Defacto partner visa to UK

coldpaw

Does anyone have any experience on getting a UK work visa for a defacto partner from a non EU country?

Myself and my Australian partner are thinking to move to the UK to be closer to my family. We are both over 30.

I've done a bit of research online and it seems i can in theory get her a visa to the country as long as we can prove that we have two years of a relationship.

Has anyone gone through the process before? Are UK immigartion ok or are they a nightmare like the Ozzies?

Any comments, help or pointers would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Barry

Peregrinus

You, presumably, are an Irish citizen but not a British citizen.

You're an EEA national, and your partner can apply for an "EEA family permit" on the basis of her relationship with you. She'll only get it if you're already in the UK or if you can satisfy the authorities that she and you will be coming to the UK together (which presumably is what you intend). You'll need to plan to travel to the UK within six months of applying for the permit.

Be aware that they will scrutinize your relationship pretty thoroughly. They look at factors such as the length of cohabitation, joint finances, whether you have children together. But even if you satisfy all these measurable tests, your partner may still be knocked back if, e.g. she is the kind of person who would ordinarily be refused admission to the UK, or if the circumstances suggest that she would become a drain on the public finances. (Presumably this isn't a concern here.) Finally, they will ask themselves whether "in all the circumstances, it appears to the Entry Clearance Officer appropriate to issue the family permit".

If you were married, you would get a slightly easier ride (a spouse is a "core family member", whereas a de facto partner is just an "extended family member") but they would still be asking themselves if this was a marriage of convenience.

coldpaw

Thanks very much for the reply Peregrinus.

Yes im Irish and my partner is a full time professional here in Oz.

Have you gone through the process before?

Grr, thought i was finished with immigration Departments!

Peregrinus

No, I haven't, not with the UK. I immigrated to Australia as the spouse of an Australian citizen, whereas your partner wants to immigrate to the UK as the non-marital partner of an EEA national, so there are some similarities but the situation is not an exact parallel. To answer your questions I looked at the instruction manual which the UK government issues to its own entry control officers.

The good news is that you are required to intend to move within six months of applying for your visa. That means they have to turn your application around fairly quickly, so applications of this kind go to the top of the queue. But the associated bad news, I suspect, is that if you don't have all your ducks lined up they don't faff around waiting for you to find whatever bit of paper is missing from your application; they reject it, and you have to start again.

coldpaw

Thanks for the helpful response!