UK Tourist/Visitor Visa For Unmarried Filipina Partner

[jrlee183]

I recently put this UK Visa process guide together for a friend of mine and thought it would be good to share here for those of us who are unmarried, but want to take their long term/unmarried filipina partner to the UK.  

We first applied in February 2016 and just went for the shortest 6 month visit visa, given that it was her first application.  I was acting as sponsor.   Some people have told me that I went completely over the top on the documents we provided, however my logic was such that I felt it was important to be able to provide hard evidence for every fact/statement that we included on the application.  That way it could never be questioned.

The process we went through is as follows:

Go to https://www.gov.uk/standard-visitor-visa

Fill up the application form with all of the information they ask for (you need to set aside a good few hours for this as they ask for alot of info, including complete travel history .... you have to go through each trip they have done).  Of course, be completely honest and whatever you do dont lie (or not even 'flexible' with the truth).  Once you have paid, you need to make the appointment at VFS  to go and submit the documents.   

In addition to all of the confirmation documents that are generated, The documents we supplied for my partner were as follows:

• Her orginal passport
• Her NSO certified birth Certificate
• Her NSO certified birth certificate for her son
• NSO Certified CENOMAR
• Bank certificate for her bank account (She didnt have much money in her account at the time, so what we did was I transferred a decent size sum into her account and stated on the online application that the funds had 'only very recently been transferred to her account specifically for the purpose of this trip, should the need arise').
• Notarized Copies of her business documents (DTI etc).  This business had not long been open so we declared her income as zero on the application, but still made reference to that on the application as well as confirming she was self employed.
• Medical insurance certificate (I used our corporate Bupa certificate which she is included on).
• Flight itinerary (doesnt need to be a confirmed ticket nor the exact flight you take, and if you go to Qatar Airways they allow you to make a reservation without paying and they will hold it for a few days so you can submit an actual flight itinerary).
• A day by day itinerary of what she would be doing whilst she was there (just use an excel spreadsheet). 
• Copies of emails between her/myself and my family/friends arranging these activities etc.

Then there were my sponsorship documents:

• Copy of my passport
• Six months bank statements (i highlighted each time my salary was paid to make it easy for them to spot it)
• Sponsorship letter confirming my sponsorship and written confirmation that I will cover  'all costs associated with maintenance, accommodation (should the need arise outside of our planned accommodation arrangements) and care and shall ensure that during her stay in the UK, she does not have recourse to any public funds or free medical treatment. In event of any unexpected medical expenses this will be covered by our corporate medical insurance with Bupa International. In the event of a dispute regarding our insurance coverage, I personally guarantee to cover the cost of any unexpected medical expenses.'

The last thing I had to do was provide evidence of our relationship.  After alot of research online I discovered that one of the most common reasons for visa rejection was that there was insufficient evidence to prove a relationship exists.  Of course we are not married so cannot provide a marriage certificate.  So what I did was arrange for an 'affidavit of co-habitation' (we all know how much they love affidavits in the philippines!) to be drawn up basically stating that we have been a couple for two years, that we have lived at various addresses and have been living as a de facto married couple for that period.  We then appended evidence of the same to the affidavit (e.g. fight tickets showing us travelling together, utility bills showing we both lived at the same address, rental contracts in joint names etc etc).  Seriously, this thing ended up being about 2 inches thick.  But it did the trick and we got the visa approved in less than a week. 

We repeated the process later in the year and got approved for a 2 year visa.   Also an Australian visa too (although the process is slightly different).

Anyway, I hope that helps some of us unmarried folk here get their partner a visa to the UK or elsewhere .... it is definitely worth the effort!

Jamie

P.s. if anyone needs help or wants the affidavit of co habitation just ping me a PM and I will gladly assist . 

 

 

[Old55]

Well detailed, thank you for taking the time to share this with the group.

[Jack Peterson]

35 minutes ago, jrlee183 said:

Six months bank statements (i highlighted each time my salary was paid to make it easy for them to spot it)

 Now My friend a Question that I (and Others) would ask before I even thought again about applying for a visa for my Wife to the UK, (although I know you are talking unmarried But...)What sort of Funds would they be looking for, many of us have well enough Funds and Income (Mainly I feel pensions for many of us) to live here but not I feel, to support any application (Married or not) for a UK Tourist Visa.

As with many things it is all about Money after you have the other paperwork in order. YES?  

[jrlee183]

2 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

 Now My friend a Question that I (and Others) would ask before I even thought again about applying for a visa for my Wife to the UK, (although I know you are talking unmarried But...)What sort of Funds would they be looking for, many of us have well enough Funds and Income (Mainly I feel pensions for many of us) to live here but not I feel, to support any application (Married or not) for a UK Tourist Visa.

As with many things it is all about Money after you have the other paperwork in order. YES?  

Good question.  Some say work on about GBP 100 per day if you are staying in a hotel or probably less if staying with family, others say equivalent of GBP 18k per year (the minimum income they say for a spouse visa ..... i think).  What we did was in the application it asks what are the costs of your trip.  As long as your costs are realistic thats what i put the equivalent of in my partners account plus a little extra.  

Part of the 'paperwork' is documenting the money is in place already.

[Dave Hounddriver]

3 hours ago, jrlee183 said:

Some people have told me that I went completely over the top on the documents we provided

I am happy to hear it worked for you taking the the partner to the UK.  I also went "over the top" on the documents provided to take my live-in-partner to Canada.  It is my confident opinion that the person examining the paperwork saw the huge age gap and looked no further.  Request denied.  They did not take sufficient time to have examined all the paperwork.

The same lady got a Schengen Visa in one day when applying with a live-in-partner close to her own age.  So its not the lady or her circumstances.  Canada is just prejudiced.  Thus I have to ask, what was the age gap of the partnership approved for the UK?

[jrlee183]

36 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Thus I have to ask, what was the age gap of the partnership approved for the UK?

12 years age Difference. 

[Dave Hounddriver]

7 minutes ago, jrlee183 said:

12 years age Difference.

I am curious how the UK would handle a visa request from a couple with a 40 year age difference.  Have you had any experience with that kind of request?  Not where the man is 90 and the lady is 50 but where the man is 61 and the lady is 21.  Is there the usual "hidden prejudice"?

[jrlee183]

Just now, Dave Hounddriver said:

I am curious how the UK would handle a visa request from a couple with a 40 year age difference.  Have you had any experience with that kind of request?  Not where the man is 90 and the lady is 50 but where the man is 61 and the lady is 21.  Is there the usual "hidden prejudice"?

We have a family friend who we know very well who has that exact age difference between himself and his filipina partner.  No problems getting UK visas on numerous occasions.   US and Shengen visas also no problems

[Gratefuled]

I'm from the states and I plan on getting my wife a spousal visa next time I go to LA.

I plan on hiring a lawyer to do the legwork and paperwork. I know how tedious and time consuming this can become. I don't have the patience for that. 

[AlwaysRt]

12 hours ago, Gratefuled said:

I'm from the states and I plan on getting my wife a spousal visa next time I go to LA.

I plan on hiring a lawyer to do the legwork and paperwork. I know how tedious and time consuming this can become. I don't have the patience for that. 

By 'spousal visa' are you talking about resident/green card? It is CrAzY that it is "easy" to get a resident visa for a spouse but better chance to win the lottery to get a spouse a visitor's visa. What possible reason would a spouse have for overstaying when a resident visa is available???

*oops, sorry off topic for this thread* we now return to you normally scheduled comments....