switching to partner visa from tier 4 student visa

[chippyred]

Hi everyone, thanks for taking the time to read my post...

So here's the situation, I am male a British citizen, born in England, my fiancee is from Indonesia and currently 18 months into her 28-month student visa studying her master's degree. she is living with me in my rented flat since September 2015 and is listed on the council tax. She also has a student bank account registered to our address (we also now have a joint savings account with a different bank).

we have been engaged for almost 2.5 years and have been in a relationship for almost 3.5 years. My fiancee is intending to apply for a partner visa once we can prove we have been living here together for two years.

I guess our question is what else do we need to consider before we make our application? is using an agency to make the application on our behalf likely to increase our chances of success?

currently, she is also working part time after a successful placement period during her masters, there could be the possibility of a job offer once she graduates, and possible sponsorship opportunity, but this is more of a plan b or plan c option.

I believe we meet the financial requirements. We wanted to avoid getting married just for the sake of getting a visa, plus we don't actually know if being married or not affects the application!

thanks in advance for any advice and help offered

[CR001]

I guess our question is what else do we need to consider before we make our application? is using an agency to make the application on our behalf likely to increase our chances of success?

No, an agency does not guarantee anything except you being poorer for what is effectively a form filling function.

I believe we meet the financial requirements. We wanted to avoid getting married just for the sake of getting a visa, plus we don't actually know if being married or not affects the application!

You need to prove £18,600pa income, either jointly or individually. For an Unmarried Partner visa, you need substantial rock solid evidence proving you have been 'living in a relationship akin to marriage', much more than just council stax and student bank statements. Read form FLR(M), roughly page 63/64, it lists examples of what HO expect to see.

[chippyred]

Thanks for your speedy reply, I'll certainly check out that list now

[chippyred]

I have looked through the list, She has letters from GP, payslips from her employer, plus from work at the university, all bills are in my name, her mobile phone is a joint account with mine, we can prove daily conversation over several platforms. however she is not on the tenancy agreement which is my main concern, would it be worth to move house to get this proof? (she can't be added to this tenancy), it would only be proof for the 6-8 months before the visa application anyway?

does a joint savings bank account count for anything?

[chippyred]

Hi everyone,

I am a bit confused after making a call to UK immigration, the guy I spoke to said that it is not possible to switch from a tier 4 student visa onto a family/partner visa, you are only able to switch to a t2 general visa.

we've been preparing all our evidence, bank statements, my tax return and financial records, documents proving we are living together, we have a new tenancy agreement with her name on it. This was under the assumption that we could switch from within the UK.

Can someone advise if this is correct?

[CR001]

Utter nonsense.

The call centre is a third party agent who frequently give out incorrect information and take no responsibility for it either.

[chippyred]

Really? this was a phone number on the gov.uk website

[Casa]

Really? this was a phone number on the gov.uk website

Yes, but as CR001 has said, the Home Office 'help-line' is staffed by an outside agency.

You might find this article by Freemovement of interest.
https://www.freemovement.org.uk/immigra ... pectation/

[chippyred]

Ahh okay, thank you for making it crystal clear for me.

Well, our situation has gotten a lot more complicated and now i don't know what to do...

3 days ago my fiancee's younger sister died in a terrible accident. she has flown straight home to be with her family and have the funeral etc.

her student visa is due to expire on 28/1/2018, we don't know when she will be able to fly back at this stage, and now I've noticed on these forums that some people are being refused access back in once their course is finished. I got her to take all the evidence that we have with her just in case we need her to apply from outside the UK.

what are the chances that they will refuse for her to be let back in? the reason for her coming back is for us to apply for the unmarried partner visa. so should we just apply from outside the uk and save a potential money on flights?