Tourist visa before marriage?

thanks for all you’re help. I’m still confident despite all the hurdles to jump over.

is the process I apply online on the uk gov website for her as her sponsor and if successful she visits a Manila office?

I’ll have a go when we’re within 3 months of wanting to travel.

Hi. Considering the current COVID circumstances, is there any point submitting a visit visa application at this time? I was thinking about going for 2 or 5 year.

with all the travel restrictions I would suggest not!

I don't want to appear negative but prior to marriage we applied for two tourist visas and both were denied. My wife has a house in the Philippines, lived alone with her daughter away from other family support. I also adequately demonstrated that I could support her financially for a 2 week visit. She was also going to travel to her brothers to

Hi Pedro, it will not make for reassuring reading but I thought I would share my experience with tourist visas.

We first applied for a tourist visa, just for a 2 week period. My wife owned a house in the Philippines and lived alone with her daughter however her family lived further away so she had no direct support from them. Her intent was to travel to the UK alone, dropping her daughter off with family en route so she be cared for. We assumed the house and daughter was proof enough she would return after her stay in the UK. I also proved, more than adequately, that I could support her financially for a 2 week stay. The visa was refused on account that there was no real evidence she would return to the Philippines. Also that she, despite my declaration of supporting her, could not support herself financially in the UK.

In the meantime we had been busy working on arranging our wedding in the Philippines and became married. As we knew the visa process for gaining Leave to Remain is a lengthy one we decided to apply for a second tourist visa so my wife could at least have a feel for what life was like over here. Same circumstances as above but on this occasion we (foolishly) thought that the fact we were now married would strengthen our cas and demonstrate our commitment. We were wrong, the visa was denied for all the same reasons as the first one.

I did feel the no proof of intent to return was a bit harsh, she had proof from the school and other agencies that she had brought up her daughter alone from birth so thought this would demonstrate she had to return. There was also the house that she had to go back and sort out. I felt the overriding factor was that her ban account did not have what they deem as sufficient savings and funds. A word of warning on this one, do not be tempted to deposit an amount of money into her account so it appears she has these funds as it will set off a red flag in the application.

We spent a lot of money on the tourist applications, not just on application fees but my wife had to travel back and forth from her home to Manila. I also travelled over to the Philippines to be with her through the application process. When we applied for the family visa the refusal of the two previous visitor visas played heavily on our minds and added to what is already a very stressful time. Thankfully this was approved, my wife and step-daughter have now been in the UK for nearly 18 months.

I apologise this is not encouraging reading but wanted to share my experience with you. I wish you well Pedro and hope you have a better outcome than we did.

Please follow the invaluable advice of bigmac. In my separate post I neglected to add that we bought a return ticket for a second tourist application thinking it would add weight to our case. It does not and whilst I got a partial refund on the ticket there was still some money that went down the drain.

Hi. Thanks for the reply. It certainly seems difficult but we remain positive. We have to. We’ll have to wait for the current COVID situation to subside before planning the application.

My girlfriend has a daughter. I wonder if applying for a visit visa for both gf and daughter helps? I mean because she’ll have to return to PI for her daughter to return to school.

I had similar experiences to Steve, twice my wife who was my Fiancee at the time was refused a visit visa, she has since obtained her spouse visa and is in the Uk now, its all to easy for the Officer deciding on the visa to say there is no real evidence that the person will return to the Philippines, after all that applies to almost everyone applying for a visit visa. I can only wish you good luck whatever you decide to go for but visit visa applications seem on the whole to be more of a miss than a hit, it will also depend where your wife lives in the Philippines because again like Steve my wife had to do lots of travelling at no small cost to submit her visa applications..

can you even get flights yet ? at what cost ? will they be allowed to leave the Philis ? and then 14 days quarantine ?

i dont see any visit visas anytime soon.

I am not in a position to say if applying for both will help, from experience for me it seems luck of the draw. If you are refused a first time then any subsequent application would have to have a significant change in circumstances. Best of luck.

It will also be interesting to see how MPs vote on plans to ban low skilled immigrants from entering the UK. It is a points system aimed at both EU and non-EU. I would hope it would not apply to those already here applying for FLR and ILR.

You could argue that bringing daughter along reduces the reasons to return!
Visit visas are a lottery and is down to the ECO at the time.
Has your GF any travel history? It might help a bit if she had.
Using an airline ticket as proof of intended return is a non starter.
Travel at the moment is not happening and probably won't for the foreseeable future.

I concur, bringing the daughter may go against you but in the lottery of tourist visas who can say!

Our circumstances were slighly different in that my wife got marriage visit visa and got both step children visit visas and had all three over for six months while we got married.

Marriage visit visa is for specific reason so may have swayed decision in our favour. That said children were on visit visas and the marriage visit visa is also a visit visa.

We didn't own property in philippines but were renting and would not have said bank balances in philippines were that high so possible to get visit visas. Try for six month visa and see what happens. Will at least give a reason if refused

Top and bottom is with a visit visa application "you pay your money and take your chances"
Not much point applying yet as there are flight and UK entry restrictions.

Now we have hit 2021 has anything really changed ?

If my wife in the Philippines wants to visit is that feasible on a two week tourist visa ? She has 3 children to look after in normal circumstances and the fact that I am married to her will that go against me ?

cheers
Jimmy

Visit visa still valid for 6 months
Demonstrate compelling reasons to return at the end of the visit or visa.
10 days quarentine/ self isolation on arrival
Isolation on return (need to check current rules)

Ask yourself this question.
" how do we know (ukba) that your wife isn't going to stay in the UK at the end of the visit send money home ( from black market economy)? and live with you the husband?

cheers mate x