I have been living with my girlfriend / fiance since June 2006. She is from Colombia and first come to the UK on tourist visa for 6 months. She then returned to Colombia and was there a few months as we applied for Student visa, which she got for 13 months as my fiance. (expires in May 2008)

I am a dual citizen, Norwegian and British, living in the UK. Because of my family in Norway we have planned the wedding to take place in Norway now in approx. 2 weeks (24. January 2008)

Her plans are to continue studying here in the UK, where she also has part time work for my newly registered company. (approx. 15 hours a week) Eligible with her student visa, she also has a UK national insurance number.

Now my dilemma which makes me a little unsure is what to do next, we had planned to apply for a 12 months extension on her student visa - as she will be studying here to improve her English, to be able to take IELTS or Cambridge Exam - before she will be eligible to take a higher level university education. However it might happen that we go to Colombia for some time during these studies. Nothing yet certain on this.

However what do we do now after we have been married? Will we be able to apply for spouse visa here in the UK directly?
Or would it be better to first apply for the extended student visa, and then if this is in order apply for spouse visa during this period?

During the visa application in Bogota for student visa, I was the sponsor and did also confirm I was her fiance. And they told me this was a positive for her application, as she got her first application denied a few weeks earlier, exactly for the reason not being forthcoming about our actual relation. (I said I was her friend)

Anyway after our marrige she will have around 3 1/2 months left on her student visa, so what will be the next step from there, anybody any advice?

We will have lived together for 19 months, (I was also sponsor for her Tourist Visa to the UK in 2006) when we get married.

So anybody with some good advice, thanks

John

 

Thanks for your reply,

We will be getting married in Norway - as I mentioned I have dual citizenship, British and Norwegian.

She still has Student Visa for 3.5 months when we return to the UK after our wedding in Norway.

I thought maybe I could use the EEA1 and EEA2 route of application, or am I wrong in this?

It has to be said that I have only recenly moved to the UK myself, and I have started my own company here in UK, so I am newly started self employed, don't know if this will be a problem.

However my business is generating a decent income, and at current my fiancee is working for me in my company, however only part time as she has student visa and can only work 20 hours per week.

??

 

So is there an alternative route for the EEA1 and EEA2? Which will make the process go faster for British Citizen ship?

Personally I do doubt that we will be staying in the UK for 6 years, as I a looking to set up business abroad, most likely Spain. Also depends on her future studies, as she intends to continue study at University level in the next few years.

So what would be the best way to do this then?

 

I recently got married in January with my wife from Colombia. We got married in Norway.
I have dual nationality, British and Norwegian.

My wife is Colombian, but have a 13 month student visa in the UK, which expires in middle of May.
She is planning to continue studying here in the UK. I also was her sponsor for applying for this visa last year. We have been living together for almost 2 years, first 6 weeks abroad, then 6 months on her student visa here in the UK, then a period in Colombia together (around 1 month) and then back in the UK again for now around 11 months.

I did consider the EEA treaty, but feel would be better to apply for the UK spouse visa now first. I have receieved 2 conflicting advice from the Home office and the Colombian consulate.

The Colombian consulate say my wife needs to return to Colombia and get entry clearance as spouse.
The home office say I can change the status here in the UK trough the FLR(M) - husband, wife, civil partner, or unmarried or same-sex partner of a permanent resident.

I did mention to the home office what the Colombian consulate had told me, and they said they would check it, and few minutes later they told me that the information from the Colombian consulate was incorrect.

I have been searching on the forums here to, but have not found a post covering exactly this situation.

So I guess the main question will be, can I change the Student status visa to Spouse visa? Without leaving the UK. I have all my documents for this application, so I would like to know if somebody could shed some light on this and maybe let me know if you have similar experience and if the Home office information is correct?

 

Fantastic - The system really works!

Applied for Spouse visa just before easter, after 4 weeks got positive reply yesterday.
It is easy if you send ALL DOCUMENTS they require, and you have sufficent funds available. Got a 2 year temporary leave to to remain in the UK.

One note of advice, the advice the Colombian consulates legal team gave was completly wrong! They told us we had to return to Colombia and apply for the Spouse visa there, so there might be people being given wrong advice from officals from different consulates, however many of these people do not have a clue.

Actually my general advice is DO NOT LISTEN TO ANY LAWYERS, all the advice they have given me during my relation with my wife has been USELESS - WASTE OF TIME.

2 errors they made for us, one just mentioned here.
You can change Student visa to Spouse visa in the UK, altough you do require certain conditions of your student visa.
We married in another European country/ Norway - during the student visa period, and could change the status of that student visa here in the UK afterwards.

Second legal advice it took which was completly wrong happen approx. 1 year ago, when my wife (we was not married that time), applied for Student visa in Colombia, she got refused! We did ONE ERROR, I was sponsor but did not declear I was boyfriend/fiancee, the consulate suspected this and did not like we had not been completly truthfull.

Lawyer wanted £2000 to prepare an appeal, told me would take 6 - 9 months, and 20% chance of success. I asked the lawyer if he think we should apply again in Colombia, he told me NO CHANCE, once refused impossible to get new chance.

Instead I took matters in my own hands, booked a ticket to Colombia, emailed the consule for advice, the FOLLOWING WEEK we had 100% success with a 13 month student visa.

Conclusion - LAWYERS ARE USELESS - 2 times proven - I studied the things myself and had great success both times.


Anyway thanks to post on this forum, this also helped me a lot.
But stay away from lawyers and high legal bills, have friends of mine who spent thousands on lawyers and got exactly the same as me, spending nothing.

Advice - Don't be lazy, read forums, consulate sites, call home office - DO NOT TAKE ADVICE BY THIRD PARTIES FOR FACE VALUE, research all, and remember, Nothing is Impossible!