Unmarried Partner Visa UK?

Everyone's situation is different when it comes to the Unmarried Partner Visa for the UK. And I know that the people who review the visa's take everyone's individual situation into consideration before deciding to issue the visa. Here's my situation...

I'm a US citizen, and my boyfriend is from England. We're both 22 years old. We met online in 2005, and had an online relationship for 2 years. We actually met up in April 2008 (It'll be a year this April that we've physically been together) and we've continued our relationship ever since. He came over here to Florida first and stayed for 3 weeks. Then a month later, I went to England and stayed with him for 3 weeks. He then came back with me to Florida and stayed for 3 months. And then I traveled back to England with him and stayed for 5 months. Now we are apart again, and we've decided we want to live together because we love each other very much, and traveling is just too expensive. It's hard for either of us to keep a job because we've been traveling back and forth so much. I want to come over on an Unmarried Partner Visa. We meet all the requirements except the fact that we have not lived together for 2 years. ...And this requirement really confuses me. How do they expect a couple to have lived together for 2 years when the whole point of getting this visa is so we CAN live together?! =/

We have emails from when we first started talking back in 2005 and 2006. I have actual written letters that he's sent to me in the mail in 2007. We have our passports stamped to show how many times and our duration of stay in each others countries. We even have both of our parents willing to write letters stating that they are witnesses to how long we've been in a relationship together and that they support us being together. The only thing we do not have is electric bills and other supporting documents saying that we've lived together. I dont even know how this is possible considering there's no possible way for us to have lived together and had bills in both our names because neither of us are citizens of each others countries.

My questions are...will the absence of these documents deny me from obtaining this visa? and Will they consider our relationship to have started when we met online (since we have emails from when we first started our relationship) or will they only consider the relationship when we physically met each other? How strict are these rules? I have looked over all the other visa's, and this seems like the ideal one. I'm aware of the fiance visa, but we're trying to avoid the pressures of getting married. A student visa seemed like a good idea, but i've recently found out that I cannot study health courses in the UK without being a resident there for 3 years.

And finally, where can I get the application for the Unmarried Partner Visa? It says that I need to apply for "entry clearance" before I enter the UK. How do I do this? Any information and opinions about this is much appreciated Thanks =)

kittysue2000

There are no exceptions to the 2 year rule. You could have lived together for two years if, for example, he was on a work visa to the US and you lived together then. Or you were on a student visa in the UK for 2 years and lived with him then. Or perhaps you were both working in a third country like Australia and lived together there.

Your only option is to either try to find a company to sponsor you to the UK, then live with him and apply for the Unmarried Partner Visa after living together for 2 years. Or get accepted into a university and study for 2 years and live together. Or have him apply for a Fiance visa for you and you get married within 90 days of arriving.

As for applying for entry clearance, you have to find out which visa category you fall under and apply for that. The forms are on the Home Office Border Agency website. If you are approved, you will get an entry clearance letter that you need to bring to your closest UK Embassy/consulate to get the visa in your passport before you move to the UK

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