Advise on visa for my girlfriend from Philippines and her daughter moving UK?

Hi

I am not sure where too start on getting advise for my girlfriend who I met in Philippines just over year ago.

I would like for her to move UK and live with me, however she has an 11 year old daughter and I would like her to come also but she would need to go school in UK as she's only child.

My girlfriends grandparents where Spanish would this help in anyway? I know Europe need different visa to UK which she's had no issues previously obtaining this to visit Europe.

I'm English, have my own business and home. My girlfriend is willing to work in UK, however we would like to start family soon.

Thanks for any advise

hi--welcome to the forum.

heres a link to the gov site for settlement visas
https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa/partner-spouse

for your g/f to settle here ( with her child ) you will need to get married--either beforehand or within 6 months of her arriving.

one question--is the childs father around ?

Child's father lives in Philippines but she doesnt see him anymore as think he's married to someone else with children. So being married is only way around visa situation? as we havent lived together yet. If married would her child be eligible to go school in UK? how long would they be able to visit UK if they got dual citizenship with Spain? sorry about all questions but I have no idea about visa's. Thanks

she can apply for a fiancee visa which means she can come here for 6 months..in which time you get married..if not she has to go back within the 6 months.

ive no idea about the schooling, or spanish citizenship.

Spannish citizenship might be an option although lot easier if parents were spannish. Would need tonundrstand why parents did not have spannish citizenship. Key problem with going down spannish citizenship route is that need to have passports for girlfriend and child and move before 31st December 2020.

If fail on that then the only option assuming she does not qualify in her own right for a work visa is to get married. Can be done in either philippines or UK. Process is slightly different depending on how you do it. Alternative would be proving you lived together for two years which has its own challenges wgen not living in same country. Still need to do settlement visa application.

Child visa is not a given and scenarios where wife or fiance gets visa and child doesn't. Ideally father name is not on birth certificate. If it is then will need evidence trail of sole responsibility. People achieve visas for children but bit can be tricky so plan accordingly.

If on permanent visas for both wife and child then child can go to UK schools but not on visit visas.

If on spannish passports will be subject to Brexit agreements between eu and UK. Expect it would be six months at a time and potential refusal if seen to be using them to live here.

I just got back from spain this morning,i have met a few south americans the last few days who came to Europe on Spanish passports because of family links with the country,however I have met a good few filipinas and filipinos who had family history somewhere back down thye line but never met one who managed to get a passport through the family history.

I dont think her parents have left Philippines before and doubt they would be aware of being eligible for dual citizenship. Whats going to be happening on 31st December? will it be harder with Brexit?

I spoke to her today about childs father and she said she doubts there will be any issues with him as he hasnt saw daughter since she was baby.

I'm also half Irish as my mother and grandparents where born in Ireland and have been told by few people I will have no issues getting Irish passport as I would then have dual passports for UK & Ireland. Is this not case for Philippines & Spain? as one of my friends said if your parents / grandparents are from another country there shouldnt be any issues.

Brexit changes everything with regards to eu citizens being able to just move to UK. Whilst Brexit negotiations may make it easier I would expect eu citizens to be in a similar category as the great of the world now and plan on that basis. If you want to easily move to UK as eu citizen without all the visa hassles then need to be planing now.

Irish citizenship won't help as ukvi will treat you as UK national regardless of being a dual national.

Nationality rules vary by individual country and Ireland is one of the more easy going but easy to lose irish nationality if each generation does not do things correctly at the right time.

Spain in general does not allow dual nationality but does make an exception for a few countries of which the Philippines is one. I'm not up on spannish nationality rules - you would need to research quickly.

Key question you need to establish for the child is whether the father is named on the birth certificate. Your ideal scenario is that he isn't. If he is the next ideal scenario is that he has since died and you can get a copy of the death certificate. If neither apply you need to start getting advice on how to prove sole responsibility and do not underestimate that challenge. Most of the tine it is possible but there have been a number of failures and applications on this board. @bigmac and I think @Mattecube have had issues with child visas and I'm sure there are others. We got two child visas although both fell into the ideal category above.