Hello, I have a few questions I was hoping could be answered. I'm in the process of looking for a good solicitor to help meanwhile. Please don't judge us as it will be an unusual case to read, everything is just perfect between us. I'd appreciate some advice and help though. I'll detail it below and asks questions at the end:

I am a fully funded PhD student in engineering with a £15K tax-free scholarship. I own a house with no payments left on it, which is about to be rented out providing me with approximately another £5000 a year. I have about £10,000 savings. I’m 23 years of age. I was born in Iran but moved to the UK when I was 11 months old. I have dual nationality, both Iranian and British. I met the person who I wish to marry about 4 months ago and I’d like her to stay with me in the UK. I believe most of the criteria are met according to the UK law on sponsoring a spouse however because of the age difference and being related, we wanted to be sure there would be no problems as she would be giving up her life in Iran.

She is 48 years old and is my mother’s aunt. She worked as an accountant for a nursery in Iran before becoming a beauty therapist and owns a house in Iran and has recently divorced. Her English is not good but she is learning. She has just returned to Iran due to being here for 5 months (close to the 6 month limit). She will be coming back in a few months time, as her visa is valid for another year (vistors permit). We have travelled the country together and been together for most of the last 4 months.

Want I would like to know is, what else do we need to do and what can we do to make sure everything is successful. We don’t want to go through the procedure if it is not going to work out as she is giving up everything in Iran to come stay here.

The thing that worries us is that my income is not taxed, and also the age difference and the relation through my mum. I know there is such a big age difference and we are distantly related but we do want to be together. Our time together can be backed up with photos and such.

Is our age difference and relation going to cause a problem? Is my source of income going to cause a problem? She is learning English and wil hopefully be ok on that aspect.

She will be coming back to the UK in a month or two on her vistors visa. The other question we had was, can she come here on that permit, get married here and then apply from within the UK to stay as a partner/spouse? Or does she have to go back to Iran and apply from there? Basically what would the process be for getting her to stay her?

To add - my income from the PhD started 6 months ago with £1257 (15K a year not 16.5 sorry) into the bank every month. The house is going to be rented out soon to provide another £450 a month. Lets say it wasn't rented out, would the house and savings be sufficient to cover the lack of income? Now if I did rent it out, I have 6 months of bank statements but with the house being recently rented out do I have to wait 6 more months? There would be a singed contract for renting a house for a year though.


Really appreciate your time and help!