Tom_

Hi,
I realize there are several different cases regarding this, but i can't find an application which is the same as mine - hence my post.

I have been born and raised in England all my life, my fiancee has been born and raised in Brazil, Sao Paulo.

I met her and then proposed last year - I had a family friend who said it's very difficult to get married overseas and then come back to settle in the UK so we decided we would get married and settle in the UK

A few months after I proposed we found out she was pregnant (now you can see why it's a bit more urgent)

We then applied to get married in England and went through the appointment at the registry office and complied with the Home office investigation, we have passed both and can now get legally married. It seems that the last step is to get the visa which seems overly complicated and I don't understand what to do.

I have been applying for the marriage visa which lets her come here for 6 months so we can get married and then settle here. I took the list of supporting documents, paid for the appointments and found that it could be done with a priority visa for an extra amount which I paid.

After doing this twice I was informed by chance when I phoned the home office that we were applying for the wrong visa and told to apply for a marriage settlement visa which takes 3-6 months.

I have now spent £400 on visas only to be told it's the wrong one, i'm running out of money and need to make sure the next time it's correct.

The new visa I need to get is now £1000 and takes 3-6 months, my fiancee will be unable to fly in about 2 months due to being too far pregnant - i can't wait 3 months for the visa.

Plus since she is in Brazil where there is an outbreak of the Zika virus, i'm very concerned for our child as there is no cure and one of her friends a short distance from her (about a town or so from her) and was 7 months pregnant and she now has the Zika virus and the doctors are unable to do anything.... I also don't want our child to be a brazilian national as it means I'll have to pay for another visa further down the line I guess.

After reading the visas I believe I need to apply for the "Remain in the UK with family" visa, however I need to make sure that the hospital bills are paid for since I can't afford to pay a hospital to deliver a baby (we had an emergency scan over here which took 5 minutes and cost me £300... I dread to think how much a baby would cost to deliver)




*What I need*
I need my fiancee over here as quick as possible, before the birth of our child
I need the NHS bills to be paid for and to not receive a bill for delivering our baby
I need to know whether we can get benefits like child benefit, working tax credits etc - I am aware that she won't be able to get these but since i'm a national and will have a wife with no job, and a child, my plan relied on my getting some form of benefit to help support us since.

I do earn over £20000 so there shouldn't be any issues with financial restraints.

Any information or help would be much appreciated at this point

formula

Unfortunately it seems you applied for the Marriage Visitor visa, which only costs a few pounds, allows someone to come to visit the UK to marry and then leave; with no free use of the NHS. It is not a visa to settle in the UK, which costs much more and needs proof you can support your wife and proof of English.



That's about the price.
https://www.gov.uk/join-family-in-uk/overview

Have a read to make sure you understand what she needs to get that visa as it's different to the requirements for a Marriage Visitor Visa (as that visa is just a visitor visa and doesn't lead to settlement).

You child can be born abroad and could still be a British citizen through you.




Sorry, but you can't get her here any quicker than the visa takes.


If she enters the UK on a fiance visa, then she will be billed for using the NHS.

In April 2015, the NHS rules changed. Visitors and those on visas of 6 months or less: which the fiance visa is: have to pay to use the NHS.

Here is the government link on the NHS and visas.

"Visitor visas and short-term visas

You don’t have to pay the healthcare surcharge if you’re applying from outside the UK for a visitor visa or any visa that lasts 6 months or less.You don’t need to use the healthcare surcharge service or get an IHS reference number for your visa application. Instead, you’ll have to pay for any healthcare you get through the NHS at the point you use it."

https://www.gov.uk/healthcare-immigr...ation/overview

All NHS bills over 1k must be paid before she can have another visa (her spouse visa after you marry her).



If you travel to Brazil and marry her there, then she can apply for a spouse visa. The spouse visa is more than 6 months, which means she pays the £600 Immigration Health Surcharge when she applies for that visa, which then allows her to use the NHS for free at point of use.

Same link
https://www.gov.uk/healthcare-immigr...ation/overview




Yes, when your child is living in the UK and if you earn less than 50k - 60k (ish). Make sure you claim in your name only. It will be a breach of her visa to claim that benefit in her name.


No Working Tax Credits as you need to show you can sponsor your wife for a visa by earning over 18,600 and that is too much to claim WTC.

You could claim the Child Tax Credit part if you earn less than 26K, but make sure that BOTH names are put on that benefit claim as it is fraud to claim you are single when you have a partner. Child Tax Credits won't give you extra benefits for your wife, but when she works her salary will be used to calculate the benefit amount.

Tom_

Thanks for the quick reply!

Ok so at least i've now got the right visa to apply for and won't waste anymore money, I called the homeoffice which costs £2 p/min and they confirmed the visa too.. It's a shame I may miss the birth but I guess there's nothing we can do

I checked on the government website and seems that I can register the birth as long as i'm over there and get a local birth certificate and bring it back to the UK and get it translated by an approved translator then give it to the government along with a total fee of around £200 - so that's ok i thought i would have to go through the visa process for our child too...

Since you understand visa's a lot more than I do, do you feel it would be better to go out to Brazil, get married and then apply for a spouse visa instead?

formula

It has to be your choice.

It's either:

Fiance visa fee. Be billed for using the NHS. No working. Marry within 6 months.
Spouse visa fee and free NHS once IHS is paid. Working allowed.
Second spouse visa fee and free NHS once IHS is paid. Working allowed.
Then ILR (Indefinate Leave to Remain). Working allowed. Free NHS with no IHS to pay.


OR

Marry abroad.
Spouse visa fee and free NHS once IHS is paid. Working allowed.
Second spouse visa fee and free NHS once IHS is paid. Working allowed.
Then ILR (Indefinate Leave to Remain). Working allowed. Free NHS with no IHS to pay.



EDIT. Just to add that the visa fees rise in April.

SanDiegogirl

You need the join family in the UK visa - settlement

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


You can either get a fiance visa which allows her to enter the UK for 6 months and get married within that time, (no NHS availability) then apply for the spouse visa which allows another 2.5 years in the country, then Further leave to remain for another 2.5 years, before Indefinite leave is granted.

OR

Get married overseas, then apply for the spouse visa.

Either way your current situation will have no affect on the length of time your visa takes to process.

If you pay additionally for priority service (if it is available in Brazil) then the process could be cut down to about 4 to 6 weeks.(but no guarantee)

I'm also going to throw in a question here about pregnancy and birth being automatically provided under the NHS if it is quite obvious the person is entering the UK to do just that. Was there not a proviso for 12 months in the UK before such services are automatically provided, even with the NHS surcharge? Pregnancy is not an illness.

formula

That 12 months wasn't for spouse visas. A few paid the NHS when they got pregnant while visiting their boyfriends, went home and got a spouse visa, came back and got the rest of their pregnancy for free.

Now the Immigration Act 2014 has overwritten all this 12 month thing and the changes began from 6 April 2015. Payment of the IHS gives them full access to the NHS for free while their visa is still valid. There is a bit written that says they can't have expensive discretionary treatment like IVF, cosmetic surgery, but that part hasn't been implemented yet.

Only those with a visa of more than 6 months have a Biometric Resident Permitand their IHS number is linked to their BRP. When they use the NHS, they present their Biometric Resident Permit to show they must not be billed. The NHS then claim the cost of that treatment back from the central fund that holds all the IHS money and do not use their own budget.

When the BRP is shown, the NHS staff must also check their SPINE system just in case their visa has been revoked. UKVI put a green banner on the persons record on the SPINE system so the NHS know they must not bill. A red banner means they don't have a valid visa for free NHS and must be billed, or they can refuse treatment if they can't prove they can pay/don't pay up front.