Good evening. I met my Filipino girlfriend in April this year in Europe. We were both married at the time and both starting a divorce. 3 months on, we are in a very committed and loving relationship to each other. She has now moved back to the Philippines as her visa in Europe expired with her marriage there. I found this group as I'm looking for advice on how I can bring her to Cambridge so we can start a life together. I also hope that when we are finally together, we can find friends for her here. Thank you very much. Rob
Hi Rob, welcome to the forum Might I ask if your girlfriend is divorcing a foreigner, I only ask as there are important rules about divorce for Philippine citizens. She is not allowed to initiate the divorce it must be the foreigner who divorces her, I am guessing as you say "her visa in Europe expired with her marriage there" that it was a marriage to a foreigner. If the marriage was to another Filipino then things are much more complicated.
Than you Oss. She was married to a foreigner, yes. Her divorce is now finalised. My divorce is still ongoing. She is now back in the Philippines and currently applying for jobs there in order to show the visa office that she has income to come to England. I would like to bring her to England. I'm hoping that we will be able to apply for a fiancee visa as soon as my divorce is finalised. The problem I see is that if she comes to visit me on a 6 month visa, when she has to go back, she will not have a job again and have to start from square one. Maybe we can find an on-line job for her so that she can work from anywhere...
hello @RobHolding --welcome to the site. its very good news about her divorce! Now--hopefully other members will reply here....does she need to get her foreign divorce recognised in the philippines ? i ask in view of the CFO aspect. she doesnt need a job to apply for a fiancee ( settlement:marriage ) visa...you do! you will be her sponsor--and need an income of £18600 p a as part of your sponsorship requirements. visit visas are difficult to get--UKVI are wary of possible overstayers. probably a lot easier for you to go over there meantime. edited--also--she cannot apply for a fiancee visa whilst in the UK.
Hi Rob and welcome It isnt clear to me from your reply above if it was her husband who initiated the devorce ?
I managed to find a reference to the change in the rules, a Filipino who divorces a foreigner will now have their divorce recognised in the Philippines contrary to the previous position where the divorce was only recognised if initiated by the foreigner. https://www.panaynews.net/sc-rules-foreign-divorce-recognized-in-philippines/ I was going to make this comment last night but I could not remember if this had actually been passed or not so I stuck to the old interpretation. Certainly makes life much easier for Filipino's who find they made a mistake in marrying a particular foreigner. Another reference. https://www.philstar.com/headlines/...nize-divorce-obtained-filipino-foreign-spouse
A usefull change then. I presume there is some sort of process to get the Cenomar to agree on there records
She started the divorce. However, she will need to travel to Singapore to have it made legal worldwide. Also, as the divorce was done in Europe (and not in English), she has to pay for it to be translated and verified so that the papers can be handed to the Philippine authorities. For now, I have 2 panned trips to to visit her, the first on in October. I can't do anything at the moment regarding a visa as I'm not legally divorced myself yet . I hope it wont take too long. Interesting to know that I need to apply. I'm also curious to know if we have to be married or if we only have to be engaged.
you dont apply--she does. you're merely her sponsor, and--usually --the one who pays for it all. be prepared for serious collapse of your wallet. you can be married or engaged. cheaper if you marry first though.
Sorry I misread this as talking about the visa rather than a job: "she doesnt need a job to apply for a fiancee ( settlement:marriage ) visa...you do! you will be her sponsor--and need an income of £18600 p a as part of your sponsorship requirements." She doesn't have any children. So it doesn't matter if she doesn't have a Job, that's interesting. We tried to apply for a visitor visa last month but it was declined as she didn't have enough money in her account. It would be good if its nor necessary for the settlement/marriage visa) I wonder if I can show my income using bank statements rather than my tax return as I wouldn't have £18600. I have not savings either. May I ask why it would be cheaper to get married first?
That's great news. Thank you. So, it looks as if we will have to wait until my divorce is finalised. We can then get married (or engaged) and apply for a visa. So, if we are only engaged, we can't use the spouse visa? We would have to get a different visa if we are just engaged? Sorry for the questions, I just want to be clear in my head how to do this. Thank you for your time
