Sketchez

Hi everyone,

This is my first time posting and just wanted some advice. Bit of background, My girlfriend is a malaysian national ( 24 Chinese Decent) and Im a British citizen(27), we have been travelling around Asia and Australia for the last 2 years.We are Scuba diving instructors, hence self employed.

I want to get married and settle back in the UK and wonder if our unusual lifestyle and limited funds will throw up any roadblocks in terms of our return??

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

HKG3

If you two want to marry in the UK, she will need a special visa for that.

You, the British Citizen, will need to sponsor your wife to get a spouse visa for the UK.

SanDiegogirl

Your 'unusual ' life style will be no issue at all, but there are financial requirements to fulfill to obtain a spouse visa for your proposed wife to live in the UK.

You have the choice of

a) getting married outside of UK and then applying for a spouse visa (settlement) for your wife.

b) applying for a fiance visa, marrying in the UK and then applying for a spouse visa (settlement) in order to remain and live in the UK.

The first option is cheaper in terms of visa costs.

Read the following website to get more detail of a settlement visa:

https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa

YOU, the Brit, has to fulfill financial requirements to obtain a visa. Basically you need to be earning 18,600 GBP per annum to qualify. OR have savings to make up shortfall, OR if no earnings 62,500 GBP in total savings.

Read the following document carefully to see how you could qualify:

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...ment_Final.pdf

Pulaski

Further to SanDiegoGirl's excellent post, above, your "unusual lifestyle", traveling around Asia and Australia, is highly unlikely to meet the 24 months of demonstrable cohabitation that a domestic partner visa would require so marriage is likely your only option.