# Moving to UK With Chinese Wife from China



## Chilsden (Oct 12, 2016)

Hello

First of all been reading the forums and lots of great information here so thanks for all the information.

I am British, born in the UK and my fiancee is Chinese.

I just wondering if anyone here has moved from China to the UK with a Chinese Wife. I have known my now fiancee for over 7 years and are getting married next year legally in China and having a ceremony in South Korea. I am not worried about "proving" the relationship as we have rental agreements, pictures, plane tickets, visas, wedding certificate etc however, I have a few questions I am hoping you guys can give me some information on.

- Correct visa should be ‘family of a settled person’ visa - gov.uk/join-family-in-uk/overview

- My understand is that unless I have a job offer in the UK I would need to move, work for 6 months earning over 18k and then apply?

- If we want to both move back to the UK together at the same time then we need to prove we have over 62,500K GBP in funds in our names but can be a mixture of UK and China?

- The actual visa application is done through vfsglobal.co.uk

- Has anyone used a service to help with the application, e.g. marriagevisahelp.com - any recommendations for moving from China to UK?


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## HKG3 (Jan 11, 2015)

Chilsden said:


> I have known my now fiancee for over 7 years and are getting married next year legally in China and having a ceremony in South Korea.


Have you ever consider doing the legal marriage in Hong Kong? As Hong Kong marriage certificates are in both English and Chinese, you will not need to translate it into English for spouse visa application.

Marriage Registration | Immigration Department

You also need to provide evidence of where you and your wife will stay in the UK. If it is not your own place, you may need written approval from the landlord.


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## Chilsden (Oct 12, 2016)

HKG3 said:


> Have you ever consider doing the legal marriage in Hong Kong? As Hong Kong marriage certificates are in both English and Chinese, you will not need to translate it into English for spouse visa application.
> 
> You also need to provide evidence of where you and your wife will stay in the UK. If it is not your own place, you may need written approval from the landlord.


Hello, 

Thank you for your reply

Not considered doing the legal marriage in hong kong. Not sure what the advantage is of only getting one document less translated. I take it any Chinese documents need to be translated into English? Do you know if this has to be done by a particular agency or anything? 

Luckily my parents are still living in the UK so I guess I can get a letter from them saying we can stay there?


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## HKG3 (Jan 11, 2015)

Chilsden said:


> Not considered doing the legal marriage in hong kong. Not sure what the advantage is of only getting one document less translated. I take it any Chinese documents need to be translated into English? Do you know if this has to be done by a particular agency or anything?


All supporting documents in the spouse visa application that are not in English will need to be professionally translated into English. 

I can see two more advantages in holding the legal wedding in Hong Kong - 

1) Hong Kong and the UK are in the Apostille Convention, so many documents can be use without the need of getting them legalised with the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office and vice versa. 

2) Your parents, if they are both British Citizen, can visit Hong Kong visa free to be part of the legal wedding. They will need to pay for Chinese visas if they want to take part of the legal wedding in China.


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## Chilsden (Oct 12, 2016)

HKG3 said:


> All supporting documents in the spouse visa application that are not in English will need to be professionally translated into English.
> 
> I can see two more advantages in holding the legal wedding in Hong Kong -
> 
> ...





HKG3 said:


> All supporting documents in the spouse visa application that are not in English will need to be professionally translated into English.
> 
> I can see two more advantages in holding the legal wedding in Hong Kong -
> 
> ...


Hello

Can you clarify what you mean by professionally translated?

When we get legally married in China, we will get a translated English version of the marriage certificate - not worried about this as its easy to get on the day we get registered and is recognised by the UK.

For the ceremony, all her Family live in South Korea and it's not a problem for my parents to go there. We have already booked so don't need to go to Hong Kong except maybe for purchasing the ring


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## kellythecat (Jun 26, 2015)

I asked the visa office about translations, here was their response:



_Thank you for contacting the United Kingdom Visas & Immigrations (UKVI)
international enquiry service.

If you need to certify a translation of a document that’s not written in
English or Welsh, ask the translation company to confirm in writing on the
translation:

-that it’s a ‘true and accurate translation of the original document’
-the date of the translation
-the full name and contact details of the translator or a representative of
the translation 
company

We hope that this has answered your query.._



I took that to be as long as its a professional translation (ie not a family or friend translating it)
I sent the originals, the scanned copy signed by company and the translation itself. but I havent gotten my visa back yet so who knows... :S

It cost several hundred dollars to get divorce papers translated so if cost is an issue the less you need translated the better!


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## Chilsden (Oct 12, 2016)

kellythecat said:


> I asked the visa office about translations, here was their response:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Ah ok, Yes I know what you mean. In China, this is easily available though and the cost is not too bad. I had to get several documents translated a few years ago for my first working Visa and went through this process. For example, my diploma and CV were all translated into Chinese but cost about 200 RMB.

Does anyone have any recommendations for companies to help review the application before submitting, particularly specialised in China to UK migration for Chinese nationals? I am considering marriagevisahelp.com

Thanks


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## Plumvfox (May 10, 2016)

Chilsden said:


> Hello
> 
> 
> - My understand is that unless I have a job offer in the UK I would need to move, work for 6 months earning over 18k and then apply?
> ...



Hi! Sorry I don't have any advice specific to your situation, but I noticed no one has addressed these questions yet. I am currently applying for a spouse visa, too, and this is my understanding about these questions:

1. Yes, if you do not have a UK job offer for a salary of 18,600 gbp before tax you need to move back to the UK and have a job that meets these requirements. 

2. I do not know exactly what you mean, I assume you are referring to meeting the financial requirement through savings only, and not current income, if so then I would assume that it can be a mixture of different currencies so long as when converted it does equal 62,500 in GBP.

You probably also need to have accomodation and proof of accomodation sorted for yourself and your wife in the UK before you apply.

Hope this was helpful, and best of luck


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## Chilsden (Oct 12, 2016)

Hello,

Yeah, thanks for all the information. Just wondering if anyone has used a service to help with the application like marriagevisahelp.com? Particularly in the scenario of China to UK?


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