I am a UK citizen and my girlfriend is a US citizen. I came to America to meet her in person on the visa waiver program, initially intending to head back home after two weeks. As it was we fell deeply in love and I thought I would stay a while longer as I had sufficient funds to buy another ticket home and keep myself without having to worry about working or anything like that.
Then the problems began. My bank was holding some kind of deal at the time of my travel meaning that if I only used Bank of America to draw money out it would not cost any extra in fees. Knowing I was staying for a while and the 'promo' was only temporary (or so i was told) I drew out all my money and stored it at at her grandfathers house. Alas they had a break in and my money was amongst some of the many things that were taken.
To cut short I have been here a just under a year now, being supported very kindly by my girlfriend through the fact I could look after her son and save money on child care fees. I dont take a lot to keep as I an vegetarian and do not smoke or drink and am not one for going out much to clubs or anything.
It really seems like we are cursed though, every time she graciously tried to save up money to help me get home again something would happen. First her car broke down in a real bad way costing a fortune, then we gave a family member of hers the next batch of savings to hold onto so we didn't dip into it and they 'lost' it and claimed no responsibility in helping to recover it.
Personally we thing they outright stole it. After this (and other happenings) I decided to look into the idea of staying and marrying her here but from what I have seen its a very costly endeavor which would take us at least another 6 months to save up for. (the original intention was and now still remains for us to move to England and get married there).
Now we are wondering how it is possible for us both to travel to the UK together, getting married and living there as originally planned, it seems if we do like I will be banned from returning to the U.S. for up to ten years.
Also I don't want to live here illegally as I am now and don't want to work in this country as an illegal. I know I should have looked into all this before coming here in the first place but there was never an intention of staying it was originally a holiday and she was to come to England a while after I had returned. We want to be able to do things right to save any heartache and undue stress however we have been through so much together and love each other so dearly that we do not want to be apart from each other, especially given the current climates financially and otherwise in both countries.
I cannot for the life of me find anything that talks about such a situation, the nearest I find is that if I was in the UK already she could apply for a fiance visa and move across to marry me. Problem is that whilst we have someone who will loan us the money on her side of the family to get us all over there it has to be all of us, they wont lend me the money to return on my own for whatever reason they have in their head.
Is it possible for us to return to the UK with her son from a previous marriage altogether(the father is fine with it as he lives in another state, never sees his child and has signed the relevant papers to allow him a passport). I don't think her traveling on the VWP would be a good idea as I'm sure we would run into the same problems we have here and as I have said we want to do this right. Will they grant her a fiance visa if I am not already in England though.
I have family there who will let us stay with them and sponsor us until I get a job and save up for our own place to rent. Ive already been told through my work colleagues that I would be able to get my old job back as well so we would not have to rely on any public money to keep us at any point in all of this.
I'm sorry if I have made this longer than it need be and repeated myself but we are distraught over trying to work out a way that is legal and works for us. I hope someone can help and if you are reading this part of my post then thank you for sticking with it.
