What visa for girlfriend after IS151

Hi,
I am trying to find out what visa options are available for my girlfriend to come and live with / marry me in the UK.

I am a full UK citizen
in full time employment
own my house
have sufficient funds to support both of us

She is from a NON EEA country
speaks, reads and writes reasonable English

So far so good, I think, but
She was here illegally and removed June 2010 at the expense of the UK Gov so has a default 10 year ban as I understand it.

Forms issued
IS151a
IS151a part 2
IS86
IS91r Reasons a & c, Factors 1,2,5,7,8,13
is151d

I hope this makes sense and has enough info for you to give me some guidance.

I think there are 2 options available to minimize or avoid the 10 year ban.
Fiancée Visa
Marriage Visa

1) Are these two visa options open to her
2) Are there any other options available
3) What would be the best visa to apply for
4) How easy / complicated is the application likely to be with regard to the removal notice.
5) What is the likely success of a visa application
6) Would using a professional service have an impact on the success of the application.
7) What are the form reference numbers for the visas

I would also like to hear from anyone who has gone through this process who can give any advice from their experience.

Thanks for your help
Trevor

When you say 'marriage visa' - I'm assuming you mean 'spouse' rather than marriage visitor as that latter one doesn't override the ban.

So - to answer your questions.

1) Yes - pretty much
2) See 1
3) Depends on you! If you want to marry in the UK - Fiancee, if you want to marry abroad - Wife.
4) You've rightly identified that a 10 year ban doesn't apply to the spouse or fiancee visa, however, they both still fall under the catch-all 320(11) rule which is basically there to allow an ECO to blanket ban someone based on their opinion. Simply overstaying is not enough to invoke the rule - but if she worked illegally - or claimed benefits - or used a false identity etc as well - that would be enough. The ECO MIGHT consider the deportation to be sufficient coupled with the overstay. The only way to overcome 320(11) is then through appeal.
5) Depends entirely as above. If everything else is in order (english test, financials etc) - it should be ok. But you should also be aware that any application is going to get scrutinised heavily to make sure it's not a marriage of convenience for her - so you'll have to show strong evidence of an ongoing relationship (contact etc) significantly prior to the application.
6) A decent professional will probably help here indeed as they would carefully look at the assembled evidence. A fly by night type professional may hinder if they fail to think about it carefully and simply tick boxes. Expect to pay 000s for someone decent on top of the home office fees - and an appeal will then run into many thousands.
7) VAF4a - same for both.

To get an idea of how complex 320(11) appeal cases get - have a look at this judgement from the upper tribunal: http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cg ... od=boolean

In truth - if this is the girl for you, you may wish to consider alternatives, such as moving to be with her.

Thanks for your detailed response,
you are correct "spouse" not marriage visa.
She arrived in 2005 and did work illegally but did not claim any NHS or benefits.
The appeal example was interesting and helpful to understand the process. My situation appears to be simpler and no repetitive abuse of immigration controls.

Now I know where to start I can take the time to understand what the requirements will be.

Thanks
Trevor

Given what you have said - I would definitely expect a 320(11) refusal and plan for an appeal.

Alternative would be the Surinder Singh route which has gotten significantly tougher in the last few months - but requires you to move to another EU country lock, stock and barrel - e.g. move your life there - no returning every weekend to keep up with family for example - and then you can bring her under the EU rules which bypass the UK rules completely. Once shes in the EU country - you can then return back to the UK.

This is a 6 month to a year process.

However, a refusal to appeal to appeal process (which is what you are likely to go through - and there is no guarantee of success!) is likely to be longer.