sarahjane19901

hi i am a uk citizen, i have a boyfriend from barbaods, we have been together for 4 years now, we want to get married, could anyone give me some advice on this. i want him to live we me in the uk. thanks.
any advice would be a great help.

Lady in Waiting

Be prepared for a long wait....If you are applying from Barbados you will need to be able to prove you can support yourselves financially in the UK as he will not be entitled to any social funding eg if he is unable to find employment he will not be able to claim JSA so you will need to be able to prove you can support him until he finds employment which is not easy at the moment.

Even if you are married it does not make any difference to the length of time you will have to wait. Ours took about 8 months as it was initially declined but we got a justice of the peace to support our application which helped

I am from the UK and I met my husband in Barbados. After we married it took 3 months for the paperwork to be considered and then on the first application it was refused as the authorities will do their utmost to find a reason NOT to approve a settlement visa

Check this link as it gives most of the info you will need to make your application.....and be ready to pay approximately £1000 for the pleasure!!

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/po...ivil_partners/

Having said this...their are many of us that have not been deterred and upon our second application we did finally get the visa for an initial 2 year period.

getting married in Barbados is quite straightforward.... you just need a couple of witnesses and pay a fee to the local magistrates court to apply for a licence

Good luck.....I guess the plus side is...It's a long process but probably easier than getting a settlement visa for Barbados! That takes forever

If you need any other info let me know...I have a very thick file!!!

Serendipidy

Out of interest on this topic why would someoen get declined for a marriage visa - on what basis can they deny it? - a friend called me today to find out about her husband from one of the other islands.

Lady in Waiting

It was initially declined as they did not believe it was a marriage based on "a romantic and subsisting nature " eg implying it was a marriage of convenience! This was despite the fact we had been living together for 18 months previously with his family and married in Barbados.

Tell your friend just to be ready to be able to prove everything...we submitted family statements, bank statements, work references, JP statement etc on the second submittal and this seemed to help but from what I understand the first submittal gets sent to a contact centre in the USA for review and they have targets to decline....the appeals gets reviewed by UK Immigration officers, which in my mind seems a waste of everyone's time and money for it to be handled by an outsourced reviewer whom has no understanding of UK life, someone somewhere is making a pretty penny....(steps off soap box)