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Hello everyone, i am Italian living and working in London. My girlfriend is russian and she currently lives in Italy with regular permit. I would like her to join me in London to leve with me and I read so many articles about it that i am a bit confuse. My girlfriend she has no job right now.

I wanted to try to find out what i would need to do in order to make her join me in London providing that i will be paying for all the expenses until she will find a job.

please feel free to ask me any info in order to elaborate a better answer.

much appreciated.

This would come under EEA route, not a UK visa.

https://www.gov.uk/family-permit/overview

You will need to show you have been in a relationship akin to marriage for at least 2 years. Once the family permit is granted, your fiance can enter the UK. She will then need to apply for a residence card and will immediately be able to work.

thank you Ohara for your prompt reply.

Unfortunately we only been together for just under a year. so i am not sure that would apply.
would you have any other option to suggest?

There is always the UK visa route but I am not certain it is available to EEA citizens (wait for experts to confirm).

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

Be aware it is substantially more expensive than the EEA route with much more stringent requirements such as minimum earning threshold.

Alternatively, you could go to Italy and marry her. Then things would become a whole lot more simple, and she'd also qualify for Italian citizenship after a few years I believe.

thank you Ohara.

let's hope the expert will reply.

ohara wrote:There is always the UK visa route but I am not certain it is available to EEA citizens (wait for experts to confirm).

It's restricted to people settled in the UK, and it seems unlikely that the OP has achieved and retained permanent residence.

There seems to be a weird route by which he could become instantly settled, but a simple trip to Italy and back would lose him his settled status.

Hi Richard, thank you for your reply.

I am settled in UK as i work here and pay the tax in UK. so what would be the best option?

Settled means having PR under the EEA regulations, or ILR under the UK Immigration Rules. Have you qualified for PR?

alb23 wrote:I am settled in UK as i work here and pay the tax in UK. so what would be the best option?

Ohara's already given you the best option for the short term - marry her in Italy. You can then travel back to the UK together by land - your marriage certificate would be the visa.

I don't believed you are 'settled' in the UK. If your only citizenship is Italian, there are only three ways you can be 'settled':

1) Hold EEA Permanent Residence (PR). This normally takes 5 years to acquire.

2) Hold Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). You are unlikely to hold this unless you have been in the UK for more than 10 years.

3) Enter the UK from the Republic of Ireland. (This is the weird method I spoke of.) This settled status is lost if you re-enter from elsewhere, and as your are not Irish it would also depend on having leave to remain (unlikely to be held by an Italian) or a right to be present under the EEA Regulations (which you do have).