Dear All,

I am a British citizen, and my American girlfriend is hoping to apply for an Unmarried Partners Visa later this year so she can work and live with me in the UK. I'm really just hoping for any advise on the application, and to find out if, based on our circumstances, such an application is likely to be successful.

Our circumstances:

By the time we make the application, my American girlfriend and I will have been together for approximately 3 years and 3 months. We met when I spent two months working in the US; we then had a long distance relationship for a year - although this did include several long visits as I continued to return to the US for work.

After this I moved to California on a 3-year work visa, at which point we moved in together. By the time we make the application, we will have been living together in California for 2 years and 2 months. When we apply, I will be 32 and my girlfriend will be 24. There are no previous marriages or children.

It seems to me that we do have a de facto marriage and we fulfill all the criteria for an Unmarried Partner Visa, but will the UK Border Agency agree? There are one or two areas that concern me:

For the first year living together in California we were subletting an apartment, so we don't have any 'official' documents to prove we were living together - such as a lease agreement, bills, etc. However, we do both have proof that we were both living at the same address - as shown by the addresses on our individual drivers licenses, and other letters sent to us during that time. The only document we have that shows BOTH our names together at the same address is our car insurance document. We also have a lot of photos - do these even count??

For the final year living together in California we have leased an apartment together, with both our names appearing on the lease agreement. We have many bills coming to the address, but again the only other document showing both our names is car insurance.

I'm thinking of opening a joint bank account - even though it's less than a year till we make the application - to help support our de facto marriage.

Is there anything else a de facto marriage should have that we are missing??

Regarding our circumstances when we move to the UK, I'm fairly confident that we can convince them we won't be a burden on the state. We both have university degrees and decent careers, and I have more savings than I imagine many migrants have. On the down side, I don't own a property we will live in. Would it be better to put a solid UK address on the application - such as my parents house, or to say we will be renting but don't know where yet? Also, I am a freelancer - might that work against me??

Initially we had been planning to marry in the US, then apply for a Marriage Visa so she could join me in the UK. However, neither of us want to rush a wedding for immigration papers. If we did this we had always planned to have a 'real' wedding further down the line when we are more settled, have more money and can have all our family present. But we were always worried that by doing this, the magic of any later wedding would be ruined by the knowledge that we are already legally married, so an Unmarried Partner Visa seemed like the best option.

Any thoughts or advice would be most welcome.

Thanks
Sam