Office Address

FACT SHEETS

• Appeals
• Asylum
• British citizenship
• EEA applications
• Highly skilled migrants
• Illegal immigrants
• Innovators
• Investors and businessmen
• Settlement
• Spouses and unmarried partners
• Students
• Visitors
• Working holidaymakers
• Work permits

Spouses, partners and fiance(e)s

If your spouse, civil partner, fiancé(e) or unmarried partner is settled in the UK, you can apply to join them.

Many of the requirements in the Immigration Rules are common to all these categories:

• neither of you must be below the age of 21
• you must have met each other
• one of the partners in the relationship must be 'present and settled' in the UK - that is, must habitually live in the UK with no time limit on their stay
• you must be able to show that there is sufficient money available to be able to maintain and accommodate you without needing access to any 'public funds' or welfare from the UK government
• you and your partner must intend to live together on a permanent basis

The specific requirements to be met are:

Spouses and civil partners

• must be legally married or in a civil partnership recognised in the UK

Permission is initially given for a two year period, at the end of which, if the relationship is still subsisting and the maintenance and accommodation requirements continue to be met, an application for settlement or permanent residence can be made. There are no restrictions on working with this type of entry clearance.

If one of the partners in the relationship has been a British citizen for more than four years, and both parties have been living together overseas for four years, settlement is granted straightaway without the initial two year time limit, as long as the non-British partner can satisfy the requirement to have sufficient knowledge of the English language and of life in the UK. Click here for more about the Life in the UK test.

Fiance(e)s

• you must plan to marry or register a civil partnership within six months of arrival in the UK (though in exceptional circumstances an extension of this time is possible)
• there must be a place for you to stay before your marriage / civil partnership (this can be with your prospective partner, or elsewhere)
• there must be sufficient funds for you to maintain yourself without working and without access to welfare provisions

Entry clearance is given for six months, during which time you will not be allowed to work. Once you are married or have registered your civil partnership you can apply for leave to remain on that basis. This will be for an initial period of two years, after which you can apply for settlement. There are no restrictions on working after you have been given the two year marriage / civil partnership visa.

Unmarried partners

• any previous marriage or civil partnership must have permanently broken down
• you must have lived together as partners for two years or more

Permission is initially given for a two year period, at the end of which, if the relationship is still subsisting and the maintenance and accommodation requirements continue to be met, an application for settlement or permanent residence can be made. There are no restrictions on working with this type of entry clearance.

If both partners have lived together overseas for four years or more, settlement is granted straightaway without the initial two year time limit, as long as the non-settled partner can satisfy the requirement to have sufficient knowledge of the English language and of life in the UK. Click here for more about the Life in the UK test.

Applying for entry clearance

Applications for entry clearance should be made to the British post in your country of residence. There is a prescribed form on which the application should be made. The UK authorities charge a non-refundable fee for processing applications, which is payable in local currency. The fee to process an application is currently £500.

The time taken to process an application varies considerably between posts, and is dependent upon staffing levels and volume of work.

Applying from within the UK to extend your stay

If you are already in the UK it is not possible to apply to change your visa to that of a fiancé(e), but it is possible to apply on the basis of your marriage, civil partnership or unmarried partnership. If there is a time limit on your stay in the UK you will have to apply to the Home Office for a Certificate of Approval before you can get married.

Our Services

Consultations and General Advice

If you want general advice about your immigration situation, you can make an appointment to meet with one of our lawyers. We will give you an assessment of the merits of your case and advise you on what we consider your best course of action to be. If our advice is that you can submit an application, you may decide to do this yourself, or to instruct us to take your case on and make the application on your behalf.

Making an initial application in the UK or abroad

The quality of an initial application can make the difference between the success and failure of that application. When you instruct us we will:

1. Give you an assessment of the merits of your case and advise you on the best course of action
2. Inform you of the legal requirements which you will have to meet for your application to be successful
3. Explain how the legal requirements will be interpreted by the UK authorities, based on the internal instructions given to their caseworkers
4. Complete the application form on your behalf based on the information you give us
5. Give you detailed advice about the supporting evidence that will need to be submitted along with your application
6. Submit your application form along with all evidence and with legal representations on your behalf. In the legal representations we will set out the particulars of your case and circumstances, details of the Immigration Rules under which you are asking for your application to be considered, and show how you meet the requirements of the law, or, if you do not meet the requirements, explain any compelling and compassionate circumstances and present your case in the best possible light to explain in legal terms why your application should be successful.
7. Liaise with the appropriate authorities until a decision on your application is received

Appealing against a refusal

If your application is refused by the UK authorities you will have a right to appeal against the refusal. An appeal must be lodged within very short time limits, and the appeal form must give detailed reasons for the appeal (called ‘grounds of appeal’) if the appeal is to be valid. All appeals, even those against the refusal of entry clearance abroad, are heard by an Immigration Judge sitting at the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in the UK.

We offer two levels of service:

Grounds of Appeal
We will review your papers (initial application and supporting documents, refusal letter) and will draft detailed grounds of appeal giving legal reasons as to why your application should not have been refused, for you to submit with your appeal. We may need further information, either face-to-face or over the telephone/email, from you to enable us to do this. We have no responsibility towards you other than drafting the grounds of appeal within the strict time limits given by the UK authorities.

Representation
As well as drafting grounds of appeal we will submit your appeal to the Tribunal within the given time limit, liaise with you and any witnesses you may have who will speak for you at your hearing, liaise with the UK authorities on your behalf, and represent you before the Immigration Judge when your appeal is heard, using legal arguments, case law and the government’s own immigration rules and policies to present your case in the best possible light.