gregtown

Hi,

I am a UK citizen moving back to England with my Australian partner who I am engaged to. We are planning to apply for the de facto partner visa and eventually marry a couple of years down the line.

The wording on the government visa pages makes it sound that if you are engaged, you must marry within 6 months of our arrival. See below from https://www.gov.uk/join-family-in-uk/eligibility :

"You’re engaged

You must prove that you plan to marry or become civil partners within 6 months of arriving in the UK.

You won’t be able to work during your engagement."

My question is, do we have to apply for the engaged route, or can we state that we are engaged as part of the proof of our ongoing relationship for the regular partner visa route? It seems like it would be unusual to place restrictions on us because we are engaged, that otherwise wouldn't be there if we were not.

Thanks in advance,
Greg

Wintersong

From the way it's written, my understanding would be that the 'marriage within 6 months' stipulation is there to avoid having people claim to be engaged purely for the sake of immigration when in fact it's not a genuine relationship. If you can prove that you've been in a relationship for more than 2 years already, you don't need to be engaged and don't need to be married within 6 months.

Again, this is just my best guess based on the way it's phrased on the site. Others may know better!

SanDiegogirl

If you are not intending to marry within 6 months then the fiance visa is not the one you should be applying for.

If you wish for your partner to enter the UK and live there with you without marrying within any particular time, then you should apply for a partner visa. Specifically "Apply to join family living in the UK"

YOU as the Brit will need to sponsor your partner. There are financial, relationship and accommodation criteria to fulfill.

One of the main requirements of this visa is that you have lived together prior to the visa for a minimum of 2 years in a relationship akin to man and wife.

https://www.gov.uk/join-family-in-uk

Financial requirements are below:

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

gregtown

Ok great, thanks. I wasn't sure if our situation (being engaged) would dictate the visa we have to apply for, or whether the regular de-facto visa is still available to us, but from your apply it sounds as though we still get to choose