marrying a foreign partner

Voyager2002

balletshoes wrote: »

absolutely - there is no automatic right for a spouse to come live and remain in the UK with you if they not UK/EEA citizens.

Note, however, that you do have an automatic right to live WITH YOUR SPOUSE (of any nationality) in any EU country other than your own. And after living together for a few months in the EU while exercising treaty rights, you acquire an automatic right to move with your spouse to the UK.

(The law on this is highly technical, so get professional advice if you consider going down this route.)

balletshoes

oh believe me voyager, I'm not going through all the stress, expense and red tape again .

Savvy_Sue

balletshoes wrote: »

I have to say, just because a man (any man) says he doesn't want to be kept, he wants to work, doesn't make him a man who's attitude is "my way or the high way".

My OH is from a different culture, traditionally where the man's word (in public anyway) is law, but we established when we got serious together that he wasn't marrying a traditional woman from his own culture, so we'd both have to compromise. And we have (him probably more than me, as the years have gone on, as we live in the UK).

I think if the OP had said something like "he can't work if he gets his visa? Thats okay, I'll support him and he'll be fine with that" she'd get a whole lot more flak.

I think you've done what I hope the OP will do: become aware of the OH's culture and how that differs from our own, and work out where the potential difficulties are going to be. I agree that I'd rather have a man who WANTED to support the family than one who was completely happy to be a Kept Man, but something in what the OP said rang faint alarm bells for me.

DH was out of work when we married. He was also made redundant when I was expecting DS3. And later I was the main earner while he pursued a change of career, and he was doing most of the school pickups. None of those were 'comfortable' situations: the question is what do you do with them?

sausagesandwich19

A skype relationship? that is not a relationship

meritaten

if he cannot visit the UK then there is a reason - I would think very carefully before marrying this man. I am cynical yes - but, you dont seem very set on marraige and I think that your instincts are telling you not to. Listen to them.

Fire_Fox

Instruct a solicitor that specialises in visas and immigration before you sell your home. Your partner will not have the automatic right to enter the the UK even if you are married, and likely the Home Office will be even more convinced he will be an overstayer as married couples tend to want to live in the same country.

I think there is a link between the authorities not believing this is a genuine course and believing he will overstay in the UK. They like for visitors to have a job to return to. Can he get A LOT more evidence that he is a genuine student in Hong Kong and why he has chosen to study there when he is from Egypt? As many official bits of paper as possible - letters from tutors, dates of attendance on headed paper, notification of exam or coursework results, then have all these translated by an approved person or company into English before submission. A visa/ stamp in a passport doesn't prove anything except that he was in the country. Official documents prove he is attending, taking his studies seriously, has paid for the next semester/ year up front and is therefore likely to want to return to Hong Kong to complete his degree.