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A spouse visa or a civil partnership visa is a permit that allows married or civil partners to come into the UK on the basis of their marriage and/or partnership with a settled person in the UK. A settled person in the UK is a person with no immigration restrictions in the UK eg a British national, an EEA national (under the EEA free movement treaty) and any other individual with an indefinite leave to remain.
Legally married spouses and civil partners are treated the same under the UK immigration law. The law since 2014 have now recognized the choice of same sex couples between marriages and civil partnerships. The law also recognizes overseas same sex marriages.
Under the rules, only same sex couples can form a civil partnership. A civil partnership is legally recognized union of a same-sex couple, with rights similar to those of marriage. The parliament in November 2004 passed the Civil Partnership Act 2004 granting registered civil partnerships the same rights and obligations of heterogeneous couples. If you are a partner of a settled person in the UK, you can make an application to join your settled partner as a family member under this route.
Successful applicants under this category are granted a leave of up 33 months at the first application. They would then need to make another extension application for further leave to remain which is usually up to 30 months. This period of 63 months (over 5 years) allows the applicant to be eligible for settlement (Indefinite Leave to remain). However where the applicant is already in the UK, a successful application would grant the applicant an initial leave of up to 30 months. After the first 30 months has elapsed, the applicant would then have to apply for an extension. If granted, the extension is usually 30 months; at the end of which the applicant would have stayed in the UK for up to 5 years, making them eligible for settlement (Indefinite Leave to remain) in the UK.
It is important to note that where the settle partner has more than one spouse or civil partner overseas, only one will be able to migrate to the UK under this category as the UK’s legal system does not recognize polygamous marriages.
According to the new immigration rules which came to effect after 9th July 2012, an overseas spouse or civil partner of a settled person may apply for entry clearance to the UK on the basis of a proposed civil partnership with the settled person.
On entry, they must ensure that they register their civil partnership. If successful, overseas national would then have to make an in-country application to remain as a civil partner of the settled person.
Both applicants must be at least 18 years old before they can make an application to migrate to the UK; most especially under the spouse and/or civil partner category. Passports submitted with the application are sufficient enough as to evidence the age of the applicants.
One would naturally assume that partners would have met their spouses. Unfortunately, this is not always the case; especially with sham marriages, arranged for forced marriages. As a result, under the UK immigration rules, partners looking to migrate to the UK under this route must be able to proof that they have physically met each other.
Evidence of this may include pictures, most especially wedding pictures of both parties or pictures of the civil partnership event(s). Tickets or bookings of places both parties must have visited together and even the marriage certificate.
It is important that both parties are fully aware of the evidences mentioned above, this is because in some cases, the Entry Clearance Officer may further question the partners regarding the genuineness of their relationship and whether or not they have truly met. The kind of questions that may be asked may relate to the places they have been as well as where they first met.
There have been several cases of couples who have met over the internet and expect to be granted on the basis of their virtual meeting to satisfy the rule on “physically meeting with the partner”. Sadly, the Home Office do not consider virtual meet ups, in this case internet meet up as a sufficient demonstration of the fact that the partners should have physically met each other. It is therefore important that couples who met online should try as much as possible to have physically met each other. Probably on a different visa route like the visitor visa or any other convenient means.
Both parties (the applicant who overseas partner and the settled partner) must be able show clearly that there is an intention to live together on a permanent basis. As the subject of intension is usually a rather subjective theme, the intention to live permanently together is usually pegged with the genuineness of the relationship.
A letter or statement from the couple may also serve as evidence to show an intention to live permanently. This may be done by adding a letter to application declaring the nature of the relationship as well as the intention to live together at the given address; which is usually the residential address of the settled partner in the UK.
It is important that both parties are fully aware of the details of their residential address in the UK; as the Entry Clearance Office may ask questions relating to their knowledge of where they would be residing in the UK.
There is a need to show that the applicants are legally married or in a registered civil partnership that is recognized by the UK. In most cases, a marriage that is recognized by the law of the home country may be also recognized by the UK. However polygamy is not recognized in the UK.
A marriage is deemed legal and recognized in the UK when it is registered with the official registrar of the country where the marriage took place. A marriage certificate is usually issued as a proof of the marriage; thereby create rights and obligations for the both parties involved.
In most cases, a marriage certificate is enough to show the Home office that there is a legal marriage relationship between the parties involved. In the case of a registered civil partnership overseas, the civil partnership registration document is also sufficiently recognized by the Home Office.
Applicants must be able to show that they have adequate funding enough to support themselves in the UK without recourse to public funds.
The applicant must be also be able to show substantial evidence of adequate accommodation without recourse to public funds when they are in the UK. The size of the property will depend on the size of the family, as well as the number of people living there.
Evidence of adequate accommodation is critical to the success of the application. Such accommodation need be legally and exclusively occupied by the applicants. Evidence of accommodation may include Tenancy agreement, Land registry Certificate or mortgage statements, title deeds amongst a number of other documents.
It may also be an added advantage to obtain a letter from the Local council confirming the number of available rooms in that property as well as confirming that there will be no statutory overcrowding at the property.
For applicants who are nationals of a majority non-English speaking country, they will either need to pass an external English Language test at level A1 or above; or to have completed a UK bachelor’s degree (or equivalent according to NARIC) taught in English.