Fiancee has 24 month Visa and wants to come over with her son

[MDNJ101]

Hello,

My fiancee (Chinese citizen, Beijing) has 18 months left on her 24 month Visitor visa. We plan to marry and I know that that will be a more protracted process. She came here at Xmas and I was going to visit her in March - which clearly was not possible.

She would like to come over again and bring her son and stay for as long as she can on the visitor visa.

I have two questions really.

Is it a straightforward process to get her son a visa (he is 10 years old)?

And will it be possible to start the fiancee visa application while she is here in the UK? (She doesn't mind travelling back if not, but we would like to know if it is worthwhile starting the process while she is here.)

Any help or advice will be very welcomed - I appreciate that Covid makes everything less certain, but I know that (as of this morning) Air China are scheduling direct flights into Heathrow at the start of May.

Many thanks

[Zerubbabel]

Is it a straightforward process to get her son a visa (he is 10 years old)?

No it's not and the risk of refusal is high.

I have seen plenty of cases where a parent gets a visa if the kid doesn't apply. But if the parent applies with the kid or the kids applies later, they refuse.

They think in terms of attachments to the home country. They know no one would leave a kid behind. So in some sort, the fact that the kid doesn't have a visa acts as "insurance" that the person would come back.

Also, thread carefully about your relationship. Having a relationship in the UK, often means stronger ties to the UK than to the home country. That in itself is enough for them to refuse visitor status either by refusing the visa or denying entry at the airport.

[Casa]

Where is the child's natural father? Does your fiancee have sole custody through the Courts? I ask this relating to a settlement application, rather than the visitor visa issue.

[MDNJ101]

She has sole custody through the courts

[Zerubbabel]

From your question, I had the feeling that you were asking about a visitor visa for the child. Is that correct?

[MDNJ101]

Hi - yes.

We will be applying for a fiance visa in order to marry.

But we have been separated since Xmas because of the virus and we wondered if it is possible to get her son a tourist visa and to travel with her (she has 18 months left o run on her own 24 month tourist visa), so that we can be together.

The second part of my question was asking if it would be possible (or advisable) for her to apply for her fiance visa while she was here on her tourist visa.

I hope that is a little clearer.

Mike

[CR001]

The second part of my question was asking if it would be possible (or advisable) for her to apply for her fiance visa while she was here on her tourist visa

No, is not possible. She must apply form her home country.

[MDNJ101]

OK. then it's a bad idea for her to come here on her tourist visa at all? I assume she wouldn't be able to come over while the fiance visa was being processed.

[CR001]

The IO on arrival at the airport will be able to see that she has a pending settlement visa and could refuse her entry and send her back. So it is risky.

[MDNJ101]

Thanks - this is sufficiently scary for me to postpone any idea of bringing her over in the meantime.

I assume I'm ok to travel to her on a normal visa/passport without it affecting her application? (Normal as in anything is normal at the moment!)

[CR001]

You are free to travel.