Immigrating to the UK with my girlfriend

[Alzthehero]

She can come to the UK as an unmarried partner. You'll have to prove that you have been together for some time (2 years?). Post delivered to the same address, photos from vacations together etc. I'm sure there is more info on UK immigration forums...

As in a fiancé visa? The stipulation on that is we must plan on getting married within 6 months once we enter the UK

[Scousebanana]

As in a fiancé visa? The stipulation on that is we must plan on getting married within 6 months once we enter the UK

If you want to go down the "spousal" visa route, you should apply for the Unmarried Partner Visa

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...partners-set05

[Scousebanana]

If you want to go down the "spousal" visa route, you should apply for the Unmarried Partner Visa

Though this assumes that you by the time you apply, you will have been co-habiting for at least 2 years.

[Alzthehero]

i have living in UK for almost 30 years and 11 years in HK, my best advise

she can apply for working holiday visa for under 30

https://www.gov.uk/tier-5-youth-mobility

Please note bristol ain't cheap for (better than hk though) as my friend purchased a terrace house for GBP250,000, in comparison, Birmingham, a okish area would be close to half that price.

the best advice, is too choose an area where the job will you are working as can be easily found and a good balance between finding an affordable home while being close to amenities, best to research which cities cater for which industries as you find a better job prospect in that respect

like with every place, there are advantages and disadvantages, while uk has affordable homes, the direct taxation is quite heavy especially income tax/paye, but car ownership is relatively cheap

the grass is always greener on the other side haha, we really are just looking for an improvement in quality of life overall and the UK seems to be the most feasible option

[Alzthehero]

If you want to go down the "spousal" visa route, you should apply for the Unmarried Partner Visa

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...partners-set05

But do the years spend under this visa count towards the required years for naturaliasation?

[imparanoic]

the grass is always greener on the other side haha, we really are just looking for an improvement in quality of life overall and the UK seems to be the most feasible option

Every place has advantage and disadvantages, I live in New territories, so I get more bang for my buck, however I don't rent property, only rent car park which is expensive

In HK, there is very low direct taxation, but high indirect taxes, depending on your circumstances, UK could be better, but so much uncertainty with brexit, what the point of Moving back then worry about the company which just hired could make you redundant

[Scousebanana]

But do the years spend under this visa count towards the required years for naturaliasation?

Have a look on the UK Government website I linked you too. All the information you need is on there.

[Alzthehero]

Every place has advantage and disadvantages, I live in New territories, so I get more bang for my buck, however I don't rent property, only rent car park which is expensive

In HK, there is very low direct taxation, but high indirect taxes, depending on your circumstances, UK could be better, but so much uncertainty with brexit, what the point of Moving back then worry about the company which just hired could make you redundant

yeah brexit does scare me a little so we might just rent a place in the initial years until the water calms then hopefully buy our own place (property prices might sink after the UK wraps up it’s brexit nonsense)

[Alzthehero]

Have a look on the UK Government website I linked you too. All the information you need is on there.

I have a small question: to apply for the Tier 5 Youth visa, the applicant is required to have a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) which is obtainable from the HK Labour Department every year (max 1000 applicants and picked randomly, hopefully we get lucky). Lets say my partner does obtain the CoS successfully next year (they usually announce the winners in early April, and one must apply for the Tier 5 visa within a period of 3 months or else the CoS will be invalid.)

The conundrum is, since we plan on working for another year here in HK (at least until Dec 2019), and the CoS will stay valid until lets say June 2019, how long would we have before the Tier 5 visa expires or what is the maximum period allowed for one to hold the Tier 5 visa before entering the UK? (I assume the 2 years of Visa only starts when you enter the UK) We'd like to ideally move to the UK in Dec or Jan 2019.

Thanks for all the help, been dying to get all this planned out. Sorry if the question seems confusing.

[markranson]

At the age of 55 I wanted to return to the UK and live with my HK girlfriend (marriage makes little difference) so that, as an only child, I could be close to my ageing mother. Knowing that it was unlikely to be straightforward, I made an appointment for a paid consultation with these people:

https://www.britishconnections.com

After the meeting, I realised that my self-employed status meant that I simply could not meet the rigid Home Office financial criteria. The meeting also raised a plethora of other complexities and made it quite apparent that even if I were able to meet the financial criteria, I would not be able to go through the application process successfully without the assistance and expense of an organisation like British Connections. After my chat with them, I found an empty stairwell in the building and wept.

We shipped our belongings to the UK anyway as it was too expensive renting a flat to store them in. We then went back to the UK for a long stay but could not consider the option of having my partner spend 6 months there, depart and then return for another 6 months and so on. The reason we could not consider this is because British Connections advised that if the UK Border Force saw that this was going on, there was a high likelihood that she would deported on a second or third attempt to return to the UK on a tourist visa.

Her best option would be to change her religion to Islam and then go on holiday to the UK. Shortly after arrival she should attempt to murder a policeman and then, after being caught, she could look forward to citizenship and a five bedroom council house within 6 months.

The system stinks.