Any first hand advice or legal/immigration knowledge would be much appreciated!
