2 year cohabitation not directly preceding application?

[londonlad82]

Dear all,

I was hoping someone might be able to offer some advice.

Here is some background:

I’ve been in a relationship with my girlfriend for about six years. We’re both originally from New Zealand. I’ve been living in the UK since 2009 and am now a citizen. She is not a citizen of the UK.

After a year of being together( ~ Jan 2013), we moved into a house in London where we lived together for about three years. She was offered an amazing job opportunity in China two years ago and has been working there ever since – I’ve been visiting regularly and vice versa. We had planned to move back to NZ eventually, but now think we might stay in the UK.

We don’t want to go down the marriage path just yet. Although realise its probably easier.

I have all the documentation to meet the visa requirements for a family visa as an unmarried partner, except perhaps the two-year cohabitation directly before application.

My question is, does the two-year cohabitation requirement have to be directly preceding the application if you can prove a continuous cohabitation at some other point in time?

Does anyone have an experience where they have been granted the visa after cohabitation that isn’t directly preceding application?

I look forward to your responses.

LL82

[CR001]

My question is, does the two-year cohabitation requirement have to be directly preceding the application if you can prove a continuous cohabitation at some other point in time?

It must be the 2 years immediately preceeding the application.

Does anyone have an experience where they have been granted the visa after cohabitation that isn’t directly preceding application?

The two year cohabitation evidence of 'living in a relationship aking to marriage' is mandatory, there is no discretion on this point. If you don't have it for the 2 years immediately prior to application, then the visa will be refused.

[secret.simon]

The language of the Immigration Rule concerned - 295A (i) (a)(i) - is in the present perfect continuous tense, suggesting that the cohabitation needs to be persisting at the time of the application (i.e., as CR001 has said, in the period immediately preceding the application).

295A. The requirements to be met by a person seeking leave to enter the United Kingdom with a view to settlement as the unmarried or same-sex partner of a person present and settled in the United Kingdom or being admitted on the same occasion for settlement, are that:
(i) (a)(i) the applicant is the unmarried or same-sex partner of a person present and settled in the United Kingdom or who is on the same occasion being admitted for settlement and the parties have been living together in a relationship akin to marriage or civil partnership which has subsisted for two years or more; and
...

[londonlad82]

Many thanks CR001 and secret.simon for your prompt replies.

[Obie]

With the utmost respect to Char and Secret Simon, i do not think the above statement is a reflection of the law.
I do not agree that immediately preceding can be read into the rules, nor can it be said that such a case has to be read in the present continuous context.

GEN.1.2. For the purposes of this Appendix “partner” means-

(i) the applicant’s spouse;
(ii) the applicant’s civil partner;
(iii) the applicant’s fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner; or
(iv) a person who has been living together with the applicant in a relationship akin to a marriage or civil partnership for at least two years prior to the date of application, unless a different meaning of partner applies elsewhere in this Appendix.

(i) the applicant’s spouse (which must be evidenced by a marriage certificate);
(ii) the applicant’s civil partner (which must be evidenced by a civil partnership certificate);
(iii) the applicant’s fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner; or
(iv) a person who has been living together with the applicant in a relationship akin to a
marriage or civil partnership for at least two years prior to the date of application
(which we expect to be evidenced by documents showing that the couple have been
living together at the same address for at least two years).

The two-year period of living together for a couple who are not married or in a civil partnership
must have been completed prior to the date of application. It does not have to have been
completed immediately preceding the date of application if, for example, the couple are
currently living apart for work reasons in order to meet the financial requirements of the Rules,
provided that the relationship continues to be genuine and subsisting at the date of application.