Post
by SimonS » Sun May 21, 2017 1:47 am
Hi Talk23,
I have just married my Russian wife last month and submitted the spouse Visa application. Waiting on a decision. Your story is very similar my own experience with my wife. We visited many Schengen countires together over the course of a year because it's very easy for Russians to get a Finnish Schengen and cross the Finnish/Russian border on a day return to receive the necessary stamp to start their trip in Europe. Prior to our marriage, my wife visited the UK on 4 occassions each time on the short stay tourist Visa and for no longer than about 17 days. She got 3 Visas in total.
As advised above, be very careful with this though. On the third occassion she visited the UK in an 8 month period she was almost refused entry. I was waiting for her in the arrivals at the airport and was called by a UK border official and had to spend over half an hour on the phone to them explaining our relationship in uncomfortable detail and convincing them she would leave. They did not tell me whether they would let her in. I only knew when she appeared about 15 minutes later, nerve wracking does not even come close. The problem is, if they ask her where she is staying and of course she naturally and honestly gives your address, well, tourist becomes very questionable.
I also visited Russia on 3 occassions prior to our wedding in Russia in April this year. It's easy to visit Russia the frst two times in a year on a tourist Visa but they are very short, one entry, 30 days max. Once you have used two visits in a 12 month period you can no longer use a tourist Visa and must get a business Visa but an agent can help with the particulars required for that.
The moderators and experts on here are superb and the advice is excellent, but I would add one small point that slightly contradicts something above. The guidance for ECO on "subsisting relationship" (required for eventual spouse visa) which I actually have read, suggests, a valid consideration of meeting this requirement is "having visited each others home country". Of course one could argue what weight and proprotion is given to the demonstration of this but nonetheless, it is clear in the guidance to the ECO for the decision.
You should make sure you start to keep all of the receipts/flight confirmations/boarding passes etc for hotels and flights now. You will need to send them as part of the settlement visa application to demonstrate "subsisting relationship".
Anyway, the long and short of it is we did all the research for marriage and we concluded that in our case, the easiest and most cost effective route was to marry in Russia -we'd both been married before and were not interested in a big, all family invited ceremony. You can always do a renewal of vows in the UK at a later date. Beleive me, the costs for the settlement Visa go way beyond the upfront fee's. The amount of documents you may need translating, notarising and apostilled could be significant. Those services are not cheap even in Russia. Without the wedding, the Visa application for settlement alone, with priority, once sundry expenses are included is close to £3500.
I have my own thread on this board detailing every step. Perhaps you may have already read it but if not, it's called "Spouse Visa For My Russian Wife - Please Help". I've no idea which page it's on now so best to just Google it.
Since your relationship parallels my own, quite happy to give any advice from my experience.
Good Luck
Simon
