melody

Unless your partner is a EU national, you cannot apply for the EEA residence permit. In addtition, you must be living together in a relationship "akin" to marriage for 2 consecutive years before you can apply.

If your partner is a UK citizen as you mention, you can apply via the unmarried partner route, but the 2 year rule applies.

You must show evidence that you live together ie pay bills, share duties, council tax etc.

Can you get a working visa, or apply for a job with a company that will apply for a work permit for you? You can then try and build up your 2 year relationship with this individual, and then apply for the visa should you wish, if you want to stay in the UK on a long term basis.

Good Luck

 

Hi there,
I came into the UK on a BUNAC scheme last summer; I just want to say that the visa is 100% non-extendable. No matter what, you will have to go back to the US and then re-enter the UK at least once.

As the poster above mentioned, you can try to find a company who will sponsor a work permit for you; it's pretty competitive though! The other option, since I don't think you've been with your bf long enough to qualify as an unmarried partner, is to get married. But to do that, you have to go back to the US to apply for a fiancee visa (you can't do it from inside the UK) and then come back to marry him and apply for a LLR(M) visa. The total cost of both visas is about £770. Or he could go with you to the US and you could get married there and then just apply for the LLR(M) from the US; but then that involves the cost of another plane ticket so I don't think it would work out cheaper.

Obviously, you shouldn't even think about marriage if it's just for the visa; but if the two of you are really serious about being together, rest assured that a lot of couples end up having to do things that way.

 

My girl & I are pretty much in the same boat. We want to live together here in the UK. We've just started to look into this and it seems pretty daunting. My girlfriend is a US citizen & i'm a UK citizen. We've known each other for a little over a year. She's been over here a couple of times on visitis & i've been to the States to visit her but how can we live together for two years if immigration laws in both countries don't allow for it!?!?

My question is this:
If my girlfriend came here on a visitor's visa for the maximum six months allowed and then went back home, can she come back to the UK within a few weeks or would she have to wait a lot longer? I suspect it's the later but any reliable information would be gratefully apprieciated!

Thank you in advance for any replies!

NB

 

The obvious answer is to get married. I would never recommend that for immigration purposes only, but many international couples marry earlier than they might have otherwise, just to stop all the hassle with the visas. And I can also see why immigration takes this stance: if you don't show any long term commitment, why should they?

It is not that easy, and it has to do with your status. If you stay in the UK for more than 6 months out of any 12, this turns you into a resident. While the tourist visa has not restrictions on who often you come to visit, it requires that the purpose of your stay is a visit, not residence. So you are implicitly bound to leave for 6 months after you have visited for 6 months.

I wonder whether you can still take the unmarried partner route by being together in one country for say 4 months during the year, and then together in the other for a similar amount of time, and maybe spend a holiday together, too.