visa question for my chinese wife

Dusty Bookshelf

Visa questions. Chinese wife visiting England for ??????
Hi All,

I've been looking around the boards for some information specifically relating to my situation but can't seem to get anywhere. Starting to feel like I'm back in England already going round in circles with nobody being forthcoming with helpful information so I thought to ask here.


I'm an ESL teacher in China in my 3rd year. I'm about to marry my Chinese gf and want to take her to the UK for a visit of up to 2 years. My problem is that I can't seem to find the exact visa I need for that purpose. After 2 years (If we can get it) we'll return and settle in China. On the visa websites there are a number of different options (Study/Work/Visiting family etc) but as she is none of these I don't know where to go from here. The website specifically says that their staff will not answer any questions about which type of visa you need. I've tried anyway about 5 times with no progress other than redirection to the site.


This is where I am right now so want to start to get the paperwork stress out of the way. Any help that can be offered would be greatly appreciated.

r3nu4l

If you are married to her and you are visiting family in England, foes that mean that she is visiting family too? After all, your family will be her in-laws, she is marrying into your family...

I can't give you a definitive answer but that's about as much 'logic' as can be applied to your situation. Whether that logic matches that of the British system or not is anyone's guess!!

MrPudding

Dusty Bookshelf wrote: »

Visa questions. Chinese wife visiting England for ??????
Hi All,

I've been looking around the boards for some information specifically relating to my situation but can't seem to get anywhere. Starting to feel like I'm back in England already going round in circles with nobody being forthcoming with helpful information so I thought to ask here.


I'm an ESL teacher in China in my 3rd year. I'm about to marry my Chinese gf and want to take her to the UK for a visit of up to 2 years. My problem is that I can't seem to find the exact visa I need for that purpose. After 2 years (If we can get it) we'll return and settle in China. On the visa websites there are a number of different options (Study/Work/Visiting family etc) but as she is none of these I don't know where to go from here. The website specifically says that their staff will not answer any questions about which type of visa you need. I've tried anyway about 5 times with no progress other than redirection to the site.


This is where I am right now so want to start to get the paperwork stress out of the way. Any help that can be offered would be greatly appreciated.

Are you from the UK or Ireland? If you are form ireland and now living in the UK then it will be considerably easier for you to get your wife over.

As a European citizen there is a bunch of really cool legislation around the free movement of workers and the right given to them, and these rights are extended to family.

In order to "activate" the rights you must have moved around Europe. So if you are from the UK and still living there it will be more difficult. However, if you are not from the UK and live there now you can likely use European legislation to bring you wife over. If you are in that position then I would recommend you do a bit of research on your rights under the free movement of workers legislation.

MrP

Feathers

If you are Irish, this is a decent booklet from the EU Commission as a starting point:

• Freedom to move and live in Europe: A Guide to your rights as an EU citizen [PDF file]