If your goal is to have your pinay GF live with you in the UK,is it better to get married in the UK?

My long term plan is to have my Pinay girlfriend and daughter live with me permanently in the UK. If we were to get married in the UK when she is on a tourist or marriage Visa here in the UK would it make things easier for when I come to apply for her to live in the UK permanently? Or does it make no difference if we were to get married in The Philippines?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

it makes no difference--only an extra flr fee if she comes over on a fiancee visa and you get married here.

you cannot get married on a general visit visa.

Marriage Visa = she goes back to Pinas after the marriage.
Fiance = Entry Clearance- FLR - FLR - ILR
Spouse = Entry Clearance - FLR -ILR

So the easiest and cheapest way to get a permanent visa is to get married in the Philipinnes and then get a UK spouse visa then apply for a UK 'ILR'?
I know that probably sounds easier than it is but its a good route to take? we have 1 child together.

Well I got married in the Philippines but the reasons wasn't because it was financially the cheapest
option in terms of direct visa costs, more so that she had her family gathered for the marriage ceremony.

In reality with the inclusion of the Beach wedding ceremony that we had, it cost a lot more that the additional FLR of a fiance visa (but that was my choice anyhow of course).

Spouse means you apply (she will then get entry clearance to come to the UK), then 2.5 years later apply for FLR then 2.5 years after the FLR then apply for ILR.

My take on your 3 options available to you is this

Marriage visit visa she can be in UK for up to 6 months but after that period would have to return to Philippines and apply for spouse visa. Benefit you can see how she likes the UK, living with you etc.

Fiancee visa has it's benefits as above but also a big benefit is she won't have to return home.
Downside to both of the above is she cannot work till she gets a spouse visa

Spouse visa marry in Philippines but you will be apart while applying for the spouse visa, plus point she can work as soon as you both want her too
Downside is if she was not to get the visa or once in the UK she didn't settle for whatever reason you are still married.

As said above there are financial implications to the path you decide not just in visa costs but potential extra flights etc.
Travel costs for English test and TB screening and attendance at a biomeetric centre will bump up costs,plus on a spouse visa you won't be there to support her!

Actually that is the same reason I would want to get married in the Philippines. I would prefer to get married there but if it was going to make things more difficult to apply for a ILR in the UK then we would have got married here in the UK. However if you say it will not make any difference then Philippines it is.

One last question. I am not a Catholic, I dont follow any particular religion. My pinay gf and her family are Catholic and regular church goers. Would this pose a problem when we get married in the Philippines? I know she would want to get married in the Catholic Church in her town.

Hmmm if you're not Catholic then the viability of a Church wedding may not be on the cards but may be worth if anyone else has input on this. As I say ours was a civil wedding. I think there are more requirements and possibly a longer time to process a Church wedding.

when it comes to a settlement visa--its best if you can erase the word "cheapest" from your vocabulary. instead--add up the total cost from start to citizenship.

Yes ok I'll add up the costs of the various routes open to me. Thanks.

Do you have any advice on the question I posted in the Immigration and Visa section of this forum. I can see a lot of information on spouse, fiance etc visa's but not so much on tourist visa. My problem is my gf has no job due to raising our child and has no bank account. Providing leave of absence from employment, wage information and bank account statement seem to be mentioned a lot when talking about tourist Visa's.

Your GF will have to show compelling reasons to return to the Philippines before or at the end of the visa.

Can you suggest any? All her family are in the Philippines of course she will want to return to see them but I cant think of any other reasons.

Not really. If you read anything regarding visit visas you will always find the words "compelling reason to return".

An alternative maybe that you sponsor her trip, so you provide the documents, worth a punt at £90.