Any advice? Me Brit, her Brazilian here as married to EEA...

[uncle p]

Wondering if anyone has any experience of the situation I find myself in or could offer some advice as the best route to take:

I am British and have a girlfriend who is Brazilian. She arrived here in 01/02 originally on a student visa. In 2003 she married her Italian boyfriend and got her visa stamp (not stamped until 2005) allowing her full work rights etc until 2010 as she then the spouse of an EEA national.

They seperated just over a year ago just before I met her. She is still on good terms with her ex but he has told us that he intends to leave the UK sometime over this year. As her visa is dependant on him exercising treaty rights in the UK then if he leaves then technically she has to as well.

Could anyone offer some advice as to how we could go about getting her a secure visa situation that isn't reliant on her ex living here? I've looked into things and the visa seems valid until a decree absolute comes through from a potential divorce (something she would willingly do if it helped). From what I can tell there are circumstances where she would be allowed to stay once divorced (so long as she has been married for 3 years to him - which she has now). I have no idea how these 'circumstances' are evaluated or judged though - anyone? She is currently finishing a years education and has held a part time retial job for the last three years. The plan is for her to do another 2 years study in 2008.

We did think about going the Italian citizenship route - this at first seemed the logical thing to do: the ex would help us we think so long as we paid etc. Upon investigating this though it seems the Italians reserve the right to take up to 2 years to process any citizenship application. Again, does anyone have experience in this field? Can immigration lawyers speed up the process much? It seems she qualifies for is as she has been married to him for over 3 years.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[John]

She is still on good terms with her ex ....

Lets just clarify this. Are they actually still married? Or has one of them filed a divorce petition? If so when? Or are they actually divorced now?

Just trying to establish if there was 3 year or more from when they married to when the divorce petition was presented (if indeed it has been presented).

[uncle p]

She is still on good terms with her ex ....

Lets just clarify this. Are they actually still married? Or has one of them filed a divorce petition? If so when? Or are they actually divorced now?

Just trying to establish if there was 3 year or more from when they married to when the divorce petition was presented (if indeed it has been presented).

They are still married. They have been married for over 3 years now (late 2003). No divorce has been started as we're just weighing up which way to go.