# Pregnant USA GF



## kash-ah (Aug 24, 2013)

Hi all,

My GF is 4 months pregnant and she is an American citizen. She wants to apply for marriage visa but my current job does not pay the 18,000 salary required for her to move to UK. What should I do? I need answer asap.

Will she get denied if we apply?

Can she not come here on visitor visa and get married and then we apply for her to get status changed while she is in UK? Let me know please. Thanks.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Pregnancy has no effect on your application. If you don't meet financial requirement, it will be denied.
She can come as a visitor, but cannot marry and cannot change her status to any other. Any visa must be applied for in US.
I suppose moving to US isn't an option for you? They have strict visa regime but financial requirement is less (around 2/3) and support from third party such as parents and relatives is allowed.


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## BronwynBean (Nov 20, 2012)

Hi

Congratulations!! 
No she will not be able to change a visitor visa over to another type of settlement/marriage visa. 
You could try and get a job that would give you the required amount, work in it for 6 months then apply. 
I think armed forces jobs waiver the financial requirement, if you receive a carers allowance, or disabled. 

I do think that she can apply for a fiancé visa, come here to get married but then she applies for spousal visa, which carries the financial requirement.

I'm sure more will respond soon.

All the best


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

BronwynBean said:


> I do think that she can apply for a fiancé visa, come here to get married but then she applies for spousal visa, which carries the financial requirement.


Even to apply for fiancée visa, you need to meet the financial requirement. She can get a visitor for marriage visa and get married here, but has to go home to apply for spouse visa, meeting the requirement.


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## kash-ah (Aug 24, 2013)

so what are my options?


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## Crawford (Jan 23, 2011)

kash-ah said:


> so what are my options?


You could go to the US and live there. If she does not have the financial wherewithal to support you her family/friends could agree to be third party support.


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## kash-ah (Aug 24, 2013)

what if moving to the usa was not an option?


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## Crawford (Jan 23, 2011)

kash-ah said:


> what if moving to the usa was not an option?


Then you have none ....... hopefully she has support in the US. 

With the greatest of respect you should have thought of this some 4+ months ago.


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## enfianced (May 13, 2013)

kash-ah said:


> what if moving to the usa was not an option?


People are being brutally honest, but your situation isn't a great one. I don't think you need anonymous online judgment rained on your head, though, s**t in life does happen. 

Is there any way you could get a second job to make up whatever you're missing from the financial requirement of 18,600 GBP/annum? You have to earn at least 1,550/month for 6 months (this will need to be reflected in your personal bank statements) in order to sponsor your girlfriend (assuming you're in salaried employment and not self-employed). You could also use cash savings, but that is a high (and unrealistic for many) threshold to make. From my own personal experience, applying for a fiancé visa is almost the exact same process as applying for a spouse visa (the major difference being you need to show real evidence of planning to get married with a register office for a fiancé visa vs. showing a marriage certificate for a spouse visa).

Applying to move to the US is a much much longer process (can take 4 months to a year for a spouse visa, slightly less time for a fiancé visa), so not necessarily an ideal alternative. For a CR1 (spouse) immigrant visa, your girlfriend would need to show she makes 125% above the poverty line for a household of 2 ($19,387/annum for 2013). You can get a third-party sponsor unlike in the UK, but either way, your girlfriend and any sponsor would need to show their past 3 years of tax returns. Is she or a relative/close friend in the US set up to do this at all if you're willing to move to the US?

One point that is very relevant and needs to be made is that if you can't sponsor her for a UK visa before the baby is born, you will need to show a financial requirement of 22,400 GBP/annum in order to sponsor both her and the baby. So, my best advice, unless you can realistically apply for a US visa, is to start looking for better paying jobs, which I know, is much easier said than done!

I'm very sorry about your situation, it makes me very angry that immigration law, no matter the individual justifications behind the policies, often separates parents from their children. I wish you the best of luck!!!


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

enfianced said:


> One point that is very relevant and needs to be made is that if you can't sponsor her for a UK visa before the baby is born, you will need to show a financial requirement of 22,400 GBP/annum in order to sponsor both her and the baby.


This is wrong. If the child is his it is a UK citizen and there is no additional financial requirement beyond earning £18,600/year.


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## enfianced (May 13, 2013)

nyclon said:


> This is wrong. If the child is his it is a UK citizen and there is no additional financial requirement beyond earning £18,600/year.


Oh, that's much better, I'm so sorry for possibly adding to his worries!! Thanks, nyclon, for correcting my mistake


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## domesticatedhuman (Aug 24, 2013)

I was under the impression the child is only a UK citizen if born in the UK to parents with right to be here? If the child is born in the USA to an American mother it will be American. You would need to go through the dual citizenship application process to allow the child to be English.

(Canadian who lived in America for 8 years and is now the the UK with a UK husband and a UK daughter)


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

domesticatedhuman said:


> I was under the impression the child is only a UK citizen if born in the UK to parents with right to be here? If the child is born in the USA to an American mother it will be American. You would need to go through the dual citizenship application process to allow the child to be English.
> 
> (Canadian who lived in America for 8 years and is now the the UK with a UK husband and a UK daughter)


You are wrong. If the child has one parent who is a UK citizen he/she gains citizenship by descent.


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## domesticatedhuman (Aug 24, 2013)

Automatically or is there a process for that?


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

If the child is born outside the UK to at least 1 UK parent he is British by descent. You just apply for a passport.


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## kbrit (Jul 15, 2013)

A expert correct me if I am wrong, and with regards to the pregnancy I am not sure if you can do this but also I believe you have to be married or living together for a couple of years again I will be corrected on that . But there is a option called the surindar singh route, where you can go to another EEA state and practice your treaty rights there, aka, living, working there for around 3 months with your non EU partner, then apply for a EEA family permit and bring in a non eu spouse that way. However like I said though what with the pregnancy and not being married I am not sure what would be the situation with that in your case. Congrats on the pregnancy.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

nyclon said:


> If the child is born outside the UK to at least 1 UK parent he is British by descent. You just apply for a passport.


The British parent must be a citizen otherwise than by descent, i.e. born, adopted, registered or naturalised in UK. There are circumstances in which a child born abroad to a Briton by descent can acquire citizenship, such as when the parent had lived in UK for 3 years prior to their birth or was on Crown Service abroad (such as a diplomat or armed forces member). When you relied on your father being British when born prior to 1st July 2006, your parents had to be married. This was to prevent a single man on casual relationship or one-night stand begetting British children all over the world. The law was changed because it was considered discriminatory on men and a chance of widespread abuse was thought to be minimum.


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## kash-ah (Aug 24, 2013)

i read a document on ukba website and it says that if one of the person involved has savings of approx $100,000, they meet the financial requirement. Is this true? (i cant link the document because I haven't made enough posts on this site yet)

If one of us has extensive savings, does this mean we can apply and we meet the financial requirements?

Just as a side note, how long does the application take to process from the day of submission?


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## enfianced (May 13, 2013)

kash-ah said:


> i read a document on ukba website and it says that if one of the person involved has savings of approx $100,000, they meet the financial requirement. Is this true? (i cant link the document because I haven't made enough posts on this site yet)
> 
> If one of us has extensive savings, does this mean we can apply and we meet the financial requirements?
> 
> Just as a side note, how long does the application take to process from the day of submission?


Unless I'm mistaken, yes, that's right, I think the exact figure you will need is 62,500 GBP in order to meet the financial requirement with cash savings. Please be aware that that amount has to be in a bank account in your or your partner's name untouched for at least 6 months (you have to show bank statements to prove this). Read over this document regarding the various ways you can meet the financial requirement, it's very helpful: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/s...DIs/chp8-annex/section-FM-1.7.pdf?view=Binary

And to answer your second question, it depends if your partner applies priority or not and whether or not she has any negative immigration history. If she doesn't and you don't apply priority, the average is usually around 6 weeks when applying from the US. If you do apply priority, which costs $300, the processing time can shorten significantly, though there's no guarantee. I applied priority in May, and my application was processed within a week once it was received in Sheffield.


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## kash-ah (Aug 24, 2013)

the bank account doesnt have to be situated in the UK right?


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

No, it can be anywhere in the world, and doesn't have to be in sterling. It will be converted to sterling using Oanda's spot closing rate for the date of application.


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