JazzyAbby

I'm fairly certain a fiancé visa is only valid for 6 months. Long enough for your fiancé to enter the country and hold a wedding. After you're married she would need to return home to apply for a spouse visa. if you mean ticking de facto instead of spouse on the spouse visa application the only difficulty will be in proving your relationship and convincing the Officer that gets your application that your relationship will continue once she's granted permission to live in the UK. if you've got children and longevity to your relationship then I see no issue there. good luck

Yep all five kids born here in Oz. I've got all my aunts and uncles to talk to, and one aunt in particular has started doing a family tree so may have something I can use.

You're right Marisawright. I've just ordered the certificate. He moved out here to Oz, and fought in the WWII in the Australian army. I'll see what records I can find though. I can access all his war records so I'll go back through and see if it has any mention of his family amongst it all. worth a look anyway, thank you

No quoll my grandfather was still married - though separated from - to his first wife. His name isn't on any of his five kids birth certificates. i was thinking of checking his death certificate to see if mum is listed as his daughter on that but wasn't sure it would be enough proof along with birth certificates from all three of us. that would certainly put some people off if the newer your relationship the higher the fee, I would hope anyway. Going the the savings route is extreme, turns out to be around $125 000. If we had that much money in savings I'd be holidaying around the world, not trying to relocate.

Quoll that's what makes it so frustrating. I read weekly about spouses who have disappeared the minute they've got in the country having secured a spouse visa. How are these 'couples' meeting the relationship requirement?? we have said from the beginning that we won't separate the family. We desperately want to live elsewhere but that is our line in the sand. We'll apply for any and all jobs and cross our fingers but having hubby go over on his own to work six months in his job before we apply would ruin us financially and we won't risk the kids future just so I can live my dream, haha. Very Stormy... im not 100% sure about Ireland being out. It's all speculation about what will happen. if the UK leaves then there is a two year leaving process but we won't know till after June 23rd if the UK will have to abide by EU laws until the final date. if the UK stays then Cameron has negotiated to stop freedom of movement for non eu spouses. Brits can live and work in Ireland as if they were born there but because the UK is currently in the EU I can't get an answer to whether that means a British citizen, allowed to live in Ireland, can apply for an Irish spouse visa - so much easier than for the UK -. or if the UK stats there is no news on when the negotiated deals take effect from. i haven't spoken to a professional about the ancestry visa. I did email UKVI and their 'very informative' reply was that it was up to me to decide whether my documentation was proof enough. To be honest I'm not sure who else I could ask...immigration lawyer?? my husband has an IT history but currently runs a warehouse, though just has a job title of storeman. He will do anything and will work anywhere to just get us in the country. i think part of my anxiety with the spouse visa was securing a job with a start date at least a month out, is it common to employ someone to start work 6 or so weeks after the interview? thank you both for reading my rant and offering advice. I was having a bad day and just needed to vent.

I've been lurking around these boards for about two years now and I'm at a point where I just need to vent our situation to people who may understand. I am Auatralian. I met my husband while visiting friends in the UK in 2007. He moved down here that Christmas and we have been together since. when our relationship first started I had my mother here in oz to care for and my husband hated the uk so we settled here. Had our daughter in 2010 and still didn't think about moving back. Had our son in 2012 and still didn't think about moving back. in 2013 we decided we would pay off our debt then move back. Then in May 2014 we had to make a rush trip back to Hereford as my mother in law was ill. we came home to Perth knowing we would move a lot earlier than planned as we both loved it and our hatred for Perth was growing by the day. december 2014 we set a date for our move, debt and all, and that was meant to be July 2016. we picked that date as it lined up with our lease ending and gave us enough time to save. to begin with we were going to get me an ancestry visa through my grandfather but then I found out he's not listed on my mothers birth certificate. So that option was out. we then thought of the spouse visa but the requirements seemed rather hard to meet without separating our family for over 6 months. then we discovered the EU freedom of movement that would allow us to move to Ireland, no visa required. so that was the plan we were going to Ireland on July 19th 2016 using the EU freedom of movement. We didn't even want to use the surrinda Singh route and go from Ireland to the uk, we were quite happy to just settle in Ireland. then Cameron went and called the referendum for a month before we were due to leave and our plans have gone out the window. due to his negotiated deal no matter which way the vote goes going to Ireland is out. So we are back to having to look at the spouse visa. it'll be difficult to get my husband a job earning £18600 or higher from out side the country but my biggest concern was the accommodation requirement as none of our family in the uk have homes big enough to hold us all...even on paper. i just want to be somewhere else. Ive never loved my home country. I long for the history and culture of Europe and the U.K. I want a community and family activities. The ability to see something new each time we take a drive. Green fields. im at my melting point. I'm frustrated that my hardworking English husband can't bring his two British citizen children home to the UK along with their mother without having to jump through hoops. yes the spouse visa route can be straightforward but for some, like us, it's a circus. i may have come up with a solution for the accommodation but I'm a bit wary about its viability. Even if it works I still need to find hubby a job. none of my Aussue friends understand but none of them have ever left the country either. i love to travel, I love to explore what the world has to offer. Being in Perth is like being in exile. Sorry about the novel, just needed to get it out.

Thank you Marisawright. From my research I'm seeing a trend in 'safe' country nationals having it pretty easy and relaxed with regards to ukvi so I'm not overly concerned. we got the kids passports in two weeks where as some people wait 6 months or more. ive just read as much as I can but I think it's gone past being helpful and is now detrimental. I'm questioning everything.

Yeah Ancestry, not my best spell check attempt, it gives you five years and you can extend for another five years then attempt ILR. you can apply for it using a grandparent who was born in the uk if you are a citizen of a commonwealth nation. just trying to find out if a death certificate could be used to claim the ancestry

Hi, does anyone have any knowledge on the ancestory visa? i had ruled it out as an option for us as my grandfather is not listed on my mothers birth certificate. however I've ordered a copy of his death certificate. IF my mother is listed as being a daughter on my grandfathers death certificate do you think I could use it along with my grandfathers birth certificate, my mothers birth certificate and my birth certificate to prove my claim to ancestory?? thanks for any help

Marisawright did you provide any documents along with your sisters address? A letter from her saying you could live there? Council bill, deeds? I'm curious as the accommodation requirement is actually quite hard for us to meet with none of our family over there having the required number of rooms to spare. All of those documents have been mentioned to me as being required. Just curious what you provided.

Unfortunately your wife's job would not count towards the financial requirement for the spouse visa. They only look at the sponsors (yours) income or joint savings. however as it states in the link below she can switch visas while in the UK after her work visa is up. https://www.gov.uk/remain-in-uk-family

We've done the maths...for us it's cheaper. Like I said its unique to your personal circumstances.And you're right it is not materialistic to own everyday items, that comes when you require the high end version of such things which we don't hence why it won't cost us a lot to set up home from scratch.I'm not against shipping your belongings if it's what you and your family want to do. The OP asked what others have done. I answered. We will be selling and starting over because in our situation, for us, shipping doesn't make any financial sense.

I think this is a subject that is completely unique to your own circumstances. whats right for one person is not right for the next. personally it makes more financial sense to sell up and start over. We could certainly re furnish a home for under £4000 so to us yes the "extreme shipping costs" are more than a valid reason to not take anything with us. we are not emotionally attached to any of our belongings and we're also not very materialistic people. If you are however then paying to ship it all over and figuring out the logistics of it is probably what's best for you.

My husband is concerned about what happens when he moves back to the UK. He will have been gone for almost 9 years when we move next year. who does he need to inform when he arrives back re tax etc...?

We'll be selling everything and starting over when we get to the UK but we love vintage and thrift shopping so it won't cost us the same as it would buying new. the shipping costs were too extreme for my liking.

Hi Amelia, my husband and I will be going this route next July when we move. I've read of quite a few people using it successfully on another forum so it is possible. The biggest hurdle is just getting that job offer from outside of the country but hopefully with your husbands company having UK offices it will be easy for you. keep in mind that you will also need to meet an accommodation requirement but if your husband has family with enough room for both you then again you should be fine. good luck with it.

Impala I was thinking the timing was perfect season wise. Coming from Perth neither the kids or I really know what cold feels like, I think a slow build to January/February temps is going to be needed we'll take a week once we arrive to just relax and see some family but as we live a few streets from the beach we're over that and are ready to explore some hiking worthy woods lady Rainicorn we are selling basically everything and even though some may advise against it we'll be starting a few months in advance leaving just the essentials for the last couple of weeks. I didn't know you could collect your bond in person do you have any info on how we do that or where I should look? i think I'm even more concerned this week as we've decided to jump through the immigration hoops and apply for the spouse visa instead of taking the easy route and exercise treaty rights in Ireland. so now I need to arrange it all around the visa process as well as the rental. I could do it easy if I wasn't as tight with my money as I am I like to do things as cheaply as possible though. thanks for the help I'm going to go join that group

The ATO website says you can do your tax return early if you are leaving the country permanently, so you should be able to get it done before you go in December. https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/international-tax-for-individuals/going-overseas/lodging-your-tax-return/lodging-your-tax-return-early/

I'm Australian, my husband is English and our two kids will have British passports soon. It's easier for Ireland as we can walk right on in and 'exercise treaty rights' I don't need any visas and my husband as a UK citizen gets all the benefits an Irishman would. to go to the UK I'd need to get the spouse visa which on paper is easy but with two young kids logistically it's a nightmare. We are going to give Ireland at least 12 months if we don't like it we'll use the surrender Singh route to go to the UK - again so much easier than getting the spouse visa - but we are pretty excited about it and think we may make it home. it still has all the benefits we are wanting. Closer to family, closer to Europe, more history, sights to see, more culture to emerge the kids in.

We will maybe have two or three boxes of sentimental items that we'll post to my father in law but other than that we're only taking a suitcase each. So im also thinking over all the options available to sell our entire household we have actually decided to move to Ireland as it's just easier than going the spouse visa route. I'm staying in this forum incase we change our minds or the referendum changes it for us when are you moving?

I'm looking for suggestions/advice please in regards to the moving process. we'll be leaving next July. We rent and our lease ends that month. The kids will be in school holidays. we are selling basically everything. Id love to hear from anyone who has done this and what they did. We will have some savings but obviously don't want to spend it all on the moving process. I'm looking for the cheapest possible way to go about this. we have family we can stay with but I'd only impose on them for maximum two nights. currently I'm thinking we will have to book into a hotel while we finalise the house. Get carpet cleaners, window cleaners and pest control done then do the final inspection. Am I making this more complicated than it needs to be? What process has everyone else done? thanks in advance.

It sadly isn't as straight forward as you would hope it would be, hence why my English husband and I are moving to Ireland now instead of back to the UK. ive spoken to a few consultants at 1st contact, they were helpful but again they have a hefty fee to have them assist you in the process. http://www.1stcontact.com.au there are contact details on their website. Good luck with it, I hope it goes as smoothly as possible for you.

You can only apply for spouse visa from outside the UK. So you could travel to the UK with your family as a tourist but you would need to leave to submit your application for the spouse visa. from what Ive read I believe the quick turn around you refer to is for FLR (further leave to remain) which is what you need to apply for 2.5 years after you're granted your original visa. If you pay the priority fee you can get it processed on the day. spouse visa approval can take three months. So if you apply in the next few weeks you may get it back before the new school year starts. The fee is quite high, currently £956 so close to $2000 and there are financial and accommodation requirements that need to be met.

We'll be moving next year also from Perth. My husband is the only English one and although he loved it here to begin with since we've started a family we've both become very anti Perth. we just feel that there is nothing to do here. We love exploring and on our trip to the UK last year we saw what we could offer our kids. Weekend country walks exploring ruins, small villages, all that history and of course Disneyland just a one hour flight away we know that financially we'll probably be Taki g a step back by moving but it says something that we are ok with that. We'd rather have a bucket load of free activities and a lower income than a pretty good wage with very little to do. we aren't big beach people, we live two streets away from one now so we are over it, and the Aussie country isn't our type of country...it's bush. We dont like the bush its all personal preference. We just don't like it here anymore and feel that what we can show our kids in the UK will be a huge benefit to them. we also gave ourselves a year to save for the move but we'll be selling all our belongings and starting fresh once over there. our biggest dilemma right now is if we go to Ireland for the ease or if we attempt all that's required for a spouse visa with two young kids. To be honest it's leaning more towards Ireland good luck with your move.

Thank you ali, I love step by step instructions